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Re: Easy-Clean Vaporizing Burner - 3 years ago

5 seconds of clean time versus, well, I have read estimates varying from 15-45 minutes carbon-cleanout time for old-time steam car burners. So, 15 minutes to clean an old-time burner, versus 5 seconds with this system. 900 seconds versus 5 seconds. So my system is 180 times faster to clean than the old burners. 180 versus one. My system has a bigger number. The bigger number always wins, sa

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Coburn Benson - 3 years ago

Hey Pat, Keep us posted on your continuing steam car adventures, and any and all steam car musings "appended thereunto", so to speak; I strongly suspect that Bill & I are far from the only ones here following your posts with great interest... Peter

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Balancing an old steam engine - 3 years ago

I have considered changing my truck dash display setting to eliminate the mpg readout which constantly gives me "unacceptable/unspeakable" daily evidence in favor of my unpopular hypothesis of "Stanley 740/comparable-modern-IC MPG identicality". This would spare people from my disturbingly "politically incorrect" comments on the subject. Not offending people would b

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Balancing an old steam engine - 3 years ago

I think it is listed as # 4100 on the SACA Storeroom: "An Assessment" being the beginning of the title.

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Balancing an old steam engine - 3 years ago

The other thing is that my 2016 RAM 1500 truck, with the same [4000lb] weight and frontal area as a 1920s Stanley, and the same fuel mileage, is only presented here as an explanation of -- why I think -- that late-Stanley-like steam cars were/are as efficient as typical popular modern gas-engined road vehicles . I am not stating these facts here in an effort to convince anyone else to agree wi

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Balancing an old steam engine - 3 years ago

You win Ken, I took a smartphone pic of my truck's dash display, showing 9.8 mpg. I was going to post it with the comment "proof of no improvement". Alas it is 4meg file size, too big for the forum,, and I had endless other problems transferring and re-sizing it. No "proof" for me, so you win. Wave hands in air and shout "I win, in yer face Peter". etc. I don

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Balancing an old steam engine - 3 years ago

Thanks Bill, Interesting stuff, but then again I'm still seeing daily mpg figures on the computerized digital display of my"all-latest-technology" 2016 gas engine pickup truck that equal every mpg number I ever heard for comparable full-sized model year 2000, 1990, 1980, 1970, 1960 pickup trucks, and -- disturbingly -- 1920s Stanleys of same vehicle weight and frontal area. i have re

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Easy-Clean Vaporizing Burner - 3 years ago

In case anyone is interested, I wanted to post a note that after many months of extremely difficult inventing/design/blueprinting work, I have finished the fully-detailed blueprints/shop drawings for my previously-mentioned "Easy-Clean Burner Cleaner System". If this system works in practice, then it means that all carbon can be blown out of a steam car vaporizing burner by merely pull

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Rectangle steam cycle - 3 years ago

Hi Ed and al, This is very similar to a concept which I have been working on, in the background, for a number of years. i think that it may have great promise. The downside is that it may take a lot of trial and error. Starting from a somewhat conservative/traditional steam car system with a record of successful running on the road would be advantageous, IMO. The heat exchangers may be much

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Balancing an old steam engine - 3 years ago

Thanks, Pat. I have tried to keep my steam car design as close as possible to the "proven successful" designs of the 1910-1920 era. I have gotten a LOT of criticism, even condemnation, for this "outdated approach", over the years. Usually from people who never actually designed/built a successful roadworthy steam automobile themselves. In the 1920s and later, steam car

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Balancing an old steam engine - 3 years ago

Hi Pat, Do you have numbers for reciprocating-weight-to-rotary-counterweight ratio, giving good results in a Stanley-style engine? If so, I trust your expertise and will follow it. Currently I am following the ratio used in the Stanley Model 740 engine, given in the Herb Schick engine blueprints, for which I have not yet found complaints. You and other justly honored steam car vets, I strong

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: National Steam Automobile Day - 3 years ago

And don't forget Sept 17th, "National Debate It Instead Of Do It Day". LOL

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: National Steam Automobile Day - 3 years ago

How about an actual new steam _automobile_ rather than some lip-service "observance" of old steam cars? Just a thought...

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Coburn Benson - 3 years ago

Many, many years ago Coburn "Ben" Benson related a fascinating story. A few years back I repeated it, and he was pleased that someone had actually remembered it. Well, how could one not? At least any true steam car guy. Ben and a friend had a dispute as to how SLOW a Stanley could go. Anyone who doesn't get that, well, quit steam cars now. You just don't "get it". And

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Doble Book - 3 years ago

Hi Jim, Thanks, Yay! By way of explanation, us eager beaver Doble/Crank fans have been thinking "where's the Doble book? Where where where?" Then the delay led to "Not here yet, something must be wrong". Then the conspiracy theories. Any time a train of thought leads to conspiracy theories, the baloney alarms ought to sound off. Well, I'm glad to hear directly from th

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Doble Book - 3 years ago

I apologize for posting cynical comments on this -- now all deleted, I think. I sincerely hope that Jim Crank's Doble book gets into print. If it does, I will buy a copy. Thanks for the extra back-story information Ken; it is good to know what is going on with this, behind the scenes. I will be buying a copy to read, but investor/collector types might note that, judging by the information, thi

