On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 02:41:54 GMT, Charles Morrill
wrote:

A couple thoughts:

Best simple design I've seen was right at the beginning of "The
Boy Mechanic" Vol. 1 of 19 aught something... Can't locate that
particular pile of books at the moment...
It consists of a twin cylinder affair that looks a lot like a two
stroke gas engine and would - I think - later come to be known as a
"uniflow" set up. No crossheads here, just connecting rods and wrist
pins in long pistons turned to fit bored out pipes. No eccentrics
either, just a couple of cams with spring loaded followers. Real easy
to make. The followers lift the conical valves in the steam chest to
admit steam. The cylinders have large ports in their sides to let the
steam out at the bottom of their travel, just like a two-stroke gas
engine. Think flathead two stroke and you'll have the flavor of it. I
think Lindsay has reprinted the Boy Mechanic if I'm not mistaken.
The real trick would be getting some kind of decent boiler. I'd
opt for a dry back scotch marine sort of thing because maybe you
wouldn't need a whole lot of staybolts and I'm betting that in the post
nuke world tubes might still be relatively easy to find.
I suppose it really does depend on what you'd find...Maybe if you
scored a bunch of wire and lots of small tubes you would find yourself
constructing a simple verticle fire tube affair wound about with wire
like the Stanley steamer boilers. You might get yourself quite a few
pounds of pressure that way.
I'd make boiler feed pumps and check valves using the steel balls
from larger trashed ball bearings.
Ever read John Goffe's Mill (sp?) or "The Story of a Stanley
Steamer" by George Woodberry?
Probably in the event of a real mess, I'd attempt to get back to
my friends in Northern New Hampshire who have a lot of steam stuff
hanging around. There are still a number of reciprocating steam plants
hanging around up that way.
No, that's unrealistic, last thing you could do would be to
travel...

Not necessarily, if your location becomes unsafe, or the resources are
limited. The idea of course is to be able to run "stuff" after a
disaster occurs, weeks or months after, if the utilities are not going
to come back on anytime soon, or for those whom live off the grid.

I strongly suspect that those on the edges of the once industrial
areas of the country would fare better. It's surprising what doesn't
exist here in Virginia and what remains in northern New Hampshire and
Maine.
Another book/ pamphlet around here that might come in handy was
written by the father of a blacksmith friend. He was an engineer who
worked for the U.N. and taught folks in Africa how to make simple
tools and such from the materials you might find in a railroad
scrapyard.
It's interesting that you ask this question as I've often thought
about it...My mom grew up in Hartford Connecticut and had friends
burned in the great circus fire there. "Always, always, always, look
for the exits," she still says.

Thats all real survivalists do..is have an exit or the proper tool
handy. Like seatbelts, no one hopes they every get used.
On the other hand, there are an increasing number of people whom have
bugged out of the rat race and are now living in remote locations as
self sufficently as possible. Living off the grid presents some
problems, largely the lack of electical or mechanical power to do
work.

Gunner

"What do you call someone in possesion of all the facts? Paranoid.-William Burroughs