Perrymobile, rationless WWII steam vehicle

Fantastic story of the Perrymobile steam car built during WWII. Rationless and very affordable. See at: [theoldmotor.com]

So the car ran on compressed air until there was enough steam pressure?

Wow......just wow...... We had a guy at a Berrien Springs meet years ago who patented a combination steam/pnuematic system. That kind of took me back considering that we had a DFT connected to each reactor onboard ship (DFT = Deaerating Feed Tank). Yup, "deaerating" means we had a really big piece of hardware designed with a primary function of getting the air OUT of the steam....

It’s not so much air as its oxygen and hydrogen that has been separated (still baffles me)
Every power plant I have worked on has a pipe on the roof burning of the hydrogen, not a very large flame but you can see it at night. Even Pilgrim Nuclear had one.
On our steam cars it just goes out with the steam through the engine. Not enough to burn at the exhaust duct. When we have an exhaust duct fire it’s unburned fuel from bad combustion.

Rolly

Hi Rolly,

In our case, it really was air. The navy uses pressurized water reactors, so the water circulating through the reactor never really leaves the reactor -- instead it passes through coils in steam generator drums and water passing over these coils generates the secondary loop steam used throughout the ship. The DFTs are installed in this secondary loop -- since it isn't exposed to radiation, there's no more hydrogen buildup than in any oil or coal fired plant. We had gland sealing steam on the main engine turbines so I expect most of the air came from the day tanks, auxilliaries and steam traps. Actually, now that I think about it, I've worked on DFTs in oil fired ships as well. I think the only place they didn't use them was on submarines, simply because space was an issue. Never got the chance to check that out, though.

Regards,

Ken

As I recall, the Perrymobile magic working fluid was simply alcohol with some green dye added to make people think it was some mysterious, special substance. The problem with these low temperature working fluids is that they are less efficient. The efficiency of any thermodymamic cycle is related to the temperature differential between the hottest and coldest working fluid temperatures inside the cycle. So, a low boiling point typically means lower efficiency - largely because most such fluids can't reach high levels of superheat without decomposing.

Regards,

Ken

You know Ken, Pilgrim Nuclear also used a secondary loop through a heat exchanger to the generator, in fact I think most Nuclear plants do.
Today I can’t remember which side they burned of the hydrogen.

All the non Nuclear plants give off the hydrogen and have a pipe burning off the roof.

Rolly

Hi Pat (SSsssteamer),
Nice article, enjoyable! Have you ever run windshield washing fluid in your Stanley(s)? I often think about trying this.

Hope all is well with you.

Kind regards,
Rick

Rick H. I never thought of using windshield washing fluid in my boiler. I don't think I will try it either. I would worry about foaming inside the boiler. I use TSP in my boiler and I blow the boiler down after every day's use. Keeps it clean. I quite enjoyed the Perrymobile article too!

Hi, Pat! Thanks very much for posting this article and link. Great story.

The Virtual Steam Car Museum has some Perrymobile drawings if anyone is interested.

Wonderful addition to the story.

Best wishes!

Don Hoke