It was set up in the late Thirties - a lifetime ago now, so everyone in the British Isles and some places beyond will probably have heard of Mamod and their miniature steam engines. The company was founded by Geoffrey Malins ('Mamod' being a portmanteau of 'Malins Models') in 1937, and survived the advent of everything from battery-operated toys through to home computers and smartphones. But it seems now their day is done. Mamod has now ceased production, and their little stationary engines, rollers, traction engines and buses - even boats - are no more.
I have a personal interest in telling this tale. For my fourteenth birthday my parents gave me a Mamod steam engine. It has a tiny pressure vessel heated by a burner which is made of brass, contains a cotton wool pad and which is filled with methylated spirits (denatured alcohol). It drives a flywheel via two cylinders using a very simple valve mechanism. It doesn't produce any useful power - maybe enough to light a torch (flashlight) bulb, but that's all. These engines only cost a few pounds 'back in the day', but in more recent times, the prices had climbed into three-figure territory.
My little engine now graces the entrance lobby to my home. It doesn't run very often but I have had it going within the last couple of years, and it still gets the occasional polish and drop of oil!
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I had one! Mine was the one with the flywheel & piston mounted on top of the boiler. Like the one in the photo, which is not my engine.
It kept me quiet for many an hour from my early teens until I joined the armed forces. I kept it for years, firing it up occasionally, and it had its final live run in 1995. By then, the plain bearings on the flywheel shaft had just about had it. It was almost 40 years old. I reluctantly assigned it to the scrap yard around 2003.
