Richard J. Smith drawings and hardware

I am trying to glue some things together on Smith's hardware.

1. Did anyone build an Educator buggy other than the original one in '66?

2. Where is the minibike which Smith built for Bob Noble? I have some setup and operating instructions for it in the original pencil which would be nice to keep with the bike.

2a. Where is the little automatic steam power unit on a frame built for Hayden Taliaferro of San Diego?

3. Did anyone actually make the two-sleeve rotary valve in the patent besides Smith himself? I did not see any personally, and Smith made all of mine and they were hard-dense-chrome flashed and had a beautiful lapped fit. I never had one go bad, though he had a chunk of scale mess one up, maybe twice, as it was the do-everything demonstrator.

4. Has anyone applied the Smith monotube control system patent with the linkages and the expanding tubes to any monotube boiler of the long, skinny blowtorch type or of the pancake type? So far as I can discover, the only implementation of this really effective design was in the Educator buggy.

I do know that several pancake steam generators with cyclonic combustion chambers were made, and all had the last-pass overheat safety connected to a switch to kill the fire that I know of, and all had steam temperature mechanical trim for the fire and the pump bypass was on-off on pressure. This was covered in the steam generator patent, but is only slightly mechanical mostly electric, and not the elegant mechanical analog computer.

Back to the files....

It is OK to phone. I will post relevant notes here later.

Karl

Karl Petersen

The Richard Smith mini-bike was sold to me about three years ago by Bob Noble. A large amount of paperwork came with the bike which was a conversion of a brand new mini-bike. The engine was an Ohlson and Rice two cycle gasoline engine converted to a bash valve. It was purportedly run until the rings no longer held compression. There was also a condenser made from an oil cooler on the bike. It is on display at my shop. Tom Kimmel

HI Karl I had a two cylinder bash valve .R,J sniff engine on the green monster for .75 of a summer running the orkzillerees I hade a lart of ours on it. Finely the lift pin in valve unscrewed and nark the head off as the head was not made to com off. R,J Sniff exhaust is a the manger brake true. Our 500H.P engine is using it,

Nice that the engine worked well.

Is this what you dictated?

" I had a two cylinder bash valve R. J. Smith engine on the green monster for three quarters of a summer running the auxiliaries. It had a lot of hours on it. Finally, the lift pin for the valve unscrewed and knocked the head off, as the head was not made to come off.

"R. J. Smith exhaust is the major breakthrough. Our 500 HP engine is using it."

If so, what do you mean about the "major breakthrough"?

Karl

Karl Petersen

Hi Karl,

The secretary of SPUDS, Bill Jones, introduced the Smith two tube rotary valve to Australia and built a single cylinder version for a 2 stroke Victa lawnmower engine that he demonstrated at a club meet in Sydney around 1967. I reverse engineered it from the description and designed a 4 cylinder version of the valve and a new V4 engine to make use of it. It ran successfully in my steam car test chassis in 1968 and attracted commercial sponsorship. Various developments of it and competing designs continued until 1980 when the venture partner died.

I asked Richard Smith if anyone else had built the Educator control system also but he didn't think any others were built. We used some of Smith's designs partially but components or features were eliminated progressively in the course of design development. This continues to be the case with any design.

Today I found two pictures of the Educator that Richard must have sent me in 1967. One dated March 1967 has the vehicle steaming up surrounded by yourself, Richard, Art Hawkins and Sue Smith. The second, dated August 1967, has the Educator tearing up the alley (near the house) carrying Ricky, Veronica and Richard. Both are attached.

Regards,

Graeme Vagg
Australia

Quote
Karl Petersen
I am trying to glue some things together on Smith's hardware.

3. Did anyone actually make the two-sleeve rotary valve in the patent besides Smith himself? I did not see any personally, and Smith made all of mine and they were hard-dense-chrome flashed and had a beautiful lapped fit. I never had one go bad, though he had a chunk of scale mess one up, maybe twice, as it was the do-everything demonstrator.

