Steam engines were used as a drive engine in pumping stations, locomotives, on steam ships, tractors, steam cars mobiles and other vehicles. Steam engines contributed to the widespread commercial use of machines in enterprises and were the energy basis of the industrial revolution of the 18th century. Steam engines were later superseded by internal combustion engines, steam turbines, electric motors, and nuclear reactors, which are more efficient.
Steam engine in action
invention and development
The first known device powered by steam was described by Heron of Alexandria in the first century, the so-called "Heron's bath" or "aeolipil". The steam coming out tangentially from the nozzles fixed on the ball made the latter rotate. It is assumed that the transformation of steam into mechanical motion was known in Egypt during the period of Roman rule and was used in simple devices.
First industrial engines
None of the described devices has actually been used as a means of solving useful problems. The first steam engine used in production was the "fire engine", designed by the English military engineer Thomas Savery in 1698. Savery received a patent for his device in 1698. It was a reciprocating steam pump, and obviously not very efficient, since the heat of the steam was lost each time the container was cooled, and rather dangerous in operation, because due to the high pressure of the steam, the tanks and engine pipelines sometimes exploded. Since this device could be used both to turn the wheels of a water mill and to pump water out of mines, the inventor called it a "miner's friend."
Then the English blacksmith Thomas Newcomen in 1712 demonstrated his " naturally aspirated engine", which was the first steam engine for which there could be commercial demand. This was an improvement on Savery's steam engine, in which Newcomen substantially reduced the operating pressure of the steam. Newcomen may have been based on a description of Papin's experiments held by the Royal Society of London, to which he may have had access through a member of the society, Robert Hooke, who worked with Papin.
Diagram of the Newcomen steam engine.
– Steam is shown in purple, water in blue.
– Open valves are shown in green, closed valves in red
The first application of the Newcomen engine was to pump water from a deep mine. In the mine pump, the rocker was connected to a rod that descended into the mine to the pump chamber. The reciprocating movements of the thrust were transmitted to the piston of the pump, which supplied water to the top. valves early engines Newcomen opened and closed manually. The first improvement was the automation of the valves, which were driven by the machine itself. Legend tells that this improvement was made in 1713 by the boy Humphrey Potter, who had to open and close the valves; when he got tired of it, he tied the valve handles with ropes and went to play with the children. By 1715, a lever control system was already created, driven by the mechanism of the engine itself.
The first two-cylinder vacuum steam engine in Russia was designed by the mechanic I. I. Polzunov in 1763 and built in 1764 to drive blower bellows at the Barnaul Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories.
Humphrey Gainsborough built a model condenser steam engine in the 1760s. In 1769, Scottish mechanic James Watt (perhaps using Gainsborough's ideas) patented the first major improvements to Newcomen's vacuum engine, which made it much more fuel efficient. Watt's contribution was to separate the condensation phase of the vacuum engine in a separate chamber while the piston and cylinder were at steam temperature. Watt added a few more to the Newcomen engine important details: placed a piston inside the cylinder to expel steam and converted the reciprocating movement of the piston into the rotational movement of the drive wheel.
Based on these patents, Watt built a steam engine in Birmingham. By 1782, Watt's steam engine was more than 3 times as efficient as Newcomen's. The improvement in the efficiency of the Watt engine led to the use of steam power in industry. In addition, unlike the Newcomen engine, the Watt engine made it possible to transmit rotational motion, while in early models of steam engines the piston was connected to the rocker arm, and not directly to the connecting rod. This engine already had the main features of modern steam engines.
A further increase in efficiency was the use of high pressure steam (American Oliver Evans and Englishman Richard Trevithick). R. Trevithick successfully built high-pressure industrial single-stroke engines, known as "Cornish engines". They operated at 50 psi, or 345 kPa (3.405 atmospheres). However, with increasing pressure, there was also a greater danger of explosions in machines and boilers, which initially led to numerous accidents. From this point of view, the most important element of the high-pressure machine was the safety valve, which released excess pressure. Reliable and safe operation began only with the accumulation of experience and the standardization of procedures for the construction, operation and maintenance of equipment.
French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrated the first working self-propelled steam vehicle in 1769: the "fardier à vapeur" (steam cart). Perhaps his invention can be considered the first automobile. The self-propelled steam tractor turned out to be very useful as a mobile source of mechanical energy that set in motion other agricultural machines: threshers, presses, etc. In 1788, a steamboat built by John Fitch was already operating a regular service along the Delaware River between Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) and Burlington (state of New York). He lifted 30 passengers on board and went at a speed of 7-8 miles per hour. J. Fitch's steamboat was not commercially successful, as a good overland road competed with its route. In 1802, Scottish engineer William Symington built a competitive steamboat, and in 1807, American engineer Robert Fulton used a Watt steam engine to power the first commercially successful steamboat. On 21 February 1804, the first self-propelled railway steam locomotive, built by Richard Trevithick, was on display at the Penydarren ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.
