Portable Steaming in Canada

By Charles Wagler and Leroy Ebersol
Published on January 1, 2005
article image
courtesy of Charles Wagler
Charles and his son Richard man the engine while Leroy feeds wood through a buzz saw, showing this little engine can really work.

A Single-cylinder Steam Engine and a Portable Boiler Come Together to Produce One Nice Little Unit

From what we can gather, this engine, manufactured by E. Leonard & Sons, London, Ontario, Canada, was first employed many years ago running a butter churn in a local cheese factory. It was eventually purchased by a Stratford, Ontario, handyman, who installed the engine on a portable boiler he constructed, making for a very nice portable unit.

LEONARD ENGINE

This style of Leonard engine was patented on Jan. 9, 1877. We do not know for certain when this particular engine was built. It is a center crank single-cylinder and has a 4-inch bore and a 4-inch stroke. The pulley is 20 inches in diameter and 4 inches wide. It has a water pump driven by the cylinder and features a water pre-heater in the exhaust discharge. We don’t know its rated horsepower.

The boiler unit was built around 1978. It’s 5 feet long, 16 inches in diameter, holds 30 gallons of water and is equipped with 20, 1-1/2-inch flues. Water feed is by one injector on one pump run by the engine. When filled, the complete unit weighs approximately 1,400 pounds.

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