TC1 cira 2004 -Test Car 1

TC1-Test Car1

About 2004,  I built my first steam car.  Pictured here with two of my kids.

On the positive side, 
it rolled easily
developed 20 bar (300 psi) of steam in  32 seconds

it went about 6 km/hr (4 mph)


On the negative side

it had an underpowered steam turbine engine

     low torque, high rpm, internal seals could not handle the super-heated steam

The steering mechanism was under-designed and built.  The front wheels failed in  a turn.



The whole car ended up in a scrap heap shortly thereafter.

TC2 -Test Car2 is home

I really appreciate that a  couple friends of mine were able to bring my test car  up from the South.  Now to start getting it  to work and look like I want it to.

One of my friends is a retired American automotive engineer.  He was telling me that when they would work on developing new  cars they would create a "mule" an existing/ basic car on which they would add their new ideas and technology.

Fire in the Hole v2

This time had a better fuel/air mixture.

Fire in the Hole

The beginning of creating  a "monotube steam generator" 

Will be adding Flame proof insulation 
Improve the oxygen supply. 
Adding 100 metres (328 feet) of tubing inside this barrel.

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.