Reciprocating steam engines
Reciprocating engines use steam power to move a piston in a sealed chamber or cylinder. Piston reciprocating action can be mechanically converted to linear motion piston pumps or in rotational motion to drive the rotating parts of machine tools or vehicle wheels.
vacuum machines
Early steam engines were called at first "fire engines", and also "atmospheric" or "condensing" Watt engines. They worked on the vacuum principle and are therefore also known as " vacuum motors". Such machines worked to drive piston pumps, in any case, there is no evidence that they were used for other purposes. During the operation of a vacuum-type steam engine at the beginning of the steam cycle low pressure is admitted into the working chamber or cylinder. The inlet valve then closes and the steam cools and condenses. In a Newcomen engine, the cooling water is sprayed directly into the cylinder and the condensate escapes into a condensate collector. This creates a vacuum in the cylinder. Atmospheric pressure at the top of the cylinder presses on the piston, and causes it to move down, that is, the power stroke.
Constant cooling and reheating of the working cylinder of the machine was very wasteful and inefficient, however, these steam engines allowed pumping water from a greater depth than was possible before their appearance. A version of the steam engine appeared in the year, created by Watt in collaboration with Matthew Boulton, the main innovation of which was the removal of the condensation process in a special separate chamber (condenser). This chamber was placed in a cold water bath and connected to the cylinder by a tube closed by a valve. A special small vacuum pump (a prototype of a condensate pump) was attached to the condensation chamber, driven by a rocker and used to remove condensate from the condenser. The resulting hot water was supplied by a special pump (the prototype of the feed pump) back to the boiler. Another radical innovation was the closure of the upper end of the working cylinder, at the top of which was now low-pressure steam. The same steam was present in the double jacket of the cylinder, maintaining its constant temperature. During the upward movement of the piston, this steam was transferred through special tubes to the lower part of the cylinder in order to be condensed during the next stroke. The machine, in fact, ceased to be "atmospheric", and its power now depended on the pressure difference between low-pressure steam and the vacuum that could be obtained. In the Newcomen steam engine, the piston was lubricated with a small amount of water poured on top of it, in Watt's engine this became impossible, since steam was now in the upper part of the cylinder, it was necessary to switch to lubrication with a mixture of grease and oil. The same grease was used in the cylinder rod stuffing box.
Vacuum steam engines, despite the obvious limitations of their efficiency, were relatively safe, using low pressure steam, which was quite consistent with the general low level of 18th century boiler technology. The power of the machine was limited by low steam pressure, cylinder size, the rate of fuel combustion and water evaporation in the boiler, and the size of the condenser. The maximum theoretical efficiency was limited by the relatively small temperature difference on either side of the piston; this made vacuum machines intended for industrial use too large and expensive.
Compression
The outlet window of the steam engine cylinder closes a little before the piston reaches its extreme position, which leaves some exhaust steam in the cylinder. This means that there is a compression phase in the cycle of operation, which forms the so-called “vapor cushion”, which slows down the movement of the piston in its extreme positions. It also eliminates the sudden pressure drop at the very beginning of the intake phase when fresh steam enters the cylinder.
Advance
The described effect of the "steam cushion" is also enhanced by the fact that the intake of fresh steam into the cylinder begins somewhat earlier than the piston reaches the extreme position, that is, there is some advance of the intake. This advance is necessary so that before the piston starts its working stroke under the action of fresh steam, the steam would have time to fill the dead space that arose as a result of the previous phase, that is, the intake-exhaust channels and the volume of the cylinder not used for piston movement.
simple extension
A simple expansion assumes that the steam only works when it expands in the cylinder, and the exhaust steam is released directly into the atmosphere or enters a special condenser. The residual heat of the steam can then be used, for example, to heat a room or a vehicle, as well as to preheat the water entering the boiler.
Compound
During the expansion process in the cylinder of a high-pressure machine, the temperature of the steam drops in proportion to its expansion. Since there is no heat exchange (adiabatic process), it turns out that the steam enters the cylinder at a higher temperature than it leaves it. Such temperature fluctuations in the cylinder lead to a decrease in the efficiency of the process.
One of the methods of dealing with this temperature difference was proposed in 1804 by the English engineer Arthur Wolfe, who patented Wulff high-pressure compound steam engine. In this machine, high-temperature steam from the steam boiler entered the high-pressure cylinder, and then the steam exhausted in it at a lower temperature and pressure entered the low-pressure cylinder (or cylinders). This reduced the temperature drop in each cylinder, which generally reduced temperature losses and improved the overall coefficient useful action steam engine. The low-pressure steam had a larger volume, and therefore required a larger volume of the cylinder. Therefore, in compound machines, the low pressure cylinders had a larger diameter (and sometimes longer) than the high pressure cylinders.
This arrangement is also known as "double expansion" because the vapor expansion occurs in two stages. Sometimes one high-pressure cylinder was connected to two low-pressure cylinders, resulting in three approximately the same size cylinders. Such a scheme was easier to balance.
Two-cylinder compounding machines can be classified as:
- Cross compound- Cylinders are located side by side, their steam-conducting channels are crossed.
- Tandem compound- Cylinders are arranged in series and use one rod.
- Angle compound- The cylinders are at an angle to each other, usually 90 degrees, and operate on one crank.
