The Lost Art of Automotive Tinkering - Cars as Disposable Appliances

[Teancum]

Kensurplus,

I have been thinking about this fusion development and then also about the "magic water carburator" that George was mocking,

Yesterday, I just ran a steam engine for the first time that I have been building for the past 4 years. It still needs more adjustments and refining, but it ran without difficulty for several minutes.

I wonder who is going to be better prepared for what comes,

You and your fanciful water carburetor, or me and a working steam engine?

Regards,

George Clay

My dad was building a steam engine to put in a car back when I was a young kid. The pistons were on rollers that tracked on an eccentric track. He never did finnish it though. I had the most fun out of stoking the firebox and building up steam in the pressure tank to blow the home-made train whistle. You could hear that train whistle echo for miles around B-) I often wondered what the neighbors thought since there wasnt a train track for a hundred miles. :-s

Well, if it comes down to the difficulty of build, I think I will win by a country mile. With your steam engine (by the way con-grats on that monumental achievement) it is all or nothing. With an HHO electrolyzer, it can start off as a boost only device for existing gas, diesel, natgas, propane, etc engines and work up from there to full self generated fueling. Just depends on each individual's motivation, commitment, finances, and courage.

[gclayjr]

kensurplus,

Well, if it comes down to the difficulty of build, I think I will win by a country mile. With your steam engine (by the way con-grats on that monumental achievement) it is all or nothing

Thank you for the kind sentiment. I don't want to over sell my achievement. I built a steam engine designed for a small boat or ketch. It can probably develop about 3 hp. Because of the slow speed and high torque, I guess it could run a small vehicle, although I would see it more useful for generating electricity or pumping water. I built it from stock steel, and iron rather than castings, which did make the build more difficult, but also more satisfying. I will still be tweeking it for awhile. Machining a 1 off engine, by hobbyists, often makes it so that to get it fully "right", some things will have to be adjusted.

Also, as a member of a steam engine and traction engine historical society, I do have access to a boiler, but if I want to use this myself at home, I will still have to build the boiler.

Regards,

George Clay

PS, at whatever event they have at the Rough and Tumble Historical society

http://www.roughandtumble.org/ it is a tradition that at noon, all steam engines blow their whistle. You think that 1 steam whistle is loud, try dozens of them all at once

[Teancum]

This is not as good of quality as I would have preferred, but it is related here.

[Teancum]

From here:viewtopic.php?f=20&t=29754&start=16620

Artificial intelligence to leave 'third of population' unemployed with self-driving cars | Daily Star

It is coming faster than many of us realize. Utah is planning for it, spending money on it, and paying people to figure out driverless busses and cars. I think it could be here in less than three years.

The century of freedom of movement is over.

You would think that there would always be tow-trucks and snow-plows that would have hands on drivers and thus still people that know how these machines work.