Great Videos, thanks for the work to produce them. While watching the technical data, did I miss the ship's speed, and the main steam pressure?

Many steam launches have used this type of engine, typically a two cylinder double acting simple engine, with sprocket chain drive or spur gear drive to the automobile differential. Having 4 power strokes per revolution, these engines are self starting, and put out fairly constant torque, so they ca...

5 Gallons per hour is about 42 pounds per hour (PPH), and for the launch engines in the 2-8 horsepower range, at least this amount of steam is required for each horsepower output. Some engines do better, some worse, but making 5 HP will definately require in the vicinity of about 200 - 250 PPH, a ta...

The ASME Code, as well as the Power Piping Code B31.1 both allow carbon steel schedule 40 (and even lower schedules) for high pressure steam service, however there are formulas as to what allowable temperatures and pressures go with the pipe materials, the materials allowable stress, wall thickness ...

You can get more details about the conversion of a sailboat hull to moderate power at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electricboats/ Get the file "Building an Electric Javelin" . Now that I have a steam sidewheeler, I no longer need the electric boat. I am thinking of making the Javelin into a fast st...

I have converted a fiberglass sailboat to electric power (so I could run with the steamboats while my sidewheeler was building). After cutting out the centerboard well and fiberglassing in a propeller shaft tube, I mounted "Bilge Keels" on the exterior of the hull, which gives good steering stabilit...

The uniflow engine on my domestic heat-power module had a vent valve on the cylinder, and it would just blow (and waste steam) when starting up. I would think this vent steam could be used to work your ejector and bring up initial vacuum, then be manually shutoff as the normal vacuum pump was up and...

Some steels are difficult to get a good cylinder finish, and generally perform worse than iron cylinder liners. I have found that the typical pipe steel or tubing steel (such as ordinary A178 boiler tubing) is not too good for a steam cylinder. You could consider machining your assembly and using a ...

There are steam atomized oil burners available through the Live Steam Railroad community. Several websites for 1-1/2 inch scale locomotives (and larger) offer these burners for sale.

A good reference, although rather old, is the book "Internal Combustion Engines" by Lester Lichty, 1939, McGraw Hill Publishing. It has good discussion on valves and porting, and fluid flow follows the same fundamentals for air, exhaust gasses, or steam. I have been collecting technical books on eng...