Roger Ulsky
Posted by Rick.H
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Roger Ulsky July 22, 2021 11:54AM |
Hi Folks,
I'm afraid this news isn't the best...Roger has been presumed dead. His walking cane was found near a lake and has been missing for over three (3) days now, even more.
Missing person notice
I was very fond of Roger. He was a EE and enjoyed talking steam engine design with him. Here he is pictured with Tony Grzyb on the Delora. He was a great member to the SACA Team.
Tragster 3 wheel steam bike
He would often goof with club members like Tony and say things like watch out, I'm after you with SteamZilla. SteamZilla go-cart
Here is link to his YouTube Channel: Roger's YouTube Channel There are great things to learn from this channel. Roger was no dummy. He helped Chuk with the design of an electronic controlled normalizer (might be called a de-super heat, tempera jet, or other similar terms). This was of course on the steam Land Speed Record (LSR) Car.
Note that I heard this from Nick Messmer who heard it from Chuk. I found the notice on the internet above and believe it is still in a search mode. We'll wish for the best...
Respectfully,
Rick Heinig
I'm afraid this news isn't the best...Roger has been presumed dead. His walking cane was found near a lake and has been missing for over three (3) days now, even more.
Missing person notice
I was very fond of Roger. He was a EE and enjoyed talking steam engine design with him. Here he is pictured with Tony Grzyb on the Delora. He was a great member to the SACA Team.
Tragster 3 wheel steam bike
He would often goof with club members like Tony and say things like watch out, I'm after you with SteamZilla. SteamZilla go-cart
Here is link to his YouTube Channel: Roger's YouTube Channel There are great things to learn from this channel. Roger was no dummy. He helped Chuk with the design of an electronic controlled normalizer (might be called a de-super heat, tempera jet, or other similar terms). This was of course on the steam Land Speed Record (LSR) Car.
Note that I heard this from Nick Messmer who heard it from Chuk. I found the notice on the internet above and believe it is still in a search mode. We'll wish for the best...
Respectfully,
Rick Heinig
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Re: Roger Ulsky August 22, 2021 08:04PM |
Hi Guys,
Here is an article I wrote about Roger's steam contraptions for the NWSS Steam Gage. Feel free to use it in the Bulletin or the Forum.
It has a link to the funeral home obit that Kathleen wrote.
Regards,
Michael Cross
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Roger Ulsky, a Steamer’s Steamer
By Michael Cross
Long time NWSS member Roger Ulsky of Bellingham, WA, passed away recently after a long bout with Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia, a form of lymphoma.
His obituary is available online at:
[whatcomcremationandfuneral.com]
The online obituary has a Guest Book and Roger’s wife, Kathleen Waton would love to see comments from his steam buddies reflected in the Guest Book for posterity.
After a career as an Electrical Engineer, Roger launched his teaching career, teaching engineering at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon. After teaching several years, Roger participated in a faculty exchange program at a college in Derby, England. Seeing the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution first hand in England sparked Roger’s decades long passion for steam power. He built two steam launches and four steam-powered land vehicles. He enjoyed the friendship of fellow enthusiasts in the Steam Automobile Club of America and the Northwest Steam Society.
His first project was a stern wheel steam boat, Katie Ann. That boat had a stern wheel driven directly by two long stroke steam engines, just like the Mississippi River steamboats. The engine was based on two hydraulic cylinders, connected to two valve mechanisms. At the NWSS Steam Meet in Wheeler, Oregon in 1999 Roger took Katie Ann all the way down the Nehalem River to the Pacific Ocean and around the entrance buoy before returning to Wheeler.
In 2000 Roger and Kathleen took a sun break from the Pacific Northwest and spent 18 years in the Southeast United States, where his next steamboat and all his steam land vehicles were built. Katie Ann Too, was a plywood boat, built from plans for an electric boat. It did have an electric motor, but also had a steam engine that Roger machined from chunks of solid cast iron. The engine had no reverse gear, but the electric motor took care of reverse or short trips when he didn’t want to get steam up. The boat was a platform for many different boiler experiments. I kept Katie Ann Too for a year while Roger and Kathleen were living in Manhattan. At that time, it had a boiler made of copper tubing configured sort of like a log cabin with the fire inside the cabin. It burned short pieces of 2 x 4, which were poked into the cabin through a door. The boiler was easy to operate, easy to build and weighed about 30 pounds.
