Steam Geek

Thatcher's Channel bridge

2007-04-02T22:08:00.000+01:00

Recently released documents reveal that Margaret Thatcher backed plans to build a twenty-one mile long bridge over the English Channel so that drivers could just pay a toll and potter across to France.

The automobile of the future

2006-09-14T10:31:00.000+01:00

As imagined by Modern Mechanix in 1933.

WHAT do I think about the automobile of the future?

Well, it will be about one-third the weight of the present car and will, of course, be streamlined. The new cars will all weigh less than 2,000 lbs. and will probably have motors of around 100 horsepower. They will be light weight cars, because the lighter the car the easier it rides.

This may sound like heresy in view of the popular supposition that heavier cars ride more easily. But my statement is true. The reason is not that the car is heavier, but that in heavy cars of today the distribution of sprung and unsprung weight accidentally happens to be better. With the new engineering which has been gaining vogue, with streamlining, and with the efforts of such engineers as Starling Burgess and Buckminster Fuller of Dymaxion fame among others, we will provide proper ratios between sprung and unsprung weight in all cars, and then the lighter cars will ride easier.

via Jalopnik

General Purpose Amphibian

2006-08-10T16:15:00.000+01:00

A Telegraph motoring correspondent goes for a ride in an heirloom amphibious Jeep.

Steam powered internet.

2006-07-17T09:54:00.000+01:00

Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane roped in model-maker Alan Gibbs to provide a steam engine to power their "portable" computer.

One of Deller's most famous artworks was his reconstruction, with historical re-enactment groups, of the Battle of Orgreave, the most vicious clash in the miners' strike. Last year he and Kane curated an exhibition of contemporary "folk art" at the Barbican, including sectarian murals from Northern Ireland, village fete cake-decorating, and records of local rituals such as a gurning contest. "We are interested in what other people can do," said Deller. "Somebody's hobby can be an art form."

God's Wonderful Railway to get heritage status

2006-07-07T11:20:00.000+01:00

English Heritage is backing calls to have the Great Western Railway recognised as a world heritage site, putting it on a par with the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and Stonehenge.

Manchester Transport Museum

2006-06-22T10:49:00.000+01:00

I finally got round to visiting the Transport Museum yesterday, and took lots of pictures.

Bizarre Ships of the Nineteenth Century- Circular Ships

2006-05-21T16:45:00.000+01:00

In 1861 John Elder from Glasgow brought out plans for a circular ship. It would, he claimed, have maximum stability and minimum draught, making it an ideal gun platform.

The Russian Navy, in the shape of an Admiral Popov, liked the idea and built two circular ironclads, the Popovkas or Cyclads, to patrol the Black Sea.

A variation on the design was the imperial yacht Livadia, which was more of an ellipse than a circle. Built by John Elder for Czar Alexander II she wasn't delivered until after he was assassinated.

Links- Circular Iron-Clads in the Imperial Russian Navy, the Cyclad Novgorod in 1:192nd scale

Bizarre Ships of the Nineteenth Century- Cigar Ships

2006-05-20T15:33:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I posted anything from this book. I'm back with one of teh longer chapters.

The Cigar Ship was the brainchild of a pair of brothers, Ross and Thomas Winans, who had made their money on the American railways. They launched their first cigar ship in 1858 in Baltimore. The idea was to remove all the flat and square sections that water could pool on or crash against on a conventional cross section and have a boat that flowed through waves rather than fighting against them and pushing over them. With a huge rotating propeller, actually a modified paddle from a river steamer, mounted amidships and rudders at each end, this first ship was not a great success.

After another two prototypes, one intended as a showcase for Russia's czar, the largest of the Winan's ships was the steam yacht Ross Winans, launched from hepworth's Yard on the Isle of Dogs in 1866. This time the vessel had propellers at either end and a slightly more orthodox superstructure. A swinging "ballast donkey" counteracted the ship's instability, swinging left or right depending on the rotation of the prop shafts and by amounts based upon the steam pressure of the engine.