After the 1880s, compound steam engines became widespread in manufacturing and transportation, and became virtually the only type used on steamboats. Their use on steam locomotives was not as widespread as they proved to be too complex, partly due to the difficult operating conditions of steam engines in rail transport. Although compound locomotives never became a mainstream phenomenon (especially in the UK, where they were very rare and not used at all after the 1930s), they gained some popularity in several countries.
Multiple expansion
Simplified diagram of a triple expansion steam engine.
High pressure steam (red) from the boiler passes through the machine, leaving the condenser at low pressure (blue).
The logical development of the compound scheme was the addition of additional expansion stages to it, which increased the efficiency of work. The result was a multiple expansion scheme known as triple or even quadruple expansion machines. Such steam engines used a series of cylinders double action, the volume of which increased with each stage. Sometimes, instead of increasing the volume of low pressure cylinders, an increase in their number was used, just as on some compound machines.
The image on the right shows a triple expansion steam engine in operation. Steam flows through the machine from left to right. The valve block of each cylinder is located to the left of the corresponding cylinder.
The appearance of this type of steam engines became especially relevant for the fleet, since the size and weight requirements for ship engines were not very strict, and most importantly, this scheme made it easy to use a condenser that returns the exhaust steam in the form of fresh water back to the boiler (use salty sea water to power the boilers was not possible). Ground-based steam engines usually did not experience problems with water supply and therefore could emit exhaust steam into the atmosphere. Therefore, such a scheme was less relevant for them, especially considering its complexity, size and weight. The dominance of multiple expansion steam engines ended only with the advent and widespread use of steam turbines. However, in modern steam turbines the same principle of dividing the flow into high, medium and low pressure cylinders is used.
Direct-flow steam engines
Once-through steam engines arose as a result of an attempt to overcome one drawback inherent in steam engines with traditional steam distribution. The fact is that the steam in an ordinary steam engine constantly changes its direction of movement, since the same window on each side of the cylinder is used for both inlet and outlet of steam. When the exhaust steam leaves the cylinder, it cools its walls and steam distribution channels. Fresh steam, accordingly, spends a certain part of the energy on heating them, which leads to a drop in efficiency. Once-through steam engines have an additional port, which is opened by a piston at the end of each phase, and through which the steam leaves the cylinder. This improves the efficiency of the machine as the steam moves in one direction and the temperature gradient of the cylinder walls remains more or less constant. Once-through machines with a single expansion show about the same efficiency as compound machines with conventional steam distribution. In addition, they can operate at higher speeds, and therefore, before the advent of steam turbines, they were often used to drive power generators that require high rotational speeds.
Once-through steam engines are either single or double acting.
Steam turbines
A steam turbine is a series of rotating disks fixed on a single axis, called the turbine rotor, and a series of fixed disks alternating with them, fixed on a base, called the stator. The rotor disks have blades on the outer side, steam is supplied to these blades and turns the disks. The stator discs have similar blades set at opposite angles, which serve to redirect the steam flow to the following rotor discs. Each rotor disc and its corresponding stator disc is called a turbine stage. The number and size of the stages of each turbine are selected in such a way as to maximize the useful energy of the steam of the speed and pressure that is supplied to it. The exhaust steam leaving the turbine enters the condenser. Turbines rotate with very high speed, and therefore, when transferring rotation to other equipment, special step-down transmissions are usually used. In addition, turbines cannot change their direction of rotation, and often require additional reverse mechanisms (sometimes additional reverse rotation stages are used).
Turbines convert steam energy directly into rotation and do not require additional mechanisms for converting reciprocating motion into rotation. In addition, turbines are more compact than reciprocating machines and have a constant force on the output shaft. Because turbines have more simple design they tend to require less maintenance.
Other types of steam engines
Application
Steam engines can be classified according to their application as follows:
Stationary machines
steam hammer
Steam engine in an old sugar factory, Cuba
Stationary steam engines can be divided into two types according to the mode of use:
- Variable duty machines such as rolling mills, steam winches and similar devices that must stop and change direction frequently.
- Power machines that rarely stop and do not have to change direction of rotation. These include power motors in power stations, as well as industrial motors used in factories, factories, and cable railways before the widespread use of electric traction. Engines low power used on ship models and in special devices.
The steam winch is essentially a stationary engine, but mounted on a base frame so that it can be moved around. It can be secured by a cable to the anchor and moved by its own thrust to a new location.
Transport vehicles
Steam engines were used to drive various types vehicles, including:
- Land vehicles:
- steam car
- steam tractor
- Steam excavator, and even
- Steam plane.
In Russia, the first operating steam locomotive was built by E. A. and M. E. Cherepanov at the Nizhny Tagil plant in 1834 to transport ore. He developed a speed of 13 miles per hour and carried more than 200 pounds (3.2 tons) of cargo. The length of the first railway was 850 m.
Advantages of steam engines
The main advantage of steam engines is that they can use almost any heat source to convert it into mechanical work. This distinguishes them from engines internal combustion, each type of which requires the use of a certain type of fuel. This advantage is most noticeable when using nuclear energy, since a nuclear reactor is not able to generate mechanical energy, but only heat, which is used to generate steam that drives steam engines (usually steam turbines). In addition, there are other sources of heat that cannot be used in internal combustion engines, such as solar energy. An interesting direction is the use of the energy of the temperature difference of the World Ocean at different depths.
