Atomic model 90.... One of the rarest Jensens for sale

Cedge · Atomic model 90.... One of the rarest Jensens for sale

Rare Jensen engines added to the sales page on my site. Included are a Jensen model 90 "Atomic" and a model 10 from 1951 with the well known solid single piece magnet. These are consignment engines from a top flight collector. Both, still in the original shipping boxes... not something you'll see every day.

They can be seen at http://www.cedesign.net/steam/for-sale/index.htm

Best
Steve

tmuir

Steve that is an interesting engine and bad timing of the name of the engine.

Its quite an interesting engine, can you explain why the boiler seems to 'float' in the air?

James

Wow! Just wow!

I might sell a load of my engines to buy that. Seriously

Cedge

It's something that even few Jensen collectors have given much thought to, I suppose. Tom Sr. used that configuration to gravity feed the heater for flash steam production. It doesn't have to heat the whole boiler full of water before it can run. Unfortunately it just never really caught on and production was halted.

It worked great for the Doble car company but then they didn't have Castro and a certain pudgy Russian former president making their marketing efforts so difficult...LOL

Steve

tmuir

Ahh uses flash steam, now it makes sense, was wondering how it heated the boiler.

Jensen is the only people to fall foul of bad choice of names at the wrong time.
In Australia there was a band that had just finished making their debut album for the American market set to be released on something like September the 14th 2001 and had decided to name the album 'Jehad'.
As you can imagine the entire stock had to be recall and renamed

Cedge

I'm old enough to recall when Chevrolet marketed one of their best domestic sellers into Mexico. "Nova" just happened to mean "No go" in the local lingo.

Bet some heads got taken on that one too...LOL

Steve

SPOKESMAN

Wilesco/Fleischmann did a similar thing in the late 50s - both engines more of a gimmick than a real steam engine to admire, but certainly captured the mood of the era.

flywheel61

Two superb & unusual engines, thanks for the opertunity to see them. With a bit of luck I'm about to get my first Jensen a 1950's candlestick model with a brass, yes brass, boiler (it obviously didn't go into shell casing production during thr Korean war).

Cheers

Chris

Cedge

Chris...
Brass 45's are not that easy to find and make a nice addition for being so different. The 45 is a strange little Jensen animal. Tom Sr. never really liked the little buggers. Difficult to make, not all that efficient, he did not mourned very much when he stopped building them...LOL. The man did love to build shiney things and blue paint was just hard to buff to a sparkle...

The younger guys and gals on the board have little feel for just how scary the early 1960's were for the world. It's given short subject in most schools these days. They've witnessed the fear generated by events of 9-11 or 04-04, but imagine living in the shadow of such imminent destruction on a scale 10,000 times as large. Castro had nuclear weapons only minutes flight time away and he was flxing his muscles big time.

Those days were a time when the whole population of the Eastern coast of the US was actually wondering if they were going to die in a flash of blinding light or slowly from radiation. I was in the 1st or 2nd year of grade school and I recall those useless "Duck and Cover" drills, taking home plans for fallout shelters and instructions for stocking iodine tablets and such for decontaminating water after an attack. Even today, the sound of a large wide area air raid warning siren can almost make me mess myself.

In the 50's nuclear was equated with progress. By 1962, the word" Atomic" could not have been a more sadly chosen name for the model 90, in light of the times.

Spokesman...
If you want to see some real PR screw ups, look to the Chinese attempts at breaking into the western markets. Their brand names are usually translated phonetically, often with hilarious and nearly obscene results.

Steve

James

Yeah I'm after a WW2 air raid siren. Gainsborough has one for flood warnings. A sort of chilling sound if you imagine being back 65 years.

JensenSteamMan

WoW! Those are perfect engines

Certainly wont see ones like that again anytime soon.

