Sunday, March 07, 2010

Steam Engines?

Not just any sort: Swash-plate steam engines! What's that? Go see! Scroll down and play the videos; the operating mechanism is fascinating and uncommon. Crazier than an elbow engine! Internal-combustion axial engines -- swash-plate and kin -- have done serious work in places like torpedoes.

More conventionally: the largest hit & miss engine I have yet seen, in one of the odder applications. And you've gotta love the starter!

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Neat link on that Green Steam engine. I wonder how hot the spring gets, flexing all around like that.

perlhaqr said...

Dangit, that was me, above.

Stan in MN said...

Come to Minnesota to the steam threshers reunion. If you like steam, hit and miss and even two steam locomotives you have to come.

http://www.rollag.com/index.php

Drang said...

Do you realize that for two generations of American soldiers "swash plate" says "helicopter"? So I was lookin' for a steam egg beater...

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Ever run across this radio guy, Rx?

Anonymous said...

*slow clap*

Jim

Roberta X said...

Drang, that's what I learned when I looked for more. Interesting, some of the earliest uses of axial engines were in aircraft -- it's be a nacheral for a helicopter. Dunno about the boiler, though I love the idea of a helicopter with a stoker!

Roberta X said...

I have never met '9EVT, but I'd certainly like to! What a wonderful collection -- and set up to be used, too.

jed said...

Is that hot-bulb engine on that go-cart?

Never knew you could drive a shaft with a swashplate. But then mechanical engineering ain't my thing.

Cool stuff, Miss X. :)

Roberta X said...

Jed, from the way he starts the big one, I am guessing it as a very large -- and unusually vertical -- hit & miss light-fuel engine with spark plug or ignitor. A hot-bulb would have required a torch to preheat the combustion chamber rather than a starter to spin it up.

The starter's a sweet Deere hit & miss.

Old NFO said...

WOW! neat :-) Thanks for posting that!

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

I wanna commute in that.

NotClauswitz said...

Thank you, my brain is fried by the elbow engine.

jed said...

Well, silly me. I've seen only a few hot-bulb engines, and only in pictures and video, so I forgot about the pre-heat.

And now I know about hit'n'miss engines too.

Roberta X said...

I really like the hit & miss concept; it's a pretty clever bit of automation that dodges a lot of complexity in the carb in exchange for a simple fix with most of the hardware (centrifugal governors) ported over from steam.