My 6-cylinder Mercury outboard conversion used a simple rotary valve with small feed lines to each cylinder, for start-up. It was driven at the original location for the distributor. One of Dick's ingenious details was to drive the valve with a pin or setscrew at right angles to the driveshaft and running in a slot that allowed 180 degrees of movement. Dick intended for a flexible extension (speedometer cable assembly?) to be installed on the valve shaft and extended so the driver could turn it when the vehicle was stopped--allowing for reversal of direction. I never hooked this up, but discovered a unique result: If I stopped the car pointing even slightly uphill and then let it roll back just a few feet the car would be in reverse; the same would occur if the car was in reverse and then stopped with the rear facing uphill, it would revert to forward after a short roll downhill.

The downside was that if you stopped at a traffic light with the car facing uphill and inadvertently let it roll back you would be out of luck! This actually happened to me once and I had to wave traffic around until I could get the car to the side of the road and coax her into forward again.

My boiler used the Smith external frame with automotive points as an overheat detect/cutoff. It was adequate but had its problems--the points would create a rapid on/off sequence when a small change in temp would just nudge the points a little; it liked big excursions in temp a lot better.

Thanks, Graeme for the great pics!!

Bill,
When the Educator was running the Merc 4 with rotary valve, the same reversing of motion would reverse the engine. Fortunately I realized this before I got into any trouble, but it still was something you had to know about. The later bash valve engines with rotary starting valve had the same self-reversing characteristic and I set a biasing motor to keep the drive in the desired direction when speed was very slow to avoid the surprise of changing direction.

Do you still have that rig with the 6 cylinder engine?

Karl

Karl Petersen

Quote
Karl Petersen

Do you still have that rig with the 6 cylinder engine?

Karl

Karl:

I sold the car in 1976; by then I had acquired a new interest (aviation) and couldn't support the time and $$ required for more than one avid interest at once. I've always had the habit of completely immersing myself in my current hobby.

Bill

3. Did anyone actually make the two-sleeve rotary valve in the patent besides Smith himself? I did not see any personally, and Smith made all of mine and they were hard-dense-chrome flashed and had a beautiful lapped fit. I never had one go bad, though he had a chunk of scale mess one up, maybe twice, as it was the do-everything demonstrator.


Hello Karl
I am interested in the Rotary Valve. Can you find the patent number for R J Smith's Rotary Valve ??
Thank you

Leo Weibel

Hi Leo,

I never found a patent number for Richard J Smith's valve. The only steam patent I found was for the Educator steam buggy control system. The entry from my database (with the first number being the patent number) is:

3507258 1970 Smith Richard J Vapor Generator Control 'Educator Steam Buggy' control system. boiler controls

Regards,
Ken

JUne 28, 2009 Richard Smith had three patents, one for the steam generator with combustion chamber, one for the analogue control system, and one for the rotary valve. That patent is 3,650,295. There is another interesting rotary valve #3,662,553, patented by Robert Hodgkinson who worked for Cornelius Dutcher. This design looked very similar. It was designed to use high pressure water from the water feed pump to actuate small pistons that operated poppet valves so that valve timing could be controlled. It worked but there were always problems with small pieces of steel filings and whatnot jamming things up. It appears that the famous Ken Wallis was the instigator of the water controlled intake valve. There was a rumor some years ago about SES paying a lot of money for a rotary valve patented by someone named "Black". I have not found any other information about that rumor. Tom Kimmel

Okay you guys, very interesting, but only one "answer".

1. Did anyone build an Educator buggy other than the original one in '66?
Apparently not. I know of two works-in-process and will be delighted to see a completed vehicle!!

2. Where is the minibike which Smith built for Bob Noble? I have some setup and operating instructions for it in the original pencil which would be nice to keep with the bike.
Thanks, Tom, you will get the prize of the original instructions.

2a. Where is the little automatic steam power unit on a frame built for Hayden Taliaferro of San Diego?
No ideas?

3. Did anyone actually make the two-sleeve rotary valve in the patent besides Smith himself? I did not see any personally, and Smith made all of mine and they were hard-dense-chrome flashed and had a beautiful lapped fit. I never had one go bad, though he had a chunk of scale mess one up, maybe twice, as it was the do-everything demonstrator.
No ideas here either. The oldest patent I have found was by Johnson.

