Search found 84 matches

by johngriffiths
Wed Dec 28, 2016 9:39 pm
Forum: General Steamboat stuff
Topic: Fiction that involve steamboating or inspire your steamboati
Replies: 32
Views: 31216

Re: Fiction that involve steamboating or inspire your steamb

Arthur Conan Doyle "The Sign of Four" pub 1890, a Sherlock Holmes story in which the fugitive, Jonathan Small, hires (rents) a steam launch called 'Aurora' in which to escape but Holmes discovers the fact and there is a chase down stream on the Thames with Holmes on a police launch during which Smal...
by johngriffiths
Fri Sep 16, 2016 9:18 pm
Forum: General Steamboat stuff
Topic: Freshwater antifouling
Replies: 5
Views: 8052

Re: Freshwater antifouling

Shamrock has a finish of oil based gloss with no antifouling and after four years in the water the thin layer of slime washed off with a brush and water. My concern is the increasing difficulty in getting oil based gloss. Water based paints appear to be a bit of a joke for certain applications. JohnG
by johngriffiths
Sat Jul 16, 2016 7:27 pm
Forum: Technical - Engines and Boilers
Topic: Best Fuel For Extended Trip
Replies: 32
Views: 30151

Re: Best Fuel For Extended Trip

Coal is easy to store in bunkers and sacks which can be stored wherever there is room, even on deck, but not too much. If the ash pan of a VFT is force drafted then with normal good quality construction, the only place fumes may escape from is the fire door when opened. Leakage from around a fire do...
by johngriffiths
Sat Jul 16, 2016 10:34 am
Forum: Welcome
Topic: Hello from Louisville Kentucky!
Replies: 5
Views: 7512

Re: Hello from Louisville Kentucky!

Welcome to the forum, that is quite some ship you look after. Double beat valves on the inlets?
by johngriffiths
Sat Jul 16, 2016 10:15 am
Forum: Technical - Engines and Boilers
Topic: Best Fuel For Extended Trip
Replies: 32
Views: 30151

Re: Best Fuel For Extended Trip

Anthracite is ok, short flame, little smoke, tubes soot up very slowly. Have you thought of putting a centrifugal fan blowing into the ash pan, the fan driven by a pulley on the prop shaft. My boat uses this arrangement and another I know of uses an axial fan to pressurise the ash pan. No problem li...
by johngriffiths
Tue May 31, 2016 6:39 pm
Forum: Technical - non Engines and Boilers
Topic: single phase to three phase rotary converter
Replies: 6
Views: 11013

Re: single phase to three phase rotary converter

Using a 230/240 supply and a variable speed controller you need to have the windings as per the left side of the drawing eg delta. Most motors have the terminals and six wires present in the cable joint box so you can swap between the two arrangements. Some motors only have three wires being either ...
by johngriffiths
Tue May 31, 2016 6:02 pm
Forum: Technical - Engines and Boilers
Topic: digital steam engine indicator
Replies: 134
Views: 148961

Re: digital steam engine indicator

"It is a noteworthy fact that no railway authority in Great Britain and Ireland ever believed in these engines; Mr. Webb, and Mr. Webb only, had faith in them. Precisely on what evidence that faith was based we have never been able to discover" from Webb's obit in The Engineer, 20 June 1906 My dwg s...
by johngriffiths
Sat May 28, 2016 10:34 pm
Forum: Technical - Engines and Boilers
Topic: Steam and sails
Replies: 7
Views: 9387

Re: Steam and sails

Saw David Black and Ed Langley sailing Valkyrie on Windermere one evening during the SBA rally back in about 1987 and may even have taken a pic. It was very pretty being good under steam and attractive under sail with a gaff rig if memory serves.
by johngriffiths
Thu May 26, 2016 9:08 pm
Forum: Steamboat Photography
Topic: A puzzle to entertain your vacation for a moment or two
Replies: 11
Views: 17268

Re: A puzzle to entertain your vacation for a moment or two

Is it a water tube level made of black water pipe and which has been lifted to free the liquid of pesty bubbles, and what is the yellow liquid...?
by johngriffiths
Mon May 16, 2016 10:25 am
Forum: Technical - Engines and Boilers
Topic: Boiler stack performance vs. relative humidity & dew point
Replies: 14
Views: 18239

Re: Boiler stack performance vs. relative humidity & dew poi

Tubes can block very quickly if cold and there is a heavy resin/tar constituent in the smoke. This I know from both direct and indirect experience. A tall stack is a great help and stack extensions are frequently seen when traction engines are being fired up. Others use computer cooling fans arrange...