Other types of engines also have similar properties. external combustion, such as the Stirling engine, which can provide highly high efficiency, but have significantly greater weight and dimensions than modern types of steam engines.
Steam locomotives perform well at high altitudes, since their efficiency does not drop due to low atmospheric pressure. Steam locomotives are still used in the mountainous regions of Latin America, despite the fact that in the lowlands they have long been replaced by more modern types of locomotives.
In Switzerland (Brienz Rothhorn) and Austria (Schafberg Bahn), new steam locomotives using dry steam have proved their worth. This type of steam locomotive was developed from the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM)'s models, with many modern improvements such as the use of roller bearings, modern thermal insulation, combustion of light oil fractions as fuel, improved steam pipelines, etc. As a result, these locomotives have 60% lower fuel consumption and significantly lower maintenance requirements. The economic qualities of such locomotives are comparable to modern diesel and electric locomotives.
In addition, steam locomotives are significantly lighter than diesel and electric locomotives, which is especially true for mountain railways. A feature of steam engines is that they do not need a transmission, transferring power directly to the wheels.
Efficiency
The coefficient of performance (COP) of a heat engine can be defined as the ratio of useful mechanical work to the spent amount of heat contained in the fuel. The rest of the energy is released into the environment in the form of heat. The efficiency of the heat engine is
Cugno's first steam car
France. Steam car racing
England. After a thousand miles
USA. Steam trucks on the streets of Denver
1925−1935 passenger steam "Doblbesler" with a two-cylinder double expansion steam engine with a capacity of 80 hp (1925−1932).
Touring car with a 120 hp four-cylinder steam engine. developed a maximum speed of 150 km / h.
1953 Marlow (England). Farmer Arthur Napper is heading on a steam tractor to the competition of tractor drivers
Mining steam truck at work
In 1769, a bizarre self-propelled wagon appeared on the streets of Paris, driven by its creator, artillery engineer Nicholas Joseph Cugno. The heart of the design was a bizarre steam engine that worked on the principle of a medical can - a copper cylinder was filled with steam, after which water was injected, and the resulting vacuum pulled the piston. Despite the archaic design, the wagon developed a decent speed, as evidenced by the end of the first race in history: the driver lost control and crashed into the wall.
One hundred years later steam cars with might and main rushed along the city streets, developing decent speeds even by today's standards.
In January 1906, Fred Mariotte, on a steam engine with the surprisingly modest name "Rocket", built by the Stanley Brothers, for the first time in the world overcame the 200-kilometer mark, reaching a speed of 205.4 km / h. "Rocket" overtook not only any car of that time, but even an airplane. The following year, the illustrious racer crashed - again on a steam car. As the investigation showed, at a speed of 240 km / h. Remember, it was 1907. By the beginning of the 20th century, tens of thousands of steam cars, mostly trucks, were already traveling on the roads. They differed from their gasoline counterparts in their extreme durability and reliability and could work on everything that burns - coal, wood, straw. These machines had a low speed (up to 50 km / h), they took on board hundreds of liters of water and released steam into the atmosphere. In Europe, steam cars lasted until the start of World War II and were mass-produced in Brazil back in the 1950s. However, the wonderful machines also had serious drawbacks: after solid fuel, a lot of ash and slag remains, in its smoke
contains soot and sulfur, which is absolutely unacceptable for city streets. But not even soot put an end to such cars. The fact is that the kindling of a solid fuel boiler lasted about two hours. Therefore, they tried not to extinguish them at all - at night the boiler was connected to a building that needed heat, and in the morning after 10-15 minutes the car was ready to hit the road. Railway steam locomotives were used similarly - for heating small villages.
car on alcohol
An alternative was a steam car running on liquid fuel: gasoline, kerosene and alcohol. It would seem, why use a steam boiler if liquid fuel burns perfectly in an internal combustion engine (ICE)?
But the engineers of that time reasoned differently. It seemed to many of them that the internal combustion engine was not suitable for transport: it cannot be started without opening the transmission, it is enough to slow it down, and it stalls. The internal combustion engine does not develop sufficient traction over the entire speed range, and it has to be supplemented with a gearbox. Now look at the steam engine. It has the ability to automatically adapt to road conditions. If the resistance to movement increases, it slows down the rotation and increases the torque. If the resistance to movement decreases, it rotates faster and faster.
Let's remember the steam locomotive. The piston of his steam engine was connected by a connecting rod directly to the wheels. Clutch and gearbox were not in sight. By simply supplying steam to the cylinder, steam locomotives set off thousand-ton trains, gradually increasing their speed, sometimes under two hundred kilometers. And all this was done without any intermediate elements by the simplest (when compared with internal combustion engines) engine.
Therefore, the engineers preferred to make a lightweight compact steam generator and get by with just one steam engine, without resorting to a gearbox and clutch.
