This rare, well-made model is representative of an important practice in engineering education, the elucidation of mechanism by revealing parts of machines. This practice rose to prominence in Germany in the nineteenth century with the work of Professors Ferdinand Redtenbacher and Franz Reuleaux, who analysed machines as chains of mechanism and applied mathematics to their study in the new discipline of kinematics. While these ideas can be elucidated today with video animations, the physical model is still a useful tool.
Reuleaux in particular encouraged model-makers to produce copies of the models he developed, so that his ideas could spread widely. Model-makers such as the Schroder family of Darmstadt displayed examples of their work at International Exhibitions (including the one held in Sydney in 1879 which Reuleaux himself attended in an official capacity) and sold them to universities and museums.
The model also represents six-column beam engines. The first commercially successful rotative steam engines, designed by James Watt and colleagues, were built into and supported by the buildings that housed them. Watt's team later developed the more compact free-standing six-column beam engine, incorporating Watt's separate condenser, parallel motion and centrifugal governor, and the D slide valve invented by Watt's assistant William Murdoch. These engines were also made by other manufacturers and were used in many industries around the world.
This model engine was made by I Schroder in Darmstadt, Germany, c 1884.
Purchased in 1884, this was the first engine model to have been acquired by the Museum after the Garden Palace fire in which most objects in the original collection were destroyed. Schroder had mounted a display of models at the 1879 Sydney International Exhibition, for which the Garden Palace was built.
This text content licensed under 
This text content licensed under