Posts Tagged ‘diy’
Steam Engine
Monday, September 26th, 2011
Automobiles Of Steam
When the idea of a personal transportation was first conceived, inventors looked to what was familiar rather than trying to create something new, at least initially. Toward the beginning of the personal transport era, in the late 19th century, the main way of powering vehicles – such as train locomotives – was by steam. It was this method that the forefathers of the car explored, and quite astonishingly, it worked.
Steam cars are powered by an external combustion engine, meaning the fuel is combusted away from the engine. The modern car has an internal combustion engine, which around twice as efficient as the steam version. Yet in the past, steam cars have been more popular than the modern world remembers, so they must have been doing something right. In 1902, steam cars outnumbered all other types of car, as in the US 485 of 909 new car registrations were for steam powered cars. The main reason for this was that non-steam cars required hand-starting, a hazardous pursuit which could break wrists if done incorrectly. With the invention of the electric starter, the glorious period of the steam car as personal, civil transportation was over not 30 years since it had begun.
Yet with oil at a premium, modern minds are returning to the thought of steam powered vehicles for personal transport. Steam engines power cars by burning fuel, which heated water in a boiler. This created steam, which pushed pistons in a crank shaft which would then turn the wheels. The method is relatively simple compared to some modern car engines, but it had its problems. The sheer weight and space needed to keep the engine in made it almost immediately useless for a small, family vehicle. Yet this was several hundred years ago – could the new Millennium provide the solution to what should be a simple problem?
The answer, quite simply, is no. While modern engineering can get around many problems that were previously seen as without solution, it cannot defy mathematical fact. To create the necessary amount of steam to power a vehicle for any kind of duration at any kind of speed, you need a large external combustion engine. This alone – before passengers, seats, design and controls are even considered – makes any car it may sit within extremely heavy, which in turn makes the engine have to work harder. It is a classic catch-22.
There is also the issue of start-up time, which in a steam powered car is something of a problem. The engine may take some time to produce steam to power the engine, which in the modern world of just turning a key and pushing a button and creating immediate power would seem tedious in the extreme.
So while steam cars would be better for the environment due to their lack of emissions, the idea has generally not been returned to. Concentration is on hybrid and electric cars, whose problems seem to be more quickly solvable than their steam counterparts and more acceptable to the general market. Yet steam power is still viable and it does work, meaning one can never say its role in history is ever completely over.
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Steam Engine 315
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