The first liquid-fueled steam cars started moving in just 23 minutes. They released steam into the atmosphere, and they needed about 30 liters of gasoline and more than 70 liters of water per 100 kilometers. It was this engine that stood on the champion "Rocket".
car for millionaires
In 1935, at the Moscow Automobile Plant. Stalin (now ZIL) a car appeared upper class with a mahogany body on a Packard chassis made of chromium-nickel steel. This car, made by the American company Besler under license from the Doble company in 1924, was a steam car. Under its hood there was a steam generator and two (one after the other) radiators. On the rear axle was a small steam engine, made in a single block with a differential. There was no clutch, gearbox and driveshaft on the car. The engine was controlled by a steam pedal. Occasionally, it was necessary to change the cut-off - the phase of stopping the intake of steam into the cylinder. The usual turn of the ignition key - and after 45 seconds the car moves off. A couple more minutes - and he is ready to start accelerating to a speed of 150 km / h with an acceleration of 2.7 m / s2.
Riding a steam car is a pleasure. It moves silently and smoothly. The same Doble-Besler continued to be tested after the war. Here is what the test engineer of the car A.N. Malinin.
In the automotive industry, test benches with running drums are widely used. At such a stand, the car is mounted with driving wheels on special drums that imitate the road: the engine is running, the wheels are spinning, the “road” is moving, and the car is standing still.
And then one day, Malinin and Professor Chudakov (a world-famous figure in the field of automobile theory) got into the cabin of a steam engine standing on such a stand. They sat down and sat in complete silence. Only the professor presses the buttons and glances at the instruments. The engineer got bored and asked: "Isn't it time to go?" “And we have been going for a long time,” the professor replies. The speedometer showed 20 km / h - a decent value for those times.
According to our concepts, the streets were deserted then. But in order to hear the noise of a steam car, even on such a street, you had to put your ear to the exhaust pipe of the steam generator. Here, too, an explanation is required. The Doble-Besler car engine worked in a closed cycle with steam condensation.
70 liters of water was enough for a 500 km drive. It was necessary to let off steam on the street only in rare cases. Therefore, with well-made mechanisms in the car, nothing could make any noise, and only the noise of the flame could be heard from the steam generator.
Ride on anything that's on fire
Combustion of fuel in the cylinder of an internal combustion engine (ICE) proceeds with a constantly changing amount of oxygen and temperature, which leads to the formation of a huge amount of toxic substances. A car for an hour of work produces enough of them for the death of more than one person.
In the burner of the steam generator, all processes proceed at constant and best conditions, therefore, the exhaust toxicity of a steam car is hundreds of times lower than that of a car with an internal combustion engine. Simply put, the combustion of fuel in a steam generator is a long continuous process, like in a kitchen gas burner. Almost all reactions have time to complete in it, which cannot be done in the internal combustion engine cylinder.
The most important indicator of a car is fuel consumption. "Dobl-Besler" release in 1924 with a mass of 2200 kg on average spent 18 liters of gasoline per 100 km. It was quite small for that time and remained acceptable for cars of this mass for 40 years. Note that any liquid fuel could burn in the burner of the steam generator - gasoline, kerosene, alcohol, vegetable oil, fuel oil ... Although the task of reducing the cost or saving fuel in this case was not set. The car was intended for millionaires.
The heir to the moonshine still
The most important element of the car is the steam generator. It was developed by American inventors the Doble brothers back in 1914 and was produced in Detroit. It consisted of 10 flat coils connected in series in a case made of heat-resistant steel. The walls of the case were also twined with tubes of water. Cold water from the condenser, using a small pump, was first supplied to a tube wrapped around the walls of the case, where it was slightly heated. This reduced heat loss through the walls. And then it entered the coils, where it boiled and turned into superheated steam with a temperature of 4500C and a pressure of 120 atmospheres. Such steam parameters for that time were considered extremely high. According to the theory, as the temperature and pressure of steam increase, the efficiency of a steam engine increases. Taking advantage of this, the Doble brothers made it very economical and light. She had two cylinders, and each of them was twin. Steam was first supplied to the upper part of a small diameter, where it expanded and did work. After that, he entered the lower part, which had a large diameter and volume, where he performed additional work. The principle of double expansion was especially useful when driving around the city. Here, often (for example, at the moment of acceleration or starting off), large portions of steam were supplied to the car, which would not be able to give up all their energy, expanding once.
The exhaust steam gave up its heat to the cold water that entered the steam generator, and only after that it entered the condenser, where it turned into water. Water was supplied to the steam generator in portions sufficient only to complete one or two strokes of the steam engine piston. Therefore, the steam generator contained only a few tens of grams of water at a time, and this made it absolutely explosion-proof. When the tube broke, steam flowed into the furnace in a stream and the automation turned off the burner. Similar case occurred only once - after a run of more than 200 thousand kilometers. They found out about this only because the car stopped starting. The repair lasted no more than an hour and was reduced to the replacement of the coil.
Where did they go
The question arises: if steam cars are so good, then why haven't they supplanted cars with internal combustion engines? A steam engine, saturated with automation, with many auxiliary units, at the beginning of the 20th century was more complicated and more expensive than an internal combustion engine, and at the same time had a lower efficiency. In addition, it took up quite a lot of space - primarily because of the need to have a separate water tank. No one limited the toxicity of the exhaust in those days. And the steam engine lost.
