my Goal

My goal is to make a fun and operational Steam powered Parade car which can carry me and my wife at cruising speeds of 5 to 40 km/h (3 to 25 mph)

First Steam

A friend of mine gave me 30 metres of 15mm copper tubing. (100 feet , 5/8"). I coiled it up, added water, and some propane flames.  Made the first steam for this project.  I need to add 60m of tube and place it all into an insulated  steel container.

Boiler Injector

This is my Penberthy Automatic Boiler feedwater injector.  It is based on 1800's technology to use a boiler's own steam pressure to pump new water into the boiler. From what I understand it uses  the boiler's steam to  accelerate liquid water to supersonic speeds to force the water into the same boiler.  This specific one is designed  to pump around 180 gallons/hour of water into boilers which are up to around 185 psi  ( 680 litres, 13 bar).

It does all this WITHOUT any mechanical moving parts.

Over several years I have asked every steam historian and expert I could find in person, phone , and internet if anyone knew of anyone who had ever experimented on using an injector to supply water for a "monotube steam generator" instead of the normal way of using a mechanical pump. 

So far I have found a few that said that it will not work, a few that have said it might work, and nobody who knows of anyone who has tried it.

Years ago, my dad was talking to someone else about me and gave me a compliment. He said "When other people are standing around wondering if something could be done, Doug is already doing it".   

Will it work? I don't know.  Am I going to try it?  Yes I am. 

Simplicator prototype body

So I have been working on making arrangements to get this quad bike to Roknäs.  It has been sitting outside for a "few years" so it will take some attention to get it pretty again.


higher resolution photo

Simplicator first body

This will likely become the body for the Simplicator tech prototype.  It is currently  a Rhoades 4 seat pedal car.  It has been sitting outside for a few years , so it will need some tlc. In other news, my air compresser has stopped running. I am hoping i can get it working again.