On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:49:35 +0000 (UTC), tmcd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Tim
McDaniel) wrote:
>In article <moo6r3dfp8b4cm0b42ggsa1j3nee4qf95u@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>mike weber <fair****tfan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:56:00 +0000 (UTC), tmcd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Tim
>>McDaniel) wrote:
>>
>>><http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7241909.stm>
>>
>>Apparently what we're looking at here is, basically, a modified steam
>>engine variant.
>>
>>Strikes me that a system with a flash boiler heated by, say, a
>>kerosene burner, and a condenser to reclaim all or most of the water
>>would work too.
>
>But a steam engine has combustion, hence combustion that should be
>efficient on the car, and pollutants that come out of the car.
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_car>
adds
>
> The absence of a gearbox is more than counterbalanced by the
> weight of cooling and forced draft fans, fans, and boiler feed,
> fuel feed, and air pumps; the battery and fan to feed even a
> flash boiler will more than overcome the weight of a gearbox, and
> need to run even at idle.[1]
>
> Furthermore, the radiator must be larger, since all heat engines
> depend on the temperature differences in the working fluid; in
> steam cars, this heat exchange must be larger and more rapid, and
> so, too, must the radiator.[2]
The radiator/fan stuff might well apply to a condensing design, i
guess, but it doesn't seem to have applied to the Stanley.
(Interesting, following up on those references says they're both from
an article by L.J.K.Setright, my favourite English Eccentric auto
writer. Wish i could find a copy of his piece from "Car&Driver", in
which he celebrated both James Joyce and the Morgan Car Copmpany in an
essay entitled "Funagaoinst Work"...)
The primary heat exchange in a steam engine consists of the work done
by the expanding steam in driving the piston; if you don't use a
condensing design, the exhaust steam carries away any residual heat.
>
>That page says that a flash boiler was tried in 1915 and compressed
>air fast-starting in a Saab prototype car in 1973.
>
>Steam boiler explosions were once a concern, but that's a Simple
>Matter Of Engineering, apparently solved by at least the Stanley
>Steamer (going by its Wikipedia page).
I recall reading that a Stanley attempting to break the Land Speed
Record set by an ealrier Stanley left the ground at a speed said to be
in excess of 130mph, and its boiler exploded when it landed. However,
that was a special unit and the wood/piano wire lagging thaty bothj
ionsulated and reinforced the boiler had been left off to save weight.
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