Since then, the internal combustion engine has become much more complicated, overgrown with electronics, and a special system is used to reduce the toxicity of its exhaust. Transmissions have also become complex. So it is not known what we would drive now if environmental requirements appeared half a century earlier.
It began its expansion at the beginning of the 19th century. And already at that time, not only large units for industrial purposes were being built, but also decorative ones. Most of their customers were rich nobles who wanted to amuse themselves and their kids. After steam engines were firmly established in the life of society, decorative engines began to be used in universities and schools as educational models.
Steam engines of today
At the beginning of the 20th century, the relevance of steam engines began to decline. One of the few companies that continued to produce decorative mini-engines was the British company Mamod, which allows you to purchase a sample of such equipment even today. But the cost of such steam engines easily exceeds two hundred pounds, which is not so little for a trinket for a couple of evenings. Moreover, for those who like to assemble all kinds of mechanisms on their own, it is much more interesting to create a simple steam engine with their own hands.
Very simple. The fire heats the cauldron of water. Under the action of temperature, the water turns into steam, which pushes the piston. As long as there is water in the tank, the flywheel connected to the piston will rotate. This is the standard layout of a steam engine. But you can assemble a model and a completely different configuration.
Well, let's move on from the theoretical part to more exciting things. If you are interested in doing something with your own hands, and you are surprised by such exotic machines, then this article is just for you, in it we will be happy to tell you about the various ways to assemble a steam engine with your own hands. At the same time, the very process of creating a mechanism gives joy no less than its launch.
Method 1: DIY mini steam engine
So, let's begin. Let's assemble the simplest steam engine with our own hands. Drawings, complex tools and special knowledge are not needed.
To begin with, we take from under any drink. Cut off the bottom third. Since as a result we get sharp edges, they must be bent inward with pliers. We do this carefully so as not to cut ourselves. Since most aluminum cans have a concave bottom, it needs to be leveled. It is enough to firmly press it with your finger to some hard surface.
At a distance of 1.5 cm from the upper edge of the resulting "glass" it is necessary to make two holes opposite each other. It is advisable to use a hole punch for this, since it is necessary that they turn out to be at least 3 mm in diameter. At the bottom of the jar we put a decorative candle. Now we take the usual table foil, wrinkle it, and then wrap our mini-burner on all sides.
Mini nozzles
Next, you need to take a piece of copper tube 15-20 cm long. It is important that it is hollow inside, as this will be our main mechanism for setting the structure in motion. central part the tubes are wrapped around the pencil 2 or 3 times, so that a small spiral is obtained.
Now you need to place this element so that the curved place is placed directly above the candle wick. To do this, we give the tube the shape of the letter "M". At the same time, we display the sections that go down through the holes made in the bank. Thus, the copper tube is rigidly fixed above the wick, and its edges are a kind of nozzles. In order for the structure to rotate, it is necessary to bend the opposite ends of the "M-element" by 90 degrees in different sides. The design of the steam engine is ready.
Engine starting
The jar is placed in a container with water. In this case, it is necessary that the edges of the tube are under its surface. If the nozzles are not long enough, then you can add a small weight to the bottom of the can. But be careful not to sink the entire engine.
Now you need to fill the tube with water. To do this, you can lower one edge into the water, and the second draw in air as if through a tube. We lower the jar into the water. We light the wick of the candle. After some time, the water in the spiral will turn into steam, which, under pressure, will fly out of opposite ends of the nozzles. The jar will begin to rotate in the container quickly enough. This is how we got a do-it-yourself steam engine. As you can see, everything is simple.
Steam engine model for adults
Now let's complicate the task. Let's assemble a more serious steam engine with our own hands. First you need to take a can of paint. You need to make sure that it is absolutely clean. On the wall, 2-3 cm from the bottom, we cut out a rectangle with dimensions of 15 x 5 cm. The long side is placed parallel to the bottom of the jar. From the metal mesh we cut out a piece with an area of 12 x 24 cm. From both ends of the long side we measure 6 cm. We bend these sections at an angle of 90 degrees. We get a small “platform table” with an area of 12 x 12 cm with legs of 6 cm. We install the resulting structure on the bottom of the can.
Several holes must be made around the perimeter of the lid and placed in a semicircle along one half of the lid. It is desirable that the holes have a diameter of about 1 cm. This is necessary in order to ensure proper ventilation. inner space. A steam engine will not work well if there is not enough air at the source of the fire.
main element
We make a spiral from a copper tube. You need about 6 meters of 1/4-inch (0.64 cm) soft copper tubing. We measure 30 cm from one end. Starting from this point, it is necessary to make five turns of a spiral with a diameter of 12 cm each. The rest of the pipe is bent into 15 rings with a diameter of 8 cm. Thus, 20 cm of free tube should remain at the other end.
Both leads are passed through the vent holes in the lid of the jar. If it turns out that the length of the straight section is not enough for this, then one turn of the spiral can be unbent. Coal is placed on a pre-installed platform. In this case, the spiral should be placed just above this site. Coal is carefully laid out between its turns. Now the bank can be closed. As a result, we got a firebox that will power the engine. The steam engine is almost done with his own hands. Left a little.
