An evening with the Cub scouts

[Cedge]

Sometime back, Zeusreking invited me to visit with his Cub Scout troop and to demonstrate some of my steam engines for them. Tonight was the night so I met him at his work place and shared a great meal with Tim, his wife and 2 marvelous children, before heading over to the meeting. I'm a pretty fair grandfather but facing 20 odd lads under the age of 9 was feeling a little daunting.

We arrived and hauled the small steam engines in and began setting up while the scouts conducted a bit of business concerning an upcoming camping trip and such. Tim's son, Floyd had already "volunteered" (ok... I drafted him) to assist me in running the engines, so I had some pretty darned good supervision.

The Jensen toy engines performed flawlessly, one turning a small generator while the other powering a small toy work shop. I really can't say who had more fun... me watching more than half those young eyes really lighting up or the kids asking some pretty sharp questions. The event certainly captured the imaginations of a number of the parents who hung around for nearly an hour asking questions and enjoying the spectacle.

I want to thank Tim and the troop for the invitation. You can bet I won't turn down a repeat performance, should the opportunity arise. Hopefully it planted at least one or two seeds to grow and flourish in days to come. I suspect Tim's 9 year old son is one who got hooked hardest... especially after he got to run one of the engines all on his own....(evil grin)

Steve

 

[Brass_Machine]

Sounds like fun. Did you get any pictures? Would love to see them.

Scout functions can be fun to do. I have actually done a couple of them. One for scuba diving and the other when I was a deputy sheriff. A lot of fun.


Eric

 

[Cedge]

Eric
I handed my camera to Tim and turned him loose. I'll get a look a the photos in the morning and try to post a few. Not sure what he shot yet. I was too busy answering a steady stream of questions and watching Floyd having fun.

Steve

 

[zeusrekning]

I really have to applaud Steve. He took a few hours out of his evening to show off some of his cool engines and talk to the kids. He did a great job and really intrigued a lot of the kids and especially parents. I'm planning on a lot of questions this weekend at the campout. Steve I'm writing down your web address now.
I had the scouts in my group (Bears) build small electric motors over the last couple weeks. We had these on display with Steve's engines. His engine with generator worked very well to show the kids how there motor could run in reverse to create electricity.
Steve also brought a really nice solenoid engine to try and hook me further. I'm telling you guys , Steve is like the kid up the street with all the cool toys . I want one of each. The solenoid engine ran well of a 9V battery I brought. I learned a lot about solenoid engines just getting to watch this one run.

Again Steve thanks. For all of you guys not familiar with Cedge look in his profile for a link to his site. He has a great assortment of engines with tons of usefull info related to there histroy and build.

Tim

 

[Cedge]

Tim
I'm looking forward to hearing all their comments. I really hadn't prepared any sort of organized talk to give them, making it was all so off the cuff that I worried it might come across a little disjointedly. The kids and the parents, as I'd hoped, kept things moving rapidly with their questions and made it much easier than I'd thought it was going to be. Great group of kids and parents you've got there. By the end of the evening, I thought your boy was ready to go home with me....LOL Now... let's get him off the gameboy console and turn him into your shop shadow.

Steve

 

[mklotz]

I know personally the satisfaction one can get from doing such demonstrations for kids. I was invited by a parent to show some engines to the children at one of our local middle schools. I've done that several times now and it's one of the most satisfying and rewarding things I do.

In order to make it a bit more educational, I key the engine demonstrations to a patter I've developed about how engines developed.

Newcomen's original engine where the steam was condensed in the cylinder is discussed and then imitated using a flame sucker.

From there we talk about Watt's improvements to Newcomen's design and demonstrate a small mill engine running off a boiler. (In the interest of safety, the 'boiler' is supplied with air from a small compressor.)

We talk about how the steam engine drove machinery through overhead line shafts and that is demonstrated with some of the PMR machine tool models.

The problems with poor materials and resultant boiler explosions are discussed and that segues nicely into how Stirling looked for a safer engine and developed his hot air engine which we then demonstrate.

After the 'lecture' the kids get a chance to make selections from a few other engines which I let them 'run' under my supervision. Breath-powered engines are a real crowd pleaser.

If any of you get a chance to do something similar, don't pass it up. The kids will thank you and you'll thank yourself for taking the time to do it.

 

[Bogstandard]

Steve and Marv, wonderful work.

Now... let's get him off the gameboy console and turn him into your shop shadow

My feelings exactly.

These kids get so excited when they see these sorts of engines, because they have never seen anything like them before.

It is up to us all to show these younger generations that there is something else out there.

All it costs is a bit of time and effort.

John

 

[zeusrekning]

Just got the rest of the pics uploaded. Here they are. All engine questions should be directed towards Cedge as they are his models.

He brought some really cool toys.
Tim