This machine was sitting at a thrift shop, a handwritten note suggested it was a steam engine. Hmmm. two single action cylinders of different diameters, no valve gear at all.
It's almost certainly not a steam engine but possibly an homemade experimental heat engine of some sort? There is a propane burner in a rusty box (below) that fits around half of the larger cylinder, the other half of the cylinder is surrounded by a metal trough, maybe with cold water?
We applied a few pounds of air through the valve on the small cylinder and the flywheel turned a few degrees but no joy...
Any ideas?
13 comments:
Hit & Miss engine ? Mesmerising to watch in operation if that's what it is...
It sure seems like a steam engine of some sort. Could the large cylinder be the boiler and the spindly linkage operate some sort of steam valve at the boilers end? I don't understand what the water tank would do? Can we see inside of it?
It does look like a live steam engine to me, but I'm not sure about the steam routing into the cylinder. I would start by figuring out what that smaller connecting rod controls, and apply air upstream of that. If that doesn't help I would open up the cylinder and figure out how it works...it may be missing something.
I would also remind myself that it may never have worked.
Stirling engine?
Get back if it starts
That's what I thought, but with a more complicated heat source. D.
The "hopper" for water is just that, a tank of water around the cylinder... the only fitting there is the drain valve... The rusty box doesn't seem to used for water- unless it is to be welded to the cylinder... hard to say.
That's what we thought. It may have never worked or even completed. Another oddity is that the flywheel is weighted on one side, and does not seem to be a counterweight for the connecting rod and pin.
Sure looks like a gamma type Stirling hot air engine to me.
Jack from Illinois
Hot air was my first thought
The oiler with the tray, over the rear part of the connecting rod that I assume operates some sort of valve mechanism makes me think that part gets quite hot.
Agree.
The description of a gamma type Stirling hot air engine matchs what this looks like... We aren't done with this yet!
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