He later experimented with monotube (flash) boilers, which are notoriously hard to control, but Roger designed electronic, computer-controlled systems that controlled all the inputs (air, fuel and water) to give a steam output at a consistent pressure and temperature. A friend tells a tale about when he was visiting Roger in GA, the electronic controls on the boiler would signal the operator to add wood when the controller sensed the need. Roger changed the signal light to a voice command that said-"Add some wood-you dumbass!"
Roger was an extremely inventive steam enthusiast. He was also extremely fast. I worked with him on numerous projects by email while he was living in Florida and Georgia. He would write, “What do you think of this?” Being a Mechanical Engineer I would get out some paper and my calculator and work on the problem for a day to two and then write him back. Often the response was, “Never mind, I already built it and it works.” He did a lot of great Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
Roger’s first steam land vehicle was the Steamped, a steam powered moped. Roger built a new head for the moped engine, with valves so it could operate on steam. The boiler was a monotube made from 1/8” steel pipe, welded into hairpin curves. It burned propane. As far as I know, this was the only steam plant that Roger built that burned a fossil fuel. All the rest burned wood or wood pellets.
His next land vehicle was the Tragster, short for tricycle dragster. This was specifically built for the Steam Automobile Club of America (SACA) “Time Trials” at the SACA annual meet at Berrien Springs, Michigan. The Time Trial is a 1/8th mile timed drag race. You have to realize that these time trials are not like the drag races in which a top fuel dragster does the ¼ mile in 3.58 seconds and crosses the finish line at 386 mph. The Tragster crossed the finish line at 29 mph and won that year’s contest hands down. That version of the Tragster used the engine Roger built for the Katie Ann Too. In the Too the engine ran on saturated steam at about 150 psi. In the Tragster the same engine ran on 600 psi steam superheated to as much as 1000°F. The Tragster went through several modifications—different engine, different boiler, pellets instead of wood, but never bettered the 29-mph record.
Stepping up to four wheels, he built a go-kart that he named SteamZilla. The engine was based on a 212 cc Harbor Freight gas engine with a new head with poppet valves. The boiler was a wood-fired monotube with electronic controls. There are several videos of the engine and SteamZilla in the YouTube link below.
Roger built another four-wheel vehicle, the Steamster, but I don’t know anything about it. It appears to have been built on a VW chassis, and there is a propane tank hiding behind the boiler, so I suspect that the Steamster was built before Roger got into his “Real Steamers Burn Wood” phase.
At some point after Roger had built all his vehicles, he was talking to someone and said--"What can I do now-I've built a steam boat, a two-wheeler, a three-wheeler, and two four-wheelers, what more does the world expect of me- build a five-wheeler?"
Upon their return to the Pacific Northwest in November of 2018, Roger and Kathleen settled in the beautiful lakeside community of Sudden Valley in Bellingham, WA. Roger is survived by his beloved wife, Kathleen, many cousins, nieces and nephew, and many friends whose loyalty and friendship he valued through the years.
Donations may be made in memory of Roger to the International Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation at [iwmf.com]
[www.youtube.com]
Here is an article I wrote about Roger's steam contraptions for the NWSS Steam Gage. Feel free to use it in the Bulletin or the Forum.
It has a link to the funeral home obit that Kathleen wrote.
Regards,
Michael Cross
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Ulsky, a Steamer’s Steamer
By Michael Cross
Long time NWSS member Roger Ulsky of Bellingham, WA, passed away recently after a long bout with Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia, a form of lymphoma.
His obituary is available online at:
[whatcomcremationandfuneral.com]
The online obituary has a Guest Book and Roger’s wife, Kathleen Waton would love to see comments from his steam buddies reflected in the Guest Book for posterity.
After a career as an Electrical Engineer, Roger launched his teaching career, teaching engineering at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon. After teaching several years, Roger participated in a faculty exchange program at a college in Derby, England. Seeing the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution first hand in England sparked Roger’s decades long passion for steam power. He built two steam launches and four steam-powered land vehicles. He enjoyed the friendship of fellow enthusiasts in the Steam Automobile Club of America and the Northwest Steam Society.
