Publisher's Synopsis
The primary purpose of this book is education - for the student, the designer, and the individual whose interest and the aim is to design and build his propulsion system using steam energy. The material selected for the presentation has been carefully prepared to give the reader a basic understanding of the requirements for the new steam-power propulsion design.Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." It is hoped that the following innovative design concept will be that mousetrap.A new propulsion system design was created for reform. The design concept included an iterative process which proceeded through several steps. The results where evaluated, and then returned to an earlier phase of the procedure. Several abstract models of the system were evaluated with mathematical analysis so that one can be found to simulate the physical system very well. The propulsion system used in this book includes a powerful two-cylinder cross-compound reciprocating engine similar to the Stanley Motor Carriage engines. Also, heat exchangers were sized using NASA (TN D-5813) method of calculations for a hypothetical 4000 lb vehicle load with a 175 hp (290 hp) engine. The design trend was to provide an affordable and producible system with easy to build features with common parts and materials. An F150-F250 Ford pickup chassis with rear-wheel differential was selected for system integration.It is my sincere hope and desire that this text will help if only in a minute way, to stimulate the student or "design-build" enthusiast to emerge with even one facet of design improvement and simplification which will add its impact to progress in steam-power design.You are probably aware that the steam automobile is not new. Maybe you have seen Jay Leno driving some of his steam cars around in Southern California. The late Ted Pritchard converted 1963 Ford Falcon to steam power in Australia. In November 1972 the car was flown to LA for demonstrations to the big motor companies. They were quite impressed with the small car with green stripes. Howard Hughes "tooled" around with steam-powered cars and a couple of years back, a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle was converted to steam power by the nuclear scientist.The development cost for any steam-power conversion project may sore. Ted Pritchard said his cost was $150,000 (in 1970 dollars). Billionaire, Howard Hughes had to abandon his project. The key to success is found in Producibility, Engineering, and Planning (PEP). The automobile industry invested millions of man-hours and billion dollars to develop their IC engine.The cost of materials and labor shall vary from place to place. Therefore, nothing can be said in an absolute sense concerning cost. However, the cost is expected to be substantially lower than the typical internal combustion engine rebuilt costs. Furthermore, to keep the cost down, the design concept embraced standard sizes and large tolerances.Engineering and producibility factors cover strength, reliability, thermal considerations, corrosion, wear, friction, cost, safety, weight, noise, styling shape, size, stiffness, and types of lubrication.What is new in this book is the two-cylinder cross-compound double-acting reciprocating engine using common parts and material to be EASILY integrated onto a Ford chassis with a rear differential as an alternative to the internal combustion engine. The engine shall provide more power, better reliability with fewer moving parts, is a compact size, is quieter with no explosions, with less vibration and zero-carbon admissions. In other words, No pollution. For reference, the labor leader in the House of Commons on July 17, 2019, said in Questions to the Prime Minister, every year 40,000 people die in England from air pollution. He said the government won't meet their net-zero admissions target until 2099. Roughly, 3.2 million deaths. Sad but true
