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Steam Power
Mr_Rose
83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered User regular
83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered User regular
Once, long ago, in a forgotten thread, this was said:
So, steam power is coming back, not that it ever really went away; everything from 200mph cars to 20mph Zeppelins and 20cm/h nanobots, people are going mad for steam once more.
Why steam?
Why not?
Links:
A Brief History of Steam:
So, whilst I wait for my steam-powered washing machine to arrive, I want to know; what next? Are steam cars the way of the future? What about steam-based home power/heat generation? In theory anything you can do with a petrol engine you should be able to do with a steam engine and then some; I'd like to see steam-powered tanks that can run on literally anything you can shove in the back, from petrol to coal to wood and cordite.
*Totally awesome picture blatantly stolen from Focus Magazine. No challenge is intended.
Lucky Cynic wrote: »You guys know what would be fun. If all of a sudden, the entire world got sick of chrome for everything and bliss wallpapers on all screens and everything went to be steam operated, just for style.
I would kill, kill! to live in a steam punk universe.
Well hello there:
So, steam power is coming back, not that it ever really went away; everything from 200mph cars to 20mph Zeppelins and 20cm/h nanobots, people are going mad for steam once more.
Why steam?
- Because steam is awesome
- Steam is easy; water+heat+control chamber=steam. Add a valve and you have motive power
- More environmentally friendly; external combustion at low pressure is much easier to control so burns much cleaner than the equivalent ICE
- We already use it. A lot: Something like 86% of our electricity is generated by steam turbines at some point in the chain
- Reaches places others can't: Steam engines operate independently of atmospheric pressure, unlike diesel engines which give reduced power at altitude
Why not?
- Not the most efficient; depending on construction, efficiencies of up to 60% can be achieved in static installations such as power stations
- Still fossil fuel based; Theoretically a steam engine can be made to operate with literally any source of heat, but most are still based around burning stuff
- Space hog; even with the latest innovations in boilers, steam engines still take up a lot of room
Links:
- The British Steam Car Challenge for all your record-breaking needs
- Steam filled "hot air" balloons. Flies and cooks at the same time!
- These guys reckon they have a steam engine as efficient as a diesel engine that can be shrunk down to lawnmower size and can run on more or less any combistible
- The latest in steam powered trains, just to bring everything full circle
- Wiki page
A Brief History of Steam:
The most famous ancient steam engine is Hero's Aeolipile, a spinning ball powered by steam jets used to operate temple doors ad similar, but there is evidence of an even earlier steam-jet powered bird, which would be both the first steam powered device and the first rocket. Unfortunately, steam power more or less disappeared for close to 1800 years after the aeolipile, only to be re-invented in the 1700's. Starting with Newcomen's atmospheric "vacuum" engine in 1712, steam began to become more widespread as well as more efficient with James Watt's condensing engine. Eventually, in 1829, possibly the most famous steam engine of them all, Stephenson's Rocket was selected to pull the world's first commercial passenger railway trains on the Liverpool and Manchester line. The next most significant innovation in steam power was the steam turbine, invented by one Charles Parsons in 1884; steam turbines still generate the majority of the world's electricity today. In the meanwhile, steam powered transport continued to grow until the "golden age of steam" in the 1930's when George Besler flew the first steam powered aircraft (1933) and the Mallard set the world speed record for a steam train at 126mph which still stands to this day (1938). About this time though, petrol-driven internal combustion engines were being developed that were more compact by far than the equivalent steam engine and afterwards steam power fell out of favour. However, interest in the technology remains strong and several companies are presently developing new steam-based technologies, boosted by the success of the first nanoscale steam engine in 1993. These include the "second generation steam locomotive" and various steam-powered space projects.
So, whilst I wait for my steam-powered washing machine to arrive, I want to know; what next? Are steam cars the way of the future? What about steam-based home power/heat generation? In theory anything you can do with a petrol engine you should be able to do with a steam engine and then some; I'd like to see steam-powered tanks that can run on literally anything you can shove in the back, from petrol to coal to wood and cordite.
*Totally awesome picture blatantly stolen from Focus Magazine. No challenge is intended.
...because dragons are AWESOME! That's why.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
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Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Imagine a shotgun that hisses steam as the buck escapes the chamber as you reload or a minigun that slowly creates a fog of steam that billows out of it as you continue to fire it...
Fuck, now I want a Steam Punk FPS.
@Cynic: I'm now hankerin' after a steam powered flamethrower. Only instead of water, the fuel is the vapour phase: You get a petrol burning boiler that boils the petrol in the other tank and it expels itself out the end of the nozzle already vaporised and mixing with the air. It's genius I tell you, genius!
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
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So instead of having a fire on the tip of your flamethrower as far away as possible from you and the fuel, you want it on your back, right next to the fuel? Genius... If you're planning for a Darwin award. Also, if I'm not mistaken, gaseous fuels are actually explosive instead of flammable when mixed with air in the right amount, just like regular gas is. Vaporizing is a completely different thing from boiling.
This is actually a promising way to recover all that energy loss by exhaust heat from a combustion engine by making steam with it.
Early designs? A train pulling into a station in the 50s or 60s here in Omaha exploded as it came to the platform.
Except it doesn't depend on when the incident happened, but when the train was manufactured. >=P
Also, how is boiling not vaporisation? Steam is water vapour. Additionally, using the burning fuel to preheat the incoming liquid fuel works just fine for the burners on hot air balloons.
Neat car they got there.
P.S. Of course the right mixture of petroleum vapour and air is explosive. So is the right mixture of fine flour, or nearly any other powdered solid, and air. But then if the mix is not exactly right the stuff just burns merrily away. Liquids don't burn. It is actually possible to put out a fire using petrol, if the fire is small enough and the volume of petrol is large enough.* When liquid petroleum "burns" what is actually happening is that the fuel vapour above the surface of the liquid ignites because it is also mixed with oxygen and then the heat of that fire vaporises some more from below, adding fuel to the fire, until there's no more petrol left.
*Don't try this at home kids. Really.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
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