Model Boat Mayhem

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length.
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Unusual Steam Engines  (Read 5144 times)

Martin (Admin)

  • Administrator
  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 23,859
  • Location: Peterborough, UK
    • Model Boat Mayhem
Unusual Steam Engines
« on: March 09, 2011, 09:39:51 pm »

I guess in the heady days or steam engine development all sorts of unusual design must have been tried and failed,
 but how about a a Boiling Petrol engine!  :o http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/POWER/petrol/petrol.htm#fict
Logged
"This is my firm opinion, but what do I know?!" -  Visit the Mayhem FaceBook Groups!  &  Giant Models

Underpressure

  • Guest
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2011, 09:57:46 pm »
Interesting to see where the two passengers in the print are sitting: Not too close to either the engine or the petrol tank!

Neil
Logged

gondolier88

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,347
  • www.coniston-regatta.co.uk
  • Location: Crake Valley, Cumbria
    • Coniston Regatta
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2011, 10:01:17 pm »
They were very common before WWI, and were very succesful, apart from the fact that contemporary seals weren;t upto the job of holding boiling hot petrochemicals at pressure, with the not too infrequent results above.

A very clever idea as the finer the crack of oil you use the lower the evaporation temperature, so they were in theory highly efficient.

Greg
Logged
Don't get heated...get steamed up!

Underpressure

  • Guest
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2011, 10:04:47 pm »
Do any still survive?

Either as working boats / plants or museum exhibits.
Logged

yogojr

  • Guest
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2011, 02:24:54 am »
Yes, there is one displayed at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, CT. Not sure, but I believe it was designed and built by the Herrshoff Shipyard
Logged

kno3

  • Guest
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2011, 10:10:50 am »
How interesting, I never knew that such things existed.
Logged

SteamboatPhil

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2,982
  • Location: Dieppe, France
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2011, 02:03:37 pm »
Makes my petrol blowlamps for my boilers look quite tame  O0
Logged
Steamed up all the time

dreadnought72

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,892
  • Wood butcher with ten thumbs
  • Location: Airdrie, Scotland
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2011, 02:10:26 pm »
That site has a pile of "out of the box thinking" on it.

I particularly love the Tower Spherical Steam Engine. http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/POWER/tower/tower.htm

How neat is that? :-))

Andy
Logged
Enjoying every minute sailing W9465 Mertensia

steamboatmodel

  • Guest
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #8 on: March 10, 2011, 06:03:18 pm »
As noted in the article about Naphtha Launches,
"The main motivation for this system was to evade the USA regulations that required even the smallest steam launch to carry a qualified steam engineer; this stipulation was not lifted until 1912. Other countries had no such regulations , and the use of boiling petrol outside the USA was minimal. "
Having used Naphtha as a camping fuel I shuttered when I first read about this type of propulsion years ago.
Regards,
Gerald.

Logged

ooyah/2

  • Guest
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2011, 08:53:36 pm »
Hi ,
I don't know if anybody has seen this model engineers efforts with Naptha burning engine.
http://modelengines.info/naphtha/Firebox/
Nether this engine or the full size would entice me to try one, a flash coil with three engine powered burners is quite enough.

Ian ( flash2 ) this type of burner and coil may be of interest to you with your vertical Mono tube boiler.

George.
Logged

Bee

  • Guest
Re: Unusual Steam Engines
« Reply #10 on: March 11, 2011, 11:25:06 pm »
I imagine the operation of the naptha engine was of no worry to a Victorian whose house was illuminated by petrol air-gas in which petrol laden air was distributed to lamps like coal gas. http://www.archive.org/details/petrolairgasprac00oconrich

Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »
 

Page created in 0.086 seconds with 21 queries.