The Ross Winans wasn't a success and never truly put to sea but for a few short coastal runs and trials on the Solent. The basis of its design was reused in the 1880 in HMS Polyphemus, a ram ship, and American whaleback steamers.

Links-
The Winans' Cigar ships. Heavily researched and with a lot more images.
Winans' family papers
3dCAD's model of the Ross Winans (membership required to download).
HMS Polyphemus, wikipedia entry, the ship may have appeared in War of the Worlds as HMS Thunder Child, a larger wiki entry, the National Maritime Museum has a model
The whaleback Christopher Columbus, subject of an eponymous film, Lake Superior shipwrecks, model of the Columbus, two, three, more models here

The Joy of Film

2006-03-02T14:15:00.000Z

There's a joy to film cameras that's missing from digital. Something about the clunk of the shutter closing and the anticipation of waiting for the film to be processed. And in these days of "prosumer" digital cameras and auto everything old manual focus kit can be had really cheaply.

My sister's been mining EBay and car boot sales for bargains. She's found a Canon SLR that suits her and has the best kit options, so she passed this camera on to me. She bought the body (Konica TC-X) and lenses for £25.

I got the tripod for £15. I sacrificed a bit of weight and stability for the ability to fit it in my backpack on long bike rides.

Of course, this set up isn't as convenient as my digital camera, and only gets taken out occasionally, but that's part of the joy.

(Ironically, the picture above was taken using my new digital camera, a Canon Powershot A620.)

Mareorama

2006-02-20T20:42:00.000Z

Tinselman briefly explains the history of the Mareorama, a simulated sea journey from Nice to Constantinople via Venice. The elaborate steam ship set rocked as if on the sea and a painted background unrolled to show familiar scenes from the Mediterannean.

via BoingBoing

Old school coffee grinder

2006-02-06T21:42:00.000Z

My sister got me a coffee grinder for my birthday. Not just any coffee grinder, but a vintage stainless steel Rubis Inox Peugeot (almost exactly like this one). A car boot sale treasure find.

The only problem was, it didn't work. The blade turned in slow jerks. There was no way it was going to be grinding any beans, it might succeed at pushing them around a little though. So I did what any self respecting Steam Geek would, and took it apart.

It's a simple enough vertically mounted electric motor with a spring released on/off button. No safety interlock- this was built back in the day when companies didn't assume their customers were all idiots.

The problem was, as I'd suspected, carbon deposits, and maybe a little oxidation, on the contact surfaces. I flipped the carbon bushes around so they were presenting a flat rather than curved surface and cleaned the commutator up with an emery board. After a little bit of slapstick getting the feed springs for the bushes back in place it all went back together again simply.

The blade now spins so fast it scares me and there's an interesting smell of ozone after each spurt. What I really need are some coffee beans to test it properly.

Wartime Images

2005-12-13T06:48:00.000Z

Another "content over style" web page from Steve Johnson.

In the Second World War people at home with loved ones spread far away around the world with the forces were fed a diet, often government backed, of "how it works" or "how we will win" technical information leaflets. Very often these would have contained superb cut away and sectioned diagrams, showing the "insides" or as was said at the time "the works!" of the machines that were winning the war for us!

via Drawn

Maunsell Towers

2005-11-06T11:46:00.000Z

The Maunsell Towers were set up to provide anti aircraft defence in the Thames Estuary during World War Two. Each "fort" comprised of one Bofors tower, a control tower, four gun towers and a searchlight tower. Three forts were built Nore Army Fort, the Red Sands Army Fort and the Shivering Sands Army Fort, of which the latter two still stand, more or less.

Wikipedia on Maunsell Forts.

Project Red Sands.

