On Sat, 15 Oct 2011 21:53:49 -0500, Sunworshipper wrote:

On Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:54:16 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:02:10 -0400, dav1936531 wrote:

Guy builds a steam powered whatever it is.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a15_1318636799

Very useful for.....well....nothing as far as I can tell, with the
exception that it could make some personal injury attorney alot of
money.

Of course, if you looked and thought while you were looking, you'd see
that it's an antique four-stroke gas engine (started by another antique
four-stroke gas engine). Probably all of 10 horsepower, but it's a
_steady_ 10 horsepower.

The only steam involved is cooling the engines.

I believe it is a hit an miss. Only fires when the fly wheel slows
down, would be great around here with the frequent power outages.

They both are. They generally work by having the governor hold the
exhaust valve open.

They made crappy prime movers for electrical generation, because the
speed is regulated within a range, but is by no means completely steady.
They'd be quite good in these degenerate times when generators don't need
to be synchronous with the power demands placed upon them. Inverters,
like all electronics, are inventions of the devil.

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com