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Doble Boiler - 3 years ago

Hi Don, Glad to hear that you got up to good sealing at 400 psi with your blowoff. I was going to say, ask the friendly/helpful Stanley guys, with their 500-600 psi boilers and blowoff valves that hold fine. But it looks like you worked it out OK on your own. Cool. There is lots of info out there which search engines cannot find. Generally that info can be found with "people person ski

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 3 years ago

Sci-snark aside, I still plan to develop a wood-chip-fired steam car, which would be completely "carbon-neutral". Fuel also "cheap as old chips", which in fact is exactly what it would be -- old wood chips in this case. For farmers and others with acreage/considerable wood waste like myself, the fuel would be "free". I believe that it would use 1/2 or less as much f

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 3 years ago

Reminds me of the movie "Sleeper", where Woody Allen's character is transported to a future world where science has made discoveries about smoking and diet which are somewhat different from commonly-held views of the mid/late 20th Century: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2fYguIX17Q

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 3 years ago

Fast forward 20-30 years or less. Now [2039] that all fossil fuels are massively taxed to combat climate change, scientists suddenly discover that fossil-fuel CO2 emissions are merely counteracting the onset of the next periodic ice age. Without massive industrial/fossil-fuel CO2 addition to the atmosphere, sea levels could drop 400 feet or more like 12000 years ago, when the Mediterranean was

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 3 years ago

An "updated traditional steam car", with an improved Stanley-like 2-cylinder double-acting low-rpm direct-drive engine, on the other hand, might give lower fuel mileage than some of the other alternatives, but IMO the lower powerplant cost would more than make up for the higher fuel cost over the life of the vehicle. IE, the updated traditional steam car might cost 10-20% less, in fuel,

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 3 years ago

Yeah, you can get 1000mpg. But factor-in all the production and replacement costs, and the higher-fuel-economy BEV & EV/IC hybrid cars end up costing more per mile, overall, than straight-IC cars. And the straight-IC cars are 98% of the market, and have NOT improved in thermodynamic efficiency. OK, they have improved microscopically, but their cost has increased far more than the negligible

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 3 years ago

Hey Bill, A usable state like Texas, LOL! Thanks. I will avoid commenting on useless States, including the one I recently vacated. Google Chinese political-prisoner slave-labor lithium mining and massive electric-grid upgrades needed for mass IC-to-EV conversion in USA/West. Those and many more issues are pretty fatal to "the inevitable all-EV future" -- and implicitly anti-steam

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 3 years ago

Hi Ken, "Honestly, if anyone on this forum is in a position to know what the companies are investing in, it's me." Hope all the patting yourself on the back doesn't leave any bruises. But even if correct, note that what the companies once invested in, at various times, included Wankel, air-cooled, turbine,and other engines, all now discarded. Peter

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 3 years ago

Hi Ken, Well, I personally opted to spend ~$30K, cash, for a truck that gets significantly lower fuel mileage. 2 trucks, actually. I gather that gazillions of other consumers have chosen likewise. As noted, I had the option of a FIAT diesel engine with 2X the fuel mileage, but its 6 grand extra cost would never have paid off with my low annual elapsed miles. Later I learned that the "ex

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: Doble Boiler - 3 years ago

Hi Don, I wish you the best of luck; hope the blow-off valve does the job. One of the problems I've been fighting for 40 years or so is that many necessary parts for steam cars, capable of 500-1000+ psi steam pressure AND sized right for automobile-sized steam power systems, are not commercially available. But info on how to design & build these components is out there. My thanks g

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 4 years ago

Hi Ken Yes! I would like to see multi-source, independently-verified road-test results on both "all-modern improved efficiency" and "updated-classic" steam cars. I am scrambling to design/blueprint/build a light steam vehicle which will provide the latter; will anyone take up the gauntlet and champion the former? It is not I who ridicule 50+mpg fuel economy results, but

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 4 years ago

And lest our British steam car friends object to being neglected in the aforementioned antediluvian movie's relentlessly "politically-incorrect" efforts to offend absolutely everyone, I offer this scene, in which All-American "Uncle Milty" , has it out with British comedy great Terry Thomas, in a hilariously spectacular example of international insensitivity between the 2 worst

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 4 years ago

An Irishman, a WASP, and a Jew get in an airplane... Oh god, did people really make jokes like that... "What could happen to an Old Fashioned?..." From the classic Hollywood comedy "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World", 1963: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i415QwSj0Og Imagine Jim Crank as the stiff-jawed WASPy American millionaire played here by Jim Backus... I'd be the

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff

Re: turboelectric vehicle - 4 years ago

60 mpg was hot stuff with embargo Saudi gas 40 years ago, but today with ~$2.50/gallon [2019 inflated dollars] USA fracked gas, it's "meh". VW just canned their latter-day "Beetle" econocar. Front-drive, water-cooled low-buck Audi with fakey wakey retro-nostalgia "Beetle-ish" "styling", sorry not a real Beetle IMO, so good riddance. Sic Semper fakis. Th

by Peter Brow - SteamStuff