Steampunk

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Roderick Jenkins on 01/09/2016 17:08:30:

Posted by Hopper on 01/09/2016 14:01:05:

I'll have another go at embedding a steampunk Stirling engine video. These are some of the best looking model stirling engines I've ever seen, IMHO. (Although technically they are Bohm Hot Air engines, but close enough. I suppose there is no steam in them either. Beautiful models either way)

They are very nice, thanks for the link. Would they be Steampunk if they were made out of aluminium and steel?

Cheers,

Rod

Wrought iron and nickel-silver, at a push

Neil

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Posted by JA on 31/08/2016 18:05:44:

Could someone, possibly a New Zealander, explain Steampunk for me.

Is it likely to arrive in the UK?

JA

Can I explain SteamPunk? No, there all mad, but there again I make little steam engines, so who am I to comment.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Roderick Jenkins on 01/09/2016 17:08:30:

Posted by Hopper on 01/09/2016 14:01:05:

I'll have another go at embedding a steampunk Stirling engine video. These are some of the best looking model stirling engines I've ever seen, IMHO. (Although technically they are Bohm Hot Air engines, but close enough. I suppose there is no steam in them either. Beautiful models either way)

They are very nice, thanks for the link. Would they be Steampunk if they were made out of aluminium and steel?

Cheers,

Rod

Probably not. Steampunk seems to be a 19th Century-based thing, and not much ally was around then. Aluminium is more decopunk, another whole genre.

I read somewhere that the guy who makes those steampunk engines in the videos spent a lot of time looking at 19th century medical and scientific instruments on display in the London Science Museum.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Here's that old ME I mentioned:

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

(now obtained access to my book)
The figure originally appeared in “The exhibited Machinery of 1862” (a similar exhibition to the Great 1851 at the same place) – the text reads:
Mr. Nathaniel Grew, London, exhibited a
model of a locomotive engine for running on ice,
reported to have been successfully at work in
Russia, during last winter, on the river Neva,
conveying passengers and goods between St.
Petersburg and Cronstadt. The engine is
carried by a sledge under the fore part, and a
pair of driving-wheels 5 feet diameter at the
back of the fire-box, worked with an intermediate shaft, and a pair of outside cylinders, 10
inches diameter by 22 inches stroke. The cir?cumferences of the wheels are studded with steel
spikes, to obtain the necessary adhesion for
traction. The engine is steered by turning the
sledge, in front, by means of a screw and worm?
wheel, and a pinion gearing into a circular rack
fixed to the sledge. The proportion of the
weight of the engine carried by the sledge is
supported on four springs, with an allowance for
lateral traverse. The engine weighs, in working
trim, about 12 tons, of which, no doubt, more
than half is carried by the sledge, and less than
half by the wheels, on account of their extreme
position, without any power of adjustment.
The engine is reported to have attained a speed
of 18 miles per hour, with a gross load of
20 tons. There are, no doubt, considerable
practical difficulties to overcome ; for example,
the necessity for providing adhesion artificially,
and the resistance of snow to the advance of
the sledge. Mr. Grew’s engine is a very creditable application of the locomotive, in a novel
direction (fig. 16, page 18).

the maker’s plate is Neilson & Co Glasgow 786

[Peter Marsh 3Participant @petermarsh3]

I was recently researching how to service a Medcalf Hy Flo aquarium air pump. That was described in various places as an example of 'steampunk'. Something verging on vintage that looks strangely 'cool' when operating.

[john carruthersParticipant @johncarruthers46255]

>>Mr. Nathaniel Grew, London, exhibited a
model of a locomotive engine for running on ice,
reported to have been successfully at work in
Russia, during last winter, on the river Neva, <<

This would be very thick ice then ?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by john carruthers on 29/09/2016 08:54:13:

>>Mr. Nathaniel Grew, London, exhibited a
model of a locomotive engine for running on ice,
reported to have been successfully at work in
Russia, during last winter, on the river Neva, <<

This would be very thick ice then ?

Yes:

"The ice thickness is 0.3 to 0.4 metres (1.0 to 1.3 ft) within Saint Petersburg and 0.5 to 0.6 metres (1.6 to 2.0 ft) in other areas"

– from the Pedia of Wiki.

Neil

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

I reckon I would be reluctant to venture out on one foot thick ice in something that heavy.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Hopper on 29/09/2016 11:28:18:

I reckon I would be reluctant to venture out on one foot thick ice in something that heavy.

Me neither, though I wouldn't mind watching someone else trying it!

Anyway, all you need to know about the weight bearing capacity of ice here.

Pure theory where I live of course. In the south of England I have to stay home after a ¼" fall of snow.

Dave

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Just for the record:

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