Sealand, most famous of the offshore forts, with plans

via BoingBoing

Razzle Dazzle

2005-11-02T18:29:00.000Z

Ships in World War 1 often sported strange cubist paint schemes designed to confuse submarines as to their direction and speed. Here's an intersting page about Razzle Dazzle colour schemes.

via BoingBoing

Helicopters on Stamps

2005-10-28T17:55:00.000+01:00

One philatelists rather extensive collection of stamps featuring rotary winged aircraft.

Lost and found

2005-10-26T19:01:00.000+01:00

I'm still waiting for the slides to come back from my charity shop find. The anticipation is killing me. For me, at least, they'll be as fascinating as this collection of found images from films left in cameras for up to fifty years.

via BoingBoing

Kodachrome

2005-10-11T21:15:00.000+01:00

I bought my sister a camera on Saturday. I wasn't being too extravagant, it only cost £4.50.

She's studying photography and has an urge to get some vintage cameras, preferrably Soviet ones. So, when I saw a batch of old cameras in the Age Concern window I texted her a photo and she said "I want that one!"

A quick once over in the shop proved that the shutter worked and there wasn't a single automatic thing on the little beast (it's a Beirette, made in East Germany). It also showed that there was an exposed and rewound film in the camera. Keeping quiet about this, I paid up and wandered off with my prize.

The film is Kodachrome 64, a film so rare it is only officially developed in three places in the world. However, the cost of developing was included in the price of the film, so I can satisfy my curiousity for the price of a package to Switzerland.

Watch this space for news on what, erm, develops.

Bizarre Ships- Early Submarines

2005-10-08T15:20:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the delay in the Bizarre Ships posts, the book got lost in the move. I figured that, as you can now get a 1:72nd scale model of the Hunley, I should skip forward to the Early Submarines chapter for this post.

Sadly the illustrations for Garret's submarine, Nordenfeldt's later submarine and submarine Argonaut II have been ripped out leaving only these.

The Spuyten Durvil ("Devil with a Syringe")

Nordenfeldt's first submarine

Davy Crockett

2005-09-24T20:53:00.000+01:00

Part of the insanity of the Cold War, the Davy Crockett gun and W54 warhead gave atomic capability to the grunts on the ground. Yields varied from 0.01 to 1 kilotons, though with a maximum range of 2.49 the larger version must have been a suicide shot.

I'm thinking of using a Davy Crockett in a coming comic- an alternative history tale where Berlin was nuked at the end of WW2 and Cold War tensions are that little bit harsher. I might also model it. This guy put a lot of work into his Davy Crockett on the back of an M151A1D. Maybe he should have just got the kit from Sharkit.

Thunderbird

2005-09-19T20:57:00.000+01:00

Over at Scale I've just posted a few links about the Bristol Bloodhound Surface-to-Air-Missile. In the process I found this page, about the Thunderbird. A rival/ contemporary of the Bloodhound, the Thunderbird was designed to move with troops to give them anti-air cover in the field where the Bloodhound was for point defence of fixed positions.

Slate tribute to father of the Spitfire

2005-09-16T21:32:00.000+01:00

Reginald Mitchell, designer of steam geek icon the Spitfire, has been honoured with a statue in London's Science Museum.

Reginald Mitchell died of cancer in 1937 so never saw his plane used in wartime.

His son said: "For the general public, the Spitfire is undoubtedly the most beautiful, elegant aeroplane ever produced.

"Victory was made possible by the Spitfire."

Bizarre Ships- Monitors

2005-08-30T21:25:00.000+01:00

The Monitor and its offspring were probably the first modern battleships. Having guns in a rotating armoured turret and presenting very little structure above water, the Monitor was effective against the tall fixed gun ships of the day. It's first battle was, famously, against the Merrimac- a sort of floating fort captured and modified by the South.

More at The Monitor Centre and the US Navy's own site.

Bizarre ships- American River Steamers

2005-08-15T18:29:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure what etiquette, if any, covers the scanning of pages from out of print books to post on the internet for the edification of others. So for this chapter I'm just going to sample a few pages. Admittedly, they are the ones with pictures on them.

