A very clever, very strange, homemade steam engine.

This is one of the most clever and complex steam engines I have ever seen.  It was homemade in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area doubtless by a skilled blacksmith around the turn of the century.  There was a sliding valve on the underside of the piston head and this appears to be an exhaust valve.  The intake valve in the head was a poppet valve that was hinged instead of sliding, thus making the mechanism much simpler.  Other than that description all of the linkages and sliding parts moved in such a complex manner that I have no idea how it worked.