Water tank
Now you need to take another can of paint, but of a smaller size. A hole with a diameter of 1 cm is drilled in the center of its lid. Two more holes are made on the side of the jar - one almost at the bottom, the second - higher, at the lid itself.
They take two crusts, in the center of which a hole is made from the diameters of the copper tube. 25 cm of plastic pipe are inserted into one crust, 10 cm into the other, so that their edge barely peeks out of the corks. A crust with a long tube is inserted into the lower hole of a small jar, and a shorter tube into the upper hole. We place the smaller can on top of the large can of paint so that the hole at the bottom is on the opposite side of the ventilation passages of the large can.
Result
The result should be the following design. Water is poured into a small jar, which flows through a hole in the bottom into a copper tube. A fire is kindled under the spiral, which heats the copper container. Hot steam rises up the tube.
In order for the mechanism to be complete, it is necessary to attach to upper end copper tube piston and flywheel. As a result, the thermal energy of combustion will be converted into mechanical forces of wheel rotation. There is a huge amount various schemes to create such an external combustion engine, but in all of them two elements are always involved - fire and water.
In addition to this design, you can assemble a steam one, but this is material for a completely separate article.
Doble Model F-34 Sedan with Buick 60 body
If not for inventor Abner Doble's unbridled pursuit of perfection, we might still be riding silent steam cars today.
In the twentieth century, steam cars quickly lost their positions under the pressure of cars with internal combustion engines (ICE). Steam engines had less thermal efficiency and most of the energy was simply thrown into the atmosphere. And besides, they needed to be heated up to half an hour before starting the movement in order to dilute the vapors and raise the pressure to the required level.
But there are no rules without exceptions - at the end of the era of steam engines appeared unique car Doble Model E, unique in its characteristics. This car accelerated from zero to 120 km / h in just 10 seconds, and at a cruising speed of 130 km / h it moved almost silently.
Cars with a revolutionary steam engine were advertised as The Magnificent Doble - "Magnificent Doble".
Abner (in Russian Avenir) Doble was born into a family of hereditary engineers, his father, William Ashton Doble, was a co-inventor of a bucket water turbine, and his grandfather, also named Abner, became the founder of The Abner Doble Company, which began to produce mining equipment during the Golden Age. the fevers that swept California, after the heat of the search for nuggets passed, Abner Senior's firm began to build streetcars for San Francisco.
Abner, born in 1890, was the eldest of the brothers when he was 16, along with younger brothers John Ashton (1892), William Ashton Jr. (1894) and Warren Jess (1898) and built his car from the remains of a damaged White steam engine, on a chassis they installed an engine of their own design on this machine, although the homemade product turned out to be not reliable.
The brothers' first car. Photo taken in 1912 Warren and William sitting in a car
Abner graduated from high school in 1909 and entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1910. While studying there, he decided to visit the nearby factory of Stanley Steamer, which was the leader in the steam car market in the United States. Abner visits the factory and begins to tell Francis Stanley about his condensation system, which would increase the range of the machine. However, the steam car manufacturer was angered by this student who allowed himself the audacity to teach the dock how to build steam cars, and as a result, the young man was thrown out the door. Abner, after the first semester, drops out and, together with John, who was more brainy in the subject of steam engines, open their own workshop in the city of Waltham, where, four years later, a steam car appears on the American Underslung chassis, which they called Doble Model A. The boiler of the car was taken from Stanley Steamer, and the engine was of his own design, on it Aber used the same steam cooling system equipped with a thermostat, which he told Stanley about, as a result, the car could cover all 320 km in one refueling of the boiler.
Doble Model A Touring
Having built a car, the brothers go to Newton, where the Stanley brothers' factory is located, they begin to drive back and forth in their car in front of the company building, intrigued Stanley brothers run out into the street to see what kind of car it is, which does not emit either exhaust gases or couple, to their surprise, they find at the wheel of the same arrogant who once came to teach them.
The design of the car looked like this: under the long hood there was a firebox with a boiler, under the front seat there was a water tank, rear axle was integrated with a 2-cylinder engine with a volume of 5.1 liters, behind the axle was a tank with kerosene to heat the firebox. The engine torque was fed directly to the driving rear wheels, thus the car did not have a gearbox, clutch and cardan or chain drive, in order to turn on the reverse gear, you just had to press the pedal that switched the valve, and the motor began to rotate in the other direction. The generator was between rear axle and a kerosene tank, and it was covered with a heat-insulating screen so that the engine would not overheat this electromechanical unit.
The Dobley family had a White steam engine, a 1906 model. Abner, who was still in school at the time, and his younger brother John (who knows, maybe he was the technical genius in the family) used it for their first experiments. In the fall of 1910, Abner entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before finishing his first and only semester, he organized his own "experimental workshop" near the town of Waltham, Massachusetts. It was there that over the next four years he designed and built his second steam engine, Model A, then the third - Model B. His family allocated money for creativity, and his younger brother again helped him in the construction. Together they rethought and in many ways redesigned every aspect of steam automotive industry. Now Abner became a serious inventor and registered the first patents - for a steam boiler regulator, for electric heating pre-burner, thermostat, fuel and water regulator for steam boilers. Over the next two decades, he accumulated 32 patents.