4. Has anyone applied the Smith monotube control system patent with the linkages and the expanding tubes to any monotube boiler of the long, skinny blowtorch type or of the pancake type? So far as I can discover, the only implementation of this really effective design was in the Educator buggy.
Nothing here either. The first use of this is likely to be in the first Educator replica.

All the best, and good steaming.

Karl

Karl Petersen

August 25, 2009 Karl, I obtained a V-4 Graem Vagg engine from Jim Jones many years ago at Danville. It had VW pistons and connecting rods, as I recall, and was uniflow. The rotary valve had round ports in the spinning inner part and squared off rectangular ports in the part rotated about 250 degrees with the control handle. It would go from full frontwards to backwards under no load readily until I ran it without oil for long periods of time. There is much to learn when one is starting out in steam. It looks a lot like the Smith patent and one would have to ask Graeme for the history of his valve. Years ago there were rumors that SES paid a lot of money for a Black patent on a rotary valve before finding out that it did not work. I have not found out anything else about the Black patent. Brian Fiedler has the original Smith "Green Board" that was on everything from the surf board on up. I have both a 4 cylinder Mercury outboard and a 6 cylinder Mercury outboard engine converted to steam according to Smith plans. One has only the rotary valve, the 4 cylinder, and the 6 cylinder has rotary and bash valves. There was a long pipe from the valve to the head and Brian Fiedler says that there was something going on that was beneficial in having this long tube. Because of the pressure waves or flow it would change timing as the engine changed speed. Tom Kimmel

Hi Karl

I am making an Educator
I have the body and front axle done. I am working on the rear differential now.

lack of funding has brought things to less than a crawl. I am starting a new business so hopefully things will pick up by this fall.

Doug



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2009 09:55PM by Doug-Ji.

Hi! This is great news. Hope things go well with your business and the Educator buggy. It looks like you just joined the forum, so welcome too.

Karl

Karl Petersen

Here is a picture of my Educator body

Thanks for the photo. I know you wrote me directly some time ago, but I have not found your post just now. The other builder is in Sri Lanka and is coming along too. He especially liked the control system and the differential designs.

Karl Petersen

Hi Karl

I started a blog for my Steam Simplicator ( Educator) project at

[steamsimplicator.blogspot.com]

since I am not a machinist or have machinist tools, my goal is to make it as much as possible from easily available components.

Here is a photo of my first steam car. sorry the photo quality is poor. the original photo no longer exists. The car went a "thunderous" 4 miles per hour. It had a 1/4 hp steam turbine motor connected to a bicycle gear system to one rear wheel. It had 200 feet of 1/4 copper tubing, it developed 300 psi in 32 seconds, which was the limit of my pump. first steam was in moments, propane fired.

On this next one I am planning 300 feet of 3/8 inch steam generator, modified pancake style.
motor will be a v-twin 2" bore, 3" displacement.

I recently remarried and am trying to obtain half of the garage to organise a steam shop.

so do you currently have any steam cars or projects going on?
what became of your Citroën?

do you have any photos, details, etc about the Sri Lanka Educator?

Doug
Nampa Idaho



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2009 05:29PM by Doug-Ji.

Doug,

You have made more progress than most already but to keep costs under control you need to be able to custom make steam engine parts and fittings. Compete steam engines of the size you are looking at cost for $2k to $4k at there are at least 3 currently for sale. The Stuart #1 castings alone from Coles Power Models are $810 and Smith recommended two sets. The reversing gear costs an extra $196 and a disc wheel $15. A set of machined castings for the popular Sirius 2 cylinder 1" bore and stroke engine is $1,392. With a small lathe you can make parts from raw materials costing far less than any of these and probably cover the cost of a lathe on the first project.

