Posted by Jerry on January 18th, 2009 — Posted in Journal, Steam
The National Museum of Australia has a fully operating paddle steamer – the PS Enterprise – which is open to the public. It is operated by volunteers and they have done a great job of keeping this 130 year old vessel in good shape.
The vessel is 17.3. long, 8m wide and has a net tonnage of 42.7 tonnes – so the fact that the vessel only has a shallow draft – essential for a river boat.
The paddle steamer, made of river red gums, was built in Echuca and launched in 1878. It plied its trade up and down the Murray River. It has operated as a floating store, been used as a houseboat and as a fishing vessel. In 1988 the vessel was recommissioned by the National Museum of Australia after a through overhaul and restoration at Echuca in South Australia, and transport overland to Canberra. It is a great piece of Australian heritage. It was acquired by the NMA in 1984 and has been cruising Lake Burley Griffin for the last 20 years.
Here are some detail views of the engine – a 12HP twin cylinder double-acting steam engine which drives the paddles via a chain drive. The vessel operates at around 50psi pressure, but can run on less. The boiler is a fire-tube boiler with exhaust steam providing extra draft for the fire. Top speed is around 5 knots (9kph). It is wood-fired. The feedwater pump takes water from the lake for use in the boiler, and the water is regularly tested for impurities – acidity, calcium etc as part of the conservation plan. And the boiler undergoes annual certification for safety.
The donkey engine generates reserve power for the batteries to keep lights and communications working.
And here is the galley – where food is cooked for the crew and the kettle is on for coffee – perhaps the true ‘engine room’!
The Steam Car Club of Great Britain has a wonderful step-by-step article on how Paul Brodie of Flashback Fabrications built a couple of replicas of Sylvester Roper’s 1898 steam bike. The article gives details of boiler construction (pages 7-8), and the feed water pump (page 4) which is driven by an eccentric on the opposite side of the rear axle from the main drive. The throttle valve is covered on page 5, while the fire box is covered on page 10 – a modernised version could run a gas or pressurised kerosene burner in that space. The steam assembly is on page 13 showing how the power system comes together to make a complete bike.
The completed steam bike replica[photo adapted from Steam Car Club of Great Britain]
And here is a video showing the bike in action
This is a very detailed write-up and well worth visiting the Steam Car Club of Great Britain – and while you’re at it, why not join up too! The site, run by Jeff Theobold, has loads of information about steam cars and other steam bikes.
Posted by Jerry on January 7th, 2009 — Posted in Journal, Technology
Now that I have a remote trigger for the camera (Canon 1000D dslr) I thought I’d have another go at getting a better shot of the moon
Canon 1000D dslr with EF75-300mm zoom; f/11; 1/125sec; ISO-200; auto white balance, centre focus. The camera was mounted on a tripod with remote trigger. Processing – slight curves adjustment and warming photo filter in photoshop CS2.
Any tips for this newbie photographer are most welcome 🙂
Dictionaries are great, but they are linear in layout, and sometimes you just want words to collide with each other visually in interesting ways. Visuwords ™ uses the Princeton University online dictionary to display terms in graphical relationship with other words forming neural nets. It is a great tool for visualising where words fit in the context of syntactic structures.
You can pull the terms around and follow syntactic links with other words by double clicking on the other words to expand the net – if nothing else, it’s a good procrastination device while you are trying to think of a word while writing!
Posted by Jerry on December 28th, 2008 — Posted in Music, Woodwork
While I successfully used a piece of water pipe and a blow torch for forming the sides of my travel violin, I felt I needed something more reliable for the mandolin. I had read of the possibility of using a heat gun – the sort used to strip paint – to provide a steady heat source, but saw no plans for doing so.
It was time to think it through and find my own solution. And here it is.
Please note that the air needs a place to escape so that the end of the heat gun doesn’t melt. But the solution is a durable one.
The pipe structure comprises an internal plug with a square top – which is held in the vise. Attached is an T-junction connector, with one opening towards the heat gun, the other vertical. To the vertical end is attached a short piece of water pipe using a connector. And that’s it. The heat enters the wider aperture of the T-junction, finds the lower aperture plugged, and diverts up the vertical tube. The vertical tube is narrower than the T-junction, so the tube gets to be heated, while waste air is released out the top – away from the person doing the bending.
On the hot setting (600C) the vertical tube is plenty hot enough to boil water on contact, but because the waste heat can escape, there is no heat buildup to melt the heat gun, and there is no hot blast of air against the body of the operator.
The proof is in this piece of binding which was used to test the bending iron.