We all know what an American river steamer looks like from Westerns and musicals. What I never knew was that they were incredibly shallow draught craft, to navigate up the rivers. Because Iron was at a premium at the time, they utilised wood for as much as possible, including the drive shaft.

There were two distinct styles of river boat, the Easter and Western. Eastern boats ran up the Hudson and in the Long Island Sound, Western boats in the Mississippi- Missouri- Arkansas- Ohio- Red River basin. Various quirks of design made them unstable and the Western boats were intentionally built for a short life because they were likely to rip their hulls apart on concealed tree trunks or be otherwise disabled within five years. (A "Sawyer" was a floating tree entangled by its roots and alternately raised and depressed by the force of the current; it usually gave warning of its presence. Presumably where Mark Twain got the name for his character as well.)

More information about modern steamboats at Steamboats.org

La Resistance

2005-08-13T17:43:00.000+01:00

Not about technology, but interesting. The Covert Side of Reconstructing History.

This work will allow the novice re-enactor of Resistance and Special Operations Executive agents to select clothing and accoutrements appropriately -- with historical accuracy. The portrayal of civilians -- whether clandestine operatives or real civilians -- in World War II reenactment circles has been the topic of hot debate, as some reenactors in the past have been, shall we say, less than exemplary in their chosen impression. We intend to change that. The organisation which sponsors this work reveres historical accuracy. The best way to achieve accuracy is through thorough and often cumbersome research, from which conclusions are drawn and standards adopted. Since this method has been followed, therefore, all the following conclusions may be considered accurate. By no means does this imply that the following are dogma, never to be gainsaid. If new information and research is brought to our attention, we shall at once join the queue to peruse it. If we, after the normal course of debate, find our earlier conclusions to be faulty, we will change them. We (especially Bob, who can barely read) do not pretend to be PhD-level experts on WWII-era fashion, textiles, and such; we just follow the pictures.

In a similar vein- the Churnet Valley Railway 1940s weekend.

Bizarre Ships of the Nineteenth Century

2005-08-08T18:03:00.000+01:00

A terrible thing happened to me late last year. Whilst walking through the Central Library I passed a shelf with a sign on it saying "All books 50p".

I bought a lot of them.

Most of the books have subject matter suitable for Steam Geek, so I'm going to start scanning some of the images from them and posting them here.

First up is Bizarre Ships of the Nineteenth Century by John Guthrie. Published by Hutchinson Scientific and Technical in 1970. From the Editor's Note-

This series of books is primarily intended to be of interest to those professionally concerned with the design, construction and operation of ships and other marine vehicles. Many remarkable changes are now taking place in the size, shape, speed and capability of conventional ships of all types, while hovercraft, hydrofoil ships and other unusual vessels are beginning to have a striking effect on the maritime scene. Technical staff and management increasingly need up-to-date design data and specialist information on a wide range of topics, and it is hoped that most books in the series will be of direct value to them, and to many students at universities and technical colleges.

In addition to specialist monographs and stuent textbooks, the series also includes books having a broad appeal to all those who want to know more about the fascinating variety of craft which can be seen in ports, on rivers and at sea: this book is one of that group. Its principal purpose is to remind us of some of the odd and highly unorthodox vessels which have played a minor but not inglorious role in the development of the modern ship. This chapter of nautical history is easily overlooked and often decried, but many of the freak ships built a century ago taught a technical lesson which had to be learnt the hard way and which is not always fully understood even to-day. Quite apart from its professional value, this story of the mostly unsuccessful, but always brave, attempts of bold inventors and enthusiastic cranks has a personal appeal which is difficult to resist. It is written simply and directly by a ship surveyor with a lifelong experience of all types of craft and an enduring passion for the telling details which are essential to a real understanding of the way in which ships, large or small, successes or failure, matter to the men who design and build them and then risk their lives to test their belief in something different.

I'll be uploading images from a chapter a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday. And when this book's finished, I'll dig out another one.