The range of steam engines, and associated steam components, drawings, raw materials, tools etc available for the serious hobbyist is quite amazing but costs can be sobering. A general net search for "steam engines for sale" will find a few sites. Admire the range at Coles at <www.ColesPowerModels.com> and look at the price list for a quick appreciation of what a steam hobby can cost if you have to buy store components or just bare castings.

The Educator is not a viable project in Australia and any vehicle (car, motorcycle, skateboard or bicycle) with a motor over 200 watts power has to comply with Australian Design Rules for cars or motorbikes and able to be licensed and insured for road or public place (foot paths and parks) use. Each country will have its own rules. Small gasoline engines or electric motors are very popular for fitting to bicycles here with installed costs from about $US200. Many model steam engines can be used to drive a bicycle but cost much more even when nearly everything is self made. I'm also simplifying things to reduce costs but it is a never ending task.

Graeme

In the USA I found there is a category of vehicle called a "LSV"- Low Speed Vehicle, for cars that can go between 25 to 35 mph ( about 30 to 50 Kilometres per hour). The canyon county Department of Motor Vehicles office is only about 2 KM from my house so on Monday I am planning to query them about legally operating my Simplicator (Educator) on the road.

*******************************
Low-speed vehicles

August 2009

In 1998 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) established a limited set of safety standards for low-speed vehicles (LSVs) intended to apply to vehicles used "to make short trips for shopping, social, and recreational purposes primarily within retirement or other planned communities with golf courses." To qualify as an LSV, a vehicle must have 4 wheels and a top speed of at least 20 mph, but it cannot exceed 25 mph.

LSVs are exempt from most federal safety standards that apply to motor vehicles, and they are not required to meet any criteria for vehicle crashworthiness. Each LSV must be equipped with headlamps, taillamps, stop lamps, reflectors, mirrors, parking brake, windshield , and seat belts.

States, not NHTSA, are responsible for regulating the operation of motor vehicles on public roads and for handling LSV titling and registration. Most states allow LSVs to attain speeds no greater than 25 mph on roadways with speed limits of no more than 35 mph. Four states (Connecticut, Mississippi, Montana, and Pennsylvania) do not have statutes allowing the use of LSVs on their public roads. Many states allow their departments of transportation or local jurisdictions to restrict the use of LSVs on their roads.

The chart below describes the roads on which LSVs are permitted and the top legally attainable speeds.

* Table
* Map: roads on which low-speed vehicles are permitted

State On which roads are low-speed vehicles permitted? What is the top speed permissible for low-speed vehicles?
Alabama roads on which a low speed vehicle would not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic not specified
Alaska roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Arizona roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Arkansas roads on which a low speed vehicle would not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic not specified
California roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Colorado roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Connecticut no state law no state law
Delaware roads, other than dual highways in unincorporated areas, where the posted speed limit is 35 mph or less 25 mph
District of Columbia roads on which a low speed vehicle would not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic 25 mph
Florida roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Georgia roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Hawaii roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Idaho roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Illinois local ordinance may allow use on roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Indiana roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Iowa roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Kansas roads with a posted speed limit of 30 mph or less 25 mph
Kentucky roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Louisiana roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Maine roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 35 mph
Maryland roads with a posted speed limit of 30 mph or less 25 mph
Massachusetts roads with a posted speed limit of 30 mph or less 25 mph
Michigan roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Minnesota roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Mississippi no state law no state law
Missouri roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Montana no state law no state law
Nebraska local option 25 mph
Nevada roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
New Hampshire roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
New Jersey roads with a posted speed limit of 25 mph or less; the commissioner may permit use on specified roads where the posted speed limit is greater than 25 mph but not greater than 35 mph 25 mph
New Mexico roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
New York roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
North Carolina roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
North Dakota roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Ohio local option 20 mph
Oklahoma roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Oregon roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Pennsylvania no state law no state law
Rhode Island roads with a posted speed limit of 25 mph or less during the hours of 6:00 am through 6:00 pm 25 mph
South Carolina roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
South Dakota roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Tennessee roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Texas roads with a posted speed limit of 45 mph or less (effective 09/01/09) 35 mph (effective 09/01/09)
Utah roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Vermont roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Virginia roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Washington roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
West Virginia roads within the corporate limits of a municipality where the speed limit is 25 mph or less 25 mph
Wisconsin local ordinance may allow use on roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less 25 mph
Wyoming non-interstate highways on which the vehicle is capable of achieving the maximum speed limit not specified

