Guy builds a steam powered whatever it is.
Of course, if you looked and thought while you were looking, you'd see that it's an antique four-stroke gas engine (started by another antique four-stroke gas engine). Probably all of 10 horsepower, but it's a _steady_ 10 horsepower.
The only steam involved is cooling the engines.
"Tim Wescott" wrote in message news:rZmdnfmTUuOVnAfTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@web-ster.com...
And a fine piece of work it is !!! ;>)}
Reminds me of an engine I saw at an old equipment show. Two cylinder diesel engine mounted on a dedicated lowboy trailer. It was about ten feet tall with built in blow torches for each head. Had an auxiliary two cylinder on the side. One was an engine the other a compressor[compressed air is used to start large diesels]. Made the most perfect smoke rings when it started.
Chuck P.
I believe it is a hit an miss. Only fires when the fly wheel slows down, would be great around here with the frequent power outages.
SW
They both are. They generally work by having the governor hold the exhaust valve open.
They made crappy prime movers for electrical generation, because the speed is regulated within a range, but is by no means completely steady. They'd be quite good in these degenerate times when generators don't need to be synchronous with the power demands placed upon them. Inverters, like all electronics, are inventions of the devil.
Yeah, one little hit-and-miss starts a much larger one. Wild!
-- ...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. -- John Ruskin
And it was NOT started by the little 4 stroke engine. It was started by "rocking" the huge flywheel on the big engine past top dead center a few times to draw the fuel into the cyl and get it lit. That 10HP engine likely has a top speed of 120 or 180 RPM. At 120RPM 10 HP is a whopping 437 ft lbs of torque!!!!! The huge flywheel is required to carry the load between firings - which under no load can be as few as one every 10 seconds or so, and under full load 0ne every second.
If the big engine started perfectly well by rocking it, why did he need to use the little engine to get it up to speed before he turned the big engine on? Why, in fact, did he need the little engine at all?
Guess I didn't look too closely. I was too busy laughing at the vibrating wagon seat bouncing up and down on its springs and thinking the driver was going to get tossed into the road by them. I just saw two large flywheels and thought "steam engine". A very dangerous looking contraption. Dave
--Heh. After the Fall of Civilization this is the guy you want for a neighbor! :-)
Oops. Too late.
--Winston
No, he means the event horizon which is extremely close now, Winnie. It may wait until the 2012 elections, but ominousity looms.
-- ...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. -- John Ruskin
I am sure this is apocryphal but it makes me smile anyway:
?Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is coming to an end. Children no longer obey their parents. Everybody wants to write a book. The end of the world is near.?
It was written by a discouraged Egyptian priest, in hieroglyphics, about the year 2800 BC.
This is 'way closer to the truth, I am sure:
--Winston
Heh heh heh. History do repeat herself, oui?
Oh, reeeeealy, Winston. I talk about the fall of the 'Murrican civilization and you bring up Doomsday. Can you not discern a slight difference between the two?
-- ...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. -- John Ruskin
For what it's worth...
SOME of us have already dropped out of civilization - end of the world for them!
And some of us strive to keep entropy down to manageable levels. For them there is still hope - and life.
YOU do what you feel is right for you.
You said: "No, he means the event horizon which is extremely close now, Winnie."
Event Horizon: "In layman's terms it is defined as "the point of no return" i.e. the point at which the gravitational pull becomes so great as to make escape impossible."
That is general enough to mean any precipitous irreversible change that is likely to have dire consequences. The fall of our empire and "Doomsday" can both be described that way.
"Recession, repression, man... It's all the same thing, man,"
-Cheech Marin
--Winston :)
Well, if American politics today isn't a black hole, what is?
OK, I'll let you say that, just once.
BTDT, and someone's entire lid got rolled up in the Big Bambu paper got passed around by about twenty people at the Sandy Eggo Sports Aroma before Florescent Leech and Eddy warmed up for the Allman Brothers... I think that was two lives ago.
-- ...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. -- John Ruskin
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