His first project was a stern wheel steam boat, Katie Ann. That boat had a stern wheel driven directly by two long stroke steam engines, just like the Mississippi River steamboats. The engine was based on two hydraulic cylinders, connected to two valve mechanisms. At the NWSS Steam Meet in Wheeler, Oregon in 1999 Roger took Katie Ann all the way down the Nehalem River to the Pacific Ocean and around the entrance buoy before returning to Wheeler.
In 2000 Roger and Kathleen took a sun break from the Pacific Northwest and spent 18 years in the Southeast United States, where his next steamboat and all his steam land vehicles were built. Katie Ann Too, was a plywood boat, built from plans for an electric boat. It did have an electric motor, but also had a steam engine that Roger machined from chunks of solid cast iron. The engine had no reverse gear, but the electric motor took care of reverse or short trips when he didn’t want to get steam up. The boat was a platform for many different boiler experiments. I kept Katie Ann Too for a year while Roger and Kathleen were living in Manhattan. At that time, it had a boiler made of copper tubing configured sort of like a log cabin with the fire inside the cabin. It burned short pieces of 2 x 4, which were poked into the cabin through a door. The boiler was easy to operate, easy to build and weighed about 30 pounds.
He later experimented with monotube (flash) boilers, which are notoriously hard to control, but Roger designed electronic, computer-controlled systems that controlled all the inputs (air, fuel and water) to give a steam output at a consistent pressure and temperature. A friend tells a tale about when he was visiting Roger in GA, the electronic controls on the boiler would signal the operator to add wood when the controller sensed the need. Roger changed the signal light to a voice command that said-"Add some wood-you dumbass!"
Roger was an extremely inventive steam enthusiast. He was also extremely fast. I worked with him on numerous projects by email while he was living in Florida and Georgia. He would write, “What do you think of this?” Being a Mechanical Engineer I would get out some paper and my calculator and work on the problem for a day to two and then write him back. Often the response was, “Never mind, I already built it and it works.” He did a lot of great Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
Roger’s first steam land vehicle was the Steamped, a steam powered moped. Roger built a new head for the moped engine, with valves so it could operate on steam. The boiler was a monotube made from 1/8” steel pipe, welded into hairpin curves. It burned propane. As far as I know, this was the only steam plant that Roger built that burned a fossil fuel. All the rest burned wood or wood pellets.
His next land vehicle was the Tragster, short for tricycle dragster. This was specifically built for the Steam Automobile Club of America (SACA) “Time Trials” at the SACA annual meet at Berrien Springs, Michigan. The Time Trial is a 1/8th mile timed drag race. You have to realize that these time trials are not like the drag races in which a top fuel dragster does the ¼ mile in 3.58 seconds and crosses the finish line at 386 mph. The Tragster crossed the finish line at 29 mph and won that year’s contest hands down. That version of the Tragster used the engine Roger built for the Katie Ann Too. In the Too the engine ran on saturated steam at about 150 psi. In the Tragster the same engine ran on 600 psi steam superheated to as much as 1000°F. The Tragster went through several modifications—different engine, different boiler, pellets instead of wood, but never bettered the 29-mph record.
Stepping up to four wheels, he built a go-kart that he named SteamZilla. The engine was based on a 212 cc Harbor Freight gas engine with a new head with poppet valves. The boiler was a wood-fired monotube with electronic controls. There are several videos of the engine and SteamZilla in the YouTube link below.
Roger built another four-wheel vehicle, the Steamster, but I don’t know anything about it. It appears to have been built on a VW chassis, and there is a propane tank hiding behind the boiler, so I suspect that the Steamster was built before Roger got into his “Real Steamers Burn Wood” phase.
At some point after Roger had built all his vehicles, he was talking to someone and said--"What can I do now-I've built a steam boat, a two-wheeler, a three-wheeler, and two four-wheelers, what more does the world expect of me- build a five-wheeler?"
Upon their return to the Pacific Northwest in November of 2018, Roger and Kathleen settled in the beautiful lakeside community of Sudden Valley in Bellingham, WA. Roger is survived by his beloved wife, Kathleen, many cousins, nieces and nephew, and many friends whose loyalty and friendship he valued through the years.
Donations may be made in memory of Roger to the International Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation at [iwmf.com]
[www.youtube.com]
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Re: Roger Ulsky August 22, 2021 08:06PM |
Final photos from Michael Cross...
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