The Steamboating Forum

Thank you for the explanation, though I didn't think the usual name (honouring a German Doctor, sorry, Doktor?) for a non-spark-plug suck-squeeze-bang-blow engine was classed as an expletive. However, we live and learn. What a complicated world! Sisson Triples were so simple - but not low-tech in th...

An abject apology. In my post at 7.51 pm on 27 August, second line, I typed "it's" for the possessive of "it", instead of "its", an error by others that I regularly complain about or, perhaps pedantically, an error by others about which I regularly complain. Consider my...

I am curious. How come that what I wrote on 27 August at 9.38 pm has changed from, if I remember correctly, "internal combustion engine" to "smelly long-chain hydrocarbon" which I definitely did not write? Let's discuss our subject in a spirit of amicability and occasional fun, b...

I have just made a trawl on the Internet (Google) for Spilling inverted vertical steam engines. There are several entries, of a "sales" type, but I cannot find any technical "meat", other than one small cross-sectional diagram, not very informative. In other words, they are playi...

OK, 45 to 48 per cent is, as I said, barely half. Yes?! Combined cycle is "cheating"; in fact it's steam plus a bit of internal combustion in a gas turbine. So the steam on it's own is still that same barely half. However, if you have a need for process steam heat (eg Bowaters for papermak...

Thanks for the comments. This is getting a bit like a ping-pong game! First, we don't luxuriate with "a curator" at Markham Grange Steam Museum. The Museum is operated by volunteers, in an Association, of which I happen to be the Honorary Secretary. So I guess it falls to me to start a sea...

Curiouser and curiouser, as said Alice (in Wonderland, or was it Through the Looking Glass?) To Scotty - Yes "our" Sissons have the interesting multi-valves, which we last stripped way back. I am at home now and cannot see them! But they are arranged so that they are shut, or both top and ...

Next instalment! The steam port in a vertical cylinder is right at the top, just below the cover plate. Thus, if the piston is somewhere down the cylinder, then it is possible for water to be sitting on the piston of a greater volume than there is in the space above it at TDC. If the piston then ris...

Hello again, These digressions get further and further away from Sisson Triple! However "our" Sisson and Plenty triples do have drain valves from both the top and bottom of each cylinder, then into a common pipe, in effect making a small-bore bypass round the piston. They help in getting w...

In response to "steamboatjack", our experience with the three 90-degree crank compounds of three different sizes and manufacturers at Markham Grange Steam Museum is that they are all awkward starters. All three have LP slide valves. Two have hand controls, and steam pressure on the back of...