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I will make one more post on this topic, Entropy455, and then I will simply stop. 1st point. The entire post above summarizes succinctly our knowledge about thermodynamics acquired in the last two centuries. My argument about "Boltzmann's demon" is a *thought experiment* (are you familiar with...

OrangeAlpine and MuellerNick are on the right path - Classically, there is no way to get past the "infinite energy asymptote" - but you can, for a small group of atoms (temperature is in any case a collective phenomenon) by employing quantum effects. Whereas Entropy455's implication that it is...

Orangealpine's last post is exactly correct. And Entropy, if you wish to speak with authority on a subject, then make sure you master it before you do, especially when calling it "hogwash". Absolute thermodynamic temperature is defined as follows through the Boltzmann distribution: N/N°...

Actually the mirror reverses your image front to back, and since this is not a transformation regularly observed in our perception of the universe, we interpret it as "if I would walk to where (s)he is standing and then turn around, I would be left-right reversed". Your left arm is still on the...

The theory underpinning this has been known for decades, but to achieve it in practice is forbidden by the laws of thermodynamics - and given the amount of effort/energy needed to create a minute amount of gas with negative temperature int he first place, that is not bound to change anytime soon :-)

This too has a "little note in its file" which no-one seemed to know much about ... if it weren't so sad it'd be laughable. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvyIrsZ7Zhs

Entropy455 - I have no beef with you or your assertions, but I felt I needed to react because what you write is intellectually unfairly presented. Of course there is enough energy density in solar power to do something useful. All fossil fuel was once biomass, and solar-energy derived. That we...

Looks like great progress, Chris. If you are happy with locomotive performance as it is, I would keep what you have, and forget about a ceramic burner. I forcibly redesigned my ceramic burner after the mixing tube started to look like Swiss cheese from experimenting with the jet location and...

Dear all, The picture server I used for the pictures in this thread has gone belly-up in the mean time. I tried editing my posts, but that does not appear to be possible - hence here a repost of the pictures that used to go in my messages earlier in this thread. propane data chart...

Research into the consequences of bike accidents (the Hurt report) contradicts this. The most often occuring injuries after head injuries are to the lower extremities. The order should be "helmet, stout boots, leather pants, gloves, leather jacket - but preferably the entire kit". Cris

It's a different way to transform to-and-fro motion into circular motion, isn't it ? It would be very cool to see it directly coupled to the piston rod of a double-acting steam engine. Providing timing for the valves would be a different problem entirely though ...

Not my engine (I wish!), but my jaw was on the floor for most of this video, and I didn't find it posted here yet. He makes it seem sooo easy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YfTtGCsiD8

Heh - that's the Belgian rail company NMBS who's infrastructure team has all those cool tools apparently :-p

I don't think there is a significant amount of benzene in WD-40 - so no need to be scared of it, beyond the usual alkane low surface tension warning, which will likely get it into your lungs and cause inflammation if you try and swallow it. In se, it has low toxicity, and based on its...

Dear forum, I have, over the past few weeks, tweaked my little homebrewed ceramic burner according to Pete's recipe a bit more, and I have arrived at this result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcjDqTTnx78 Crucial in the success were the use of propane instead of butane, allowing to push a...

Dear all, The steam centre at Maldegem, East Flanders, Belgium, had a nice season-opening steam-up last weekend. I thought you might enjoy ...video at the bottom. Polish TKh "General Maczek" Freshly restored Bébert, a Belgian steam loco by Société La Meuse that worked around a mine for most...

Hi Pete, No, I have calculated steam use at full throttle for a particular engine speed, assuming all heat from the burner is converted to evaporating water at 155°C/80psi. This has nothing to do with efficiency, which is the conversion of the total heat of combustion into actual mechanical...

That is actually a good question, I suppose it could be ... water will start condensing everywhere over the water level inside the boiler at this point and flow back cooler, so until the entire boiler is at the normal boiling point of water, the temperature will not rise any further. You also...

Dear all, Well, here is a quick back-of-an-envelope calculation on how much gas you should need in an ideal world, not based on efficiencies, but simply on the amount of steam the engine goes through at a particular speed. Let’s assume (for my Rocket) a 14 mm cylinder diameter, and 35 mm...

Hello Pete, I understand pretty well what is involved in getting water to evaporate, and also the direct link between the combustion heat of the gas and the resulting work from the engine - I teach thermodynamics to industrial engineers. But it is good to see others come to the same conclusions...