Posted by Jerry on August 18th, 2006 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Steam, Technology
Ever imagined an alternative future in which steam powered remote controlled centipedes walked the streets, or a steam-powered six-wheel-drive mars rover? Well Japanese artist I-Wei Huang has not just imagined – he has built them!
From a radio controlled walking robot to a trilobite steam tank to a truly amazing steam centipede, there seem to be no limits to I-Wei’s imagination – and ingenuity. His site crabfu.com is filled with his award-winning creations. Watch the videos – I love the one where his six-wheel-drive rover tows him on a skateboard 🙂
Imagine someone from a distant planet sending this to Earth!
A kind of Jules Verne meets Bruce Sterling – check out his site – and check out Makezine for more of this guy’s amazing work
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on June 25th, 2006 — Posted in History, Journal, Steam, Technology
One of the little-known museum gems in Paris is the Musee des Arts et Metiers – the museum of technology. Among the amazing objects there is Nicolas Cugnot’s steam tractor – the Fardier a vapeur. This is the first steam propelled vehicle – from which the development of the modern automobile began.
Back in 1769, when Captain Cook was preparing for his voyage to Australia, a French military engineer was considering the merits of using steam to propel a vehicle. With the backing of the Minister for War, the Duke of Choiseul, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804) developed a prototype steam tractor for towing artillery without horses. The prototype was built under Cugnot’s direction by Army mechanic Brezin at the Paris Arsenal. The first protoype showed some limited promise, and he went on to build a second vehicle in 1770. His idea was to use a three-wheeled cart, with a high-pressure boiler placed in front of the driving wheel, and a two-cylinder piston engine to push on a notched disc each side of the wheel. The whole driving assembly was mounted so it could pivot on a vertical axis for steering – with a steering lock of about 15-20 degrees in either direction. It seems very front-heavy, but it was designed to tow a heavy artillery piece.
The machine has a reverse gear and could move its five-tonne load at up to 4 km/h. It was only partially successful, however. The fire-box was small, and the machine could sustain steam for only about 15 minutes before it ran out of steam pressure. And the lack of brakes and and slow steering (by geared rack and pinion) made the machine unwieldy. On an early test run it failed to make a sufficiently sharp turn and crashed into a stone wall, and the project was scrapped – after the first motor vehicle accident in history – in 1771.
The test vehicle was long thought to have been destroyed during the French Revolution, until it was discovered in Napoleon’s time. It has been preserved in the Musee des Arts et Metiers since 1800.
I am happy to report that the machine is still in an excellent state of preservation, and the workmanship of the mechanic, Brezin, was very professional in its approach. The two single-acting cylinders are 13 inches in diameter, and the structure is robustly constructed on massive timber beams. Cugnot himself received a pension of 600 francs, which was revoked in 1789, forcing Cugnot into exile in Brussels. He was brought back to France and his pension reinstated by Napoleon shortly before he died in 1804 at the age of 79 years.
The museum website has an excellent video presentation on how the engine worked
The vehicle’s scale is impressive as you can see in the following photos I took 2 weeks ago.
Cugnot’s steam carriage – the Fardier a Vapeur 1770
Cugnot’s boiler assembly
Cugnot’s steam wagon – left view
Drive gear on Cugnot’s steam carriage
Cugnot’s engine valve gear – detail
Cugnot’s drive train
This picture is included just to provide a sense of scale to Cugnot’s steam wagon
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on February 24th, 2006 — Posted in History, Journal, Steam, Technology
Now here is a site to see – The Steam Car Club of Great Britain has galleries of images, a UK steam carr register of all known steam cars in Britain – even a for sale and wanted notices section! Yes you could buy a 1903 Locomobile for a mere STG 40,000, or a 1919 Stanley steamer for US$42,500 – oh well perhaps if I have a big lottery win 🙂
There are also galleries of pics from the London-Brighton veteran car run
One of my favourite sections is that on the Field steam motorcycle – complete with a quicktime video of the bike in action. The page lists the rather complex starting procedure for the bike and has some great photos. There is even a later version of the bike that was filmed doing the wall of death – and that means a speed of at least 50mph (about 85kph)
This is a great site and one I keep coming back to 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on October 17th, 2004 — Posted in History, Journal, Steam, Technology
Having just encountered the wonderful steam models page of Forest Classics in the UK I was amazed at the range of steam models now available. It used to be mamod and more mamod, but little else – now it seems there are many manufacturers of high quality kits and assembled live steam models – from stationary beam engines like this one from Sussex Steam Beam & Mill Engine Kits
to full-on radio controlled live steam cars, like this model 1907 stanley steamer from the MiniSteam company…
After seeing a mate run his radio controlled petrol driven model race car up and down our street, I thought nah, I prefer steam!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on June 11th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Steam, Technology
Now this is something I didn’t expect to see – I’ve seen various kinds of machines built with lego, but a working steam engine made from lego is a new one on me – I’m impressed at this guy’s creativity, and what’s more, it appears to work.
Daniel Hartman has various versions of the engine, including single and double cylinder versions, and single and double acting. They use square pistons and seem to run quite well on compressed air or with a vacuum cleaner. It seems a great way to demonstrate the basics of steam engines.
This is an animation of Daniel Hartman’s double-acting twin cylinder engine The whole site is worth a close look 🙂
cheers
Jerry
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