Tube square footage

A special section just for steam engines and boilers, as without these you may as well fit a sail.
Mike Rometer
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Re: Tube square footage

Post by Mike Rometer » Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:27 pm

fredrosse wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 2:46 pm
"I just looked at the Harbor Freight web site and they will sell you a 3 h.p. engine for $130."

In Pennsylvania they sell a 212cc 6 horsepower OHV Gasoline engine at $99 on sale. I have bought a few over the years, and they have always performed very well.

Small steam plants, perhaps similar to the Merryweather portables of about 100 years ago, would only be practical in a place with no hydrocarbon fuels. That was typically England many years ago, where there was plenty of coal, and very little oil based fuels.
Whoops! :o Are we slipping again? :lol: :lol: Things were no different in Scotland Wales or Ireland, all parts of the same archipelago. We understand, old habits die hard. :? Try UK, or even, Britain. Though we did have oil before it was discovered in the North Sea, it was extracted from coal and shale, just not in huge quantities.

Coal is still plentiful, they (the Powers) just don't like us burning it any more. :roll:
Retirement is about doing what floats your boat!

A BODGE : - A Bit Of Damn Good Engineering.
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DetroiTug
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Re: Tube square footage

Post by DetroiTug » Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:42 pm

In a true apocalyptic survival situation, the steam engine is the best candidate.

As some of the early steam car manufacturers wrote as a selling feature

- ''It will always start''

My Locomobile will make steam in just a few minutes from cold (hellatious fire)

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barts
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Re: Tube square footage

Post by barts » Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:13 pm

fredrosse wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 2:46 pm
In Pennsylvania they sell a 212cc 6 horsepower OHV Gasoline engine at $99 on sale. I have bought a few over the years, and they have always performed very well.
Small steam plants, perhaps similar to the Meryweather portables of about 100 years ago, would only be practical in a place with no hydrocarbon fuels. That was typically England many years ago, where there was plenty of coal, and very little oil based fuels.
A gasifier to produce a CO/H2 gas mixture from biomass or coal+h20 and combusted in a slow speed IC piston engine would be far more efficient than a small steam plant. In fact, such systems are commercially available (in large sizes) to produce power from the waste streams from coke production. Having worked with diesels partially powered by gasifier fuels in graduate school, I have no interest in being next to one especially in an enclosed space.

I enjoy steam power because it is (relatively) quiet, low speed, and lets me play with fire and boats, and the waste heat helps make boating pleasant in cool climates.

- Bart
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Bart Smaalders http://smaalders.net/barts Lopez Island, WA
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