I like my 45, but it is very different from all my other Jensens. It also doesnt run fast enough to "dance" its way off the table, especially because I run it on a silicone pad (made to put hot dishes out of the oven on). This helps keep any engine I run ontop of it in place and especailly on the 45 with the heater right on the bottom near the base could keep it from melting something it could be sitting on. It will also run quite a long time on one boiler full of water. It will run even longer if the heat is turned down with the dimmer aparatus explained on Rogers site

Cheers,
Casey

Griffin

The "Atomic" is a very interesting concept, now you have explained it I can now understand it's workings. Yes not the best name choice for the era.

I quite like the #10, infact I quite like it a lot.

JensenSteamMan

Oh, Steve I just thought of this... Is the heater on the 90 like the on one on a #45? Or are they completly different.

-Casey

steamyman

Steve,

IndianaRog

Cedge

Casey...
You have a knack for asking a questions that haven't been asked before. I like that...LOL. Truth being told, I didn't know the answer either and had never given it any attention. I had to go to back to the source and ask about this one, myself.

Tom Guy, who has built more Jensen engines than any man alive, assured me that with 99% certainty, the models 30 or 40 heater would indeed fit a model 90. The model 45 heater will not fit. Good eye!!

Very few of the model 30's have had major repairs at the factory and Tom stated he'd never had a model 40 apart either. The only model 90 ever to return to the Jensen factory did so as a tourist, when the owner brought his along to visit its birth place. Jensen owners are sometimes a little obsessive about their little engines and have been known to pamper and spoil them them a bit....LOL. I've even heard rumor that Roger takes his model 51R for quiet walks in the Indiana corn fields on balmy summer days.

Steve

James

Steve, may I ask, if it is such a rare and mint engine, why don't you keep it for your collection?

Cedge

James
I've had the chance to own a couple of the model 90's, but the wood base engines of old have always been the ones that got my attention. I have only a few Jensen's in my own collection.... at least when compared with some of the really serious Jensen collectors.

I've sold off quite a number of rare Jensen's along the way. Some were very rare, but just didn't capture my eye.

Steve

James

If it was rare ir remotely rare I'd keep it, or if you don't like it, you can donate yours to the Needy James fund.

Cedge

James

.... oops.... didn't mean to do that out loud...

Steve

James

LMAO!

I'll give you ummm... 10 bucks and this piece of fluff I found in my pocket for that #90

Cedge

James
Hmmm... ain't been a deal like that been made since Manhatten Island was sold for a few beads an a couple of blankets.

When I went on line with my collection, it quickly became apparent I could rapidly go to the poor house if I bought every engine that was offered. I've had to bite my tongue and walk away from engines I wanted so many times that I'm used to it now.

Many collectors soon focus on a specific area of collecting and my focus became the various styles of handmade pieces. Talk about the express lane to the poor house....LOL.

Steve

James

I see you have a Minnie

Griffin

Cedge

Griffin
It's big enough to walk by itself ... or to maybe even carry Roger...

Steve

Griffin

James

LMAO!!!

IndianaRog

OK...I must set the record straight...I have never taken my Jensen 51 replica (affectionally renamed the 51R) for a walk in the Indiana corn fields.

The 51R prefers walks in the forest with a really, really long cord and YES, my arms get mighty tired, but a guy has gotta do whatever it takes to keep his baby happy!!

BTW....I heartily agree a collector MUST develop some focus or it will bankrupt you. Some of us focus on Mamods, others mobiles of all sorts, others Nurembourg pieces, others machinist built primarily...I'm kind of Jensen oriented but I've narrowed my Jensen collecting to cast iron pieces mounted on wood for the most part.

The neat thing about our hobby is there are so many niches one can dive into that keep the numbers of pieces achieveable.

cheers,
Rog

James

LMAO Rog

I collect Mamod, Wilesco, SEL and Jensen. Maybe why I'm always skint!

JensenSteamMan

Thanks for answering that odd question Steve!

I do seem to
ask difficult questions dont I?

I take my engines out for a "run" from time to time!
Get it?

With the way prices are going now I'm sure I'll be an old man before I can get a #10 in any shape!

Cheers,
Casey