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Steam

This fascinating series is a combination of historical seafaring, swashbuckling adventure, and high technological science-fiction. Join us in a discussion!
Re: Steam
Post by Annachie   » Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:20 am

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I have fond memories of climbing on Big Lizzie as a kid. If it wasn't mentioned yet, it's lack of speed is what doomed it. Couldn't outrun a bushfire iirc.
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Re: Steam
Post by pokermind   » Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:46 am

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n7axw wrote:I just read William Rosen's "The Most Powerful Idea in the World". It presents itself as the story of the development of steam. The book however is at least as much about the history of invention and the development of the industrial revolution. That's fair since the development of steam is so closely tied to both that they scarcely be separated.

I got a chuckle out of James Watt's frustration over the difficulty of coming up with a perfectly round hole to match a perfectly round piston. I bet the artisans in Zion won't be able to do it at all with their 16th century equiv. tech.

Don


Watt's governor on a Locomotive turbo-genertor, yep a turbine governor and how it works:

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Re: Steam
Post by Tenshinai   » Tue Jun 17, 2014 8:50 am

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Annachie wrote:I have fond memories of climbing on Big Lizzie as a kid. If it wasn't mentioned yet, it's lack of speed is what doomed it. Couldn't outrun a bushfire iirc.


Well, for honesty´s sake, a bushfire can outrun humans and pretty much any animals, so that doesn´t necessarily say much.

But i think we get your point anyway at least. :)

And yeah, that´s pretty much why steam took a strong preference for being on railroad tracks, as there, the extreme reduction of constant resistance meant that you didn´t stop almost as soon as you quit applying energy.
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