Yuck, Graeme! I always thought of Australia as being like the American West, with relaxed attitudes about individual actions. 200 watts is less than a third horsepower! That won't move a small go-kart! That is about what the electric skateboards put out. I'm glad I don't have such a government breathing down my neck, at least not yet.

Tom

The Double Stuart No. 1 built by Ed Puryear for the Educator is shown on the Backyard Meet page at [www.firedragon.com]

I had expected to find plans like the Hasbrouck engine for scratch.

You will also find Smith related topics down the page under the Karl A Petersen group of files at America ST, Edwards Development Center and Autocoast links with audio or descriptive file names.

Karl Petersen

Tom,

Electric bikes or conversion kits with 200 watt motors perform as well as a fit person pedaling or can double the wheel power available for hill climbing. Our road, path and bicycle path systems only cater for normal vehicles, bicycles, power assisted bikes and trikes or aged persons electric carts with speed limiters. There are few public roads where a 20 to 25mph LRV could be safely used. They are too big and heavy for bike paths and too slow and fragile to be mixing with full size vehicles. A big network of bike paths is being developed so something that fits the assisted power bike category is workable, otherwise you need a car conversion. As far as costs go for home built stuff, there isn't much difference in the alternate project material costs. High quality light weight bike parts can cost more than equivalent standard car components but discount chains sell whole new bikes for the cost of one good wheel - or about the same cost as a used car with a sick motor.

Our rules are due for a review but some are concerned they may become tighter rather than more relaxed. Mopeds that have more power but only require a rider to have a car or motorbike license are one category up for review. Motor scooters, the next size up from a moped, are treated as motorbikes and riders need a full motorbike riders license.

Current city transport planning is working towards restricting or banning the use of cars in busy central areas and only allowing public transport, bicycles and pedestrian traffic. Maybe there is a future market for sets of steam roller skates :-).

Graeme

Sounds good; a backpack boiler, tubes down the legs and the condenser is a large hat.

Tom

HI Karl

Thanks for the new Educator photos. let me know if you find you Hasbrouck plans.

Doug

[hasbrouck.8m.com] will get to the site. Engines without castings. There is a 2 x 2.5" 2cyl DA if I recall. It isn't tiny...

Karl Petersen

I believe you are talking about the Hasbrouck #5, there are some guys that have made it using a reversing lever instead of the reversing wheel as shown.

There is a yahoo group talking about it at

[groups.yahoo.com]

Ray most likely will be at the Yankee steam up this Saturday with most of his engines running on steam. He been there every year I can remember.
New England Wireless and Steam Museum
East Greenwich RI
[www.neme-s.org]

[www.firedragon.com]

Okay, everybody, here is another website cleanup. The Backyard Meet at R J Smiths on his birthday in 1971 has been filled out with thumbnails and descriptions.

I have been told that the thumbnails come through (they are jpg files) but that the big ones come through slowly (they are tif files). I have investigated and determined that the string between the Firedragon site server and the phone pole is a little iced up just now and is slowing things down. For the big pics, I did not want to dumb them down much since you are only clicking on them if you want to see the best version.

All the best,

Karl Petersen



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2009 04:58PM by Karl Petersen.

All files from this thread

File Name	File Size		Posted by	Date
Educator Raising Steam March 1967.jpg	46 KB	open | download	gvagg2	06/21/2009	Read message
RJ Smith Educator August 1967.jpg	24.2 KB	open | download	gvagg2	06/21/2009	Read message
DSCN1871.JPG	35.3 KB	open | download	Doug-Ji	08/27/2009	Read message
DSCN1868.JPG	27.7 KB	open | download	Doug-Ji	08/27/2009	Read message