Beam engine at work.

I'm lost for words and think that I would keep my hands well away :~)

Thank you Nick!

Elf n safety only applies at work! What we do for fun is different!

Glad you like it!

Best Wishes
Peter

Ohh what a great picture of the beam engine!
How did you do the engine? It looks so nice while working!!

A big YS!

Love Füsun
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My dear Füsun,

Thank you so much for your extremely enthusiastic visit. I am very happy indeed!

I know I might be old, but I did learn about these steam engines at university!
We must remember the technology of the day,, No steel, no steam cylinder oil, no machine tools...
So we see
1) a vertical cylinder so the weight of the piston doesn't wear the cylinder excessively
2) 'Parallel motion' to guide the piston (near enough) vertically,
3) a separate condenser, thus allowing double action, steam enters under pressure, and is exhausted into a vacuum, from both sides of the piston,
4) rotational motion. James Watt used a sun and planet gear to avoid a patent on the crank.

Then we must remember the second law of thermodynamics and Carnot's theorem applies..
There was no way of making a high pressure boiler in the old days, nor modern slide bars, so we have a cheap machine, which we can copy, and build with bits of scrap!!

Love Peter
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Amazingly beautiful.

Thank you Jaap

I'm pleased that you like it!
There is a certain elegance in machinery at work.

Best Wishes
Peter

Ohh thank you so much for your wonderful explanations, my dear Peter!!
I am really happy for this

I am sure you were a succesful student at University!!
And especially at thermodynamics!

Love Füsun
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My Dear Füsun,

Thank you so much for your second visit!
I am sure I learned a lot at university, but not much in the lecture rooms!!!

Love Peter
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Hello Peter what a great shot of the action here .. it certainly looks to be working at speed as conveyed by the motion blur caught so well

Best wishes ... Steve

Thank you so much Steve,

I am so pleased that you like this. Once I had set it running I did take a large number of pictures with different lighting and exposure times to try and convey the idea of movement. This was the one we liked the best. I think better than a simple static picture.

Best Wishes
Peter

Lovely photo of this great piece of craft engine Peter. I used to see a few versions of mini steam beam engines but I presumed this was electric, until I read the comments above. This shot certainly conveys movement and power but sadly without the tell-tale steam clouds lacks that certain nostalgia that you so well portray in your train steam shots. That being said, I still love it. Well done my friend.
Herb

Hi Herb,

Thank you so much for your visit, and well considered words. Of course there are many working models of beam engines which guys have made, just do an internet search for them! I am very pleased that you like this one!
I too had thought about exhaust steam, and poetic licence (ie photoshop!), but one of the key features of James Watt's engine was that the exhaust steam was condensed back to water, and the vacuum so created pulled one side of the piston, while steam pressure pushed the other side. (This was a development from the Newcomen engine which condensed in the cylinder). Hence no great clouds of steam.
It is only in later years when steam locomotives were introduced that the blast pipe and chimney were invented. At this time boiler pressures were higher (along with steam temperatures) and so it was possible to directly exhaust steam to the air. Of course this lacked thermal efficiency, since the sink temperature is higher, but saves a lot of weight of a separate condenser.

But to make a dramatic picture you are right!! Let me think what I can do about this!!

Best Wishes
Peter

PS, a 'Popular science' explanation can be found here. science.howstuffworks.com/steam-technology3.htm

Many thanks for clarifying the mechanics of these things to me Peter. In truth it was probably the very popular mini steam engines and steam rollers that I saw the most. I remember the very loud hissing and clouds of steam from them and always wished that I too could own such a device. I had not really thought about the condensed exhaust system used with these and so I thank you for the links and enlightening that you have kindly provided. I really should have know about such things as I possess a fine library of technical books all about steam trains.
Regards, Herb

Very interesting Peter.