Interesting

Those long-legged critters with the inch-plus wingspans are actually harmless crane flies.

Shhhh!! We use them to scare New York beach tourists away.

We call the crane flies "Jersey skeeters." We know they don't bite. We just don't want the people from Long Island and Westchester to know. We even tell them that if they get bitten, they'll need to get to the hospital for an emergency transfusion. d8-)

And the real mosquitos here are high-quality birds, capable of raising havoc at any outdoors event.

But this is the thing we're proudest of. We have, not 61, not 62, but 63 different species of mosquitos in New Jersey! That's more than one species for every NJ politician arrested for corruption in an average year:

But you have blackflies. I've been bitten by them, up near the Canadian border. Ugh.

Impressive, huh? We don't fool around here. I think that Rutgers Agricultural Extension Service cross-breeds them for toughness and resistance to toxic waste. d8-)

Yes, blackflies are God's reminder that we're not really necessary to the continuance of the planet, and that he might decide to dispense with us at any time. They are the Harpies from Hell. The soul of Satan resides inside of each one. They are vile, ugly, and mean...but don't get me started.

My dad went fishing in upper Quebec province once upon a time, without headgear, and when he got home his head looked like a pumpkin that had been shot with a few loads of birdshot. And he was born in NH and should have known better. I'll never forget it, and I was four years old at the time.

wow, 63 species. i figured there were maybe 3 species. thank god and we don't have blackflies here in s.e. new york state, or at least like they have in NH. many years ago i went on a fishing trip with my brothers to NH. never experienced this before. i opened the car door, stepped out and within 2 or 3 seconds was swarmed with blackflies. they were in my eyes, up my nose, in my ears and down my throat. was gagging on swallowed blackflies. in my entire life up to that point i never had to use one of those hat-net things, they were an absolute necessity there, was fumbling with it trying to put it on as fast as possible. if the net got a fold in it and touched your skin they'd find it and be biting you there, was incredible. they were biting me all over. i was in a mild state of panic thinking "jeez, if you were stranded in the wilderness with these bugs they could KILL you!" i mean, either directly or indirectly, like you'd starve to death or die of dehydration constantly swatting them off of yourself. maybe we just happened to step into some localized concentration of 'em, but if it's like that all over in NH i'd want to shoot myself if i lived there. can't imagine what it would be like to enter a cloud of 'em like they have in alaska (saw it in a movie).

b.w.

I've heard that about Stanley Steamers, too. They had the suspension of a horse-drawn wagon.

Stanley Steamers were a neat car! I had a ride in one once.

Steve R.

Oh ye of little faith, He ain't (necessarily) making it up ;-)

British mosquito:-

Mark Rand RTFM

yeah, that's the way i read it the first time (wood aircraft) but then re-read it and started to see the joke. that's awesome, to have seen, touched, and interacted positively with a real flying de havilland mosquito.

b.w.

I wear a broad-brimmed boonie hat (camo, so they can't see it) loaded with repellant. It masks the IR signature of my head pretty well and I don't need to spray much on my skin. When they are really hungry I drape a net over it, the brim makes it hang far enough out to prevent skin contact.

jsw

We been using one of those for over 50 yrs. ...lew...

Hell, I'll be glad to sell you a Brand New Mr. Fusion! Zero hours!

(Quickly makes new "Mr. Fusion" labels and covers up the factory markings on the Krups Type 57 coffee mill sitting on the shelf behind the computer...)

They make catalytic converters for the hamburger grease smoke on restaurant char-broilers, I don't think that little boiler is a problem that cant be solved.

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The boiler section is long proven nsafe and efficient, just dust off the Stanley design, scale it up and down in fixed steps for future backwards replacement compatibility (16" 20" and 24" sizes at a stated output...) because they do wear out, and start building.

The burner and stoker (for solid fuels) and the control systems are the big bugaboo that will take some serious work. Triple expansion motors and Condensers are easy, but getting the cylinder oil out of the water before you feed it back to the boiler it is always a challenge.

Modernizing the controls and sensors so it can run automatically and unattended isn't bad, they have continued building steam boilers - you just have to miniaturize control gear built for a 100MW power plant down to the proper size to work on a car.

But once the "Mainstream Media" finds out a conservative was working on it to solve part of our energy problems, all that free press disappears. Bill O'Reilly tops the bestseller lists for months, and cant get arrested on TV or even reviewed in the MSM newspapers...

Sarah Palin writes a book, and the MSM puts fourteen fact-cherckers on it looking for any tiny inconsistency...

But Al Gore lies his head off and not only doesn't get the data he trots out checked, he gets all the free press they can throw at him. Go figure.

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And you heard about it from who...?

;-P

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To modernize the handling of solid fuel, you'll need a little robot with a shovel, who sings "16 Tons" while he's stoking the boiler.

More people have been killed in Teddy Kennedy's car than have been killed by civilian nuclear power accidents in the USA.

Hope This Helps! Rich

Let the Record show that Jim Wilkins on or about Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:00:23 -0800 (PST) did write/type or cause to appear in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

But with a steamer, it is external combustion. So the problems attendant on internal combustion (high pressure and temperature chemistry) aren't there. Now, it does have the potential for a problem with particulates )fly ash, soot) but that is "smog" of a different color.

- pyotr filipivich We will drink no whiskey before its nine. It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!

"Steve R." wrote in news:HG5Pm.49622$W77.44652 @newsfe11.iad:

@z7g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...

I got to drive a friend's several years ago. What a hoot! You needed three hands to work all the controls to signal, slow down & make a turn. No "vroom", just "chuf chuf chuf" as you accelerated.

Doug White

"Ed Huntress" wrote in news:4b0d93d3$0$22520$ snipped-for-privacy@cv.net:

Why not base it on pellet stove technology?

A friend of mine uses a pellet stove for heat. He has a big hopper in the garage labeled "Purina Stove Chow".

Doug White

I guess I'm due for an upgrade, mine is only solar.

technomaNge

Eh, it's possible, but you'd need a big hopper -- maybe you'd want to tow a tender. Its energy density is roughly 1/3 that of gasoline, per unit weight; energy density per unit volume is slightly better. So a 55-gallon hopper would be equal to a 20-gallon gas tank, not including the screw or other feed mechanism.

Can he put wheels on it? He might get across the state line with that.

Steam engines without recuperators and other complexities aren't very efficient to begin with. And starting up in the morning would be a bit...er, slow.

However, they're fun to think about.