Doble testing lab with technicians and engine
In 1914, the brothers founded their own company Abner Doble Motor Vehicle Company, within which they build four more 25-horsepower Model A cars, for which they find buyers. In the same year, the next Doble Model B was built on the basis of the first car. It was a truly revolutionary car in the world of steam cars, which were slowly losing ground. The fact is that steam cars, which had to be prepared for movement within half an hour or an hour, had a power reserve of a maximum of 80 km, but now, having a water supply of 90 liters, the autonomy of the car has expanded to a mind-blowing 2000 km, i.e. almost 20 times!
The main innovation in the Model B was an improved capacitor. In previous models of steam cars, the same White, there was already a condenser in the form of a tubular radiator. The steam expelled from the engine was turned into water again in the radiator, thereby increasing the non-stop mileage of the car. However, the mileage still did not exceed 150 km, and the condenser quickly clogged with thick engine oil, which was supplied to lubricate the cylinder and then flew out along with the steam. In the Model B condenser, Doble used a honeycomb, or cellular, radiator. Its cooling area turned out to be six times larger than that of White. In addition, a lighter oil was used to lubricate the cylinder - this oil no longer clogged the honeycomb grid. Now the mileage was one and a half to two thousand kilometers at one gas station in 90 liters of water.
The Model B was just a prototype, but it caught the attention of the entire automotive press in the country. “Remarkable dynamics, no smoke or steam at any speed thanks to an excellent condensation system,” the influential magazine The Automobile admired in April 1914.
In the summer of 1915, Doble drove the Model B to Detroit, the center of the American automobile industry, in the hope of securing financial support. After a year of negotiations, General Engineering was established with $200,000 in capital to build the steam car. In their new car, the Model C, or Doble-Detroit, Abner and John kept their design and focused on the problem of "breeding steam." It took a reasonably short time to light the fire in the firebox and generate enough steam. John, who is especially competent in electrical engineering, has abandoned the troublesome and unreliable fuss with matches and a blowtorch in favor of a system electric ignition, most recently developed for gasoline vehicles.
1916 Doble Model C- a promising but unsuccessful car
The system worked like this: kerosene under pressure passed through a carburetor-burner, a mixture rich in combustible fuel was ignited at a high temperature with a spark plug - just like in an internal combustion engine. An electrically driven multi-plate rotary compressor supplied air and blew the ignited mixture into the combustion chamber. A stable combustion was maintained there, a steam boiler was heated and steam was produced. The whole process was started from a single switch on the dashboard. For the first time there was a steam car that started as easily as gasoline. After starting, of course, you still had to wait until the boiler warmed up and the required pressure rose, but now it took less than 90 seconds to “dilute the vapors”. After the car started moving, another automatic device, which maintained the necessary steam pressure - for this, depending on the nature of the road and the required speed, the flame was periodically rekindled in the furnace.
The public eagerly awaited the start of sales throughout 1917. In just three months since the presentation at the National Auto Show in New York, 5390 prepaid orders have been received ...
1917 Doble Model C: 7-seat phaeton (top) and 4-seat speedster (bottom)
Now finally there was a steam car that could compete with ICE cars for ease of start and control, in January 1917 the brothers decide to exhibit the car at the New York National Auto Show, about 100 new cars were presented that year, but the Doble-Detroit Model C turned out to be the only steam premiere at this show. The car attracted the attention of the public, because. the advantages of the car were: quick warm up car to working condition, quietness in motion, ease of control, because for control, all that was needed was a steering wheel with a pressure regulator installed, which served as an accelerator, a foot brake, plus a reverse pedal. By April 1917, 5390 applications for this car had been made, deliveries were to begin in 1918, but having sold only 11 cars, Abner Doble states that due to the fact that the United States entered the First World War and the production of military equipment becomes at the forefront for the state, then he, having no steel, is forced to stop the production of his products. But in fact, the real reason for the cessation of production was design defects, in practice, starting off, the driver did not know where the car would go, forward or backward, the progressive motor itself was also not without childhood illnesses.
The car never went into circulation, and the company soon disappeared. Abner Doble attributed the collapse to a metal shortage that arose after the United States entered World War I in April 1917. This version does not stand up to criticism - despite the war, the American auto industry in 1917 reached a new milestone - 1.75 million cars a year. In fact, in daily operation, Doble-Detroit showed serious shortcomings. “The car is stupid and unreliable,” recalled a driver who managed to purchase one of the 11 cars built at that time. “When you start, you never know where the car will go, forward or backward.” The engine pulled in jerks, could not withstand the constant torque on the shaft. A mixture of oil and water in a tubular steam boiler could cause very dangerous foaming and coal deposits. Despite sophisticated automatic controls, maintaining the correct water level in the steam boiler during long-term operation was not so easy, and this entailed burnt pipes and other, more serious breakdowns.
Drawings from the Doble Detroit catalog published in January 1917. It is not known whether these machines were built or remained on paper. And here is what the engine designed for them looked like:
