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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff production from I Heart Radio. Hey there,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio and I

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Speaker 1: love all things tech and it is time for a

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Speaker 1: classic episode of tech Stuff. This episode originally published on

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Speaker 1: October six, two thousand thirteen. It is called Running on Steam. Yep,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about some steamy stuff today, so let's

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Speaker 1: listen back to this classic episode. We're talking about steam

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Speaker 1: engines today and how they work and the principles behind them,

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Speaker 1: and it really comes down to thermodynamics. You know, you're

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Speaker 1: talking about heat really and what heat does and how

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Speaker 1: it changes things, and that's you know, harnessing that has

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Speaker 1: allowed us to have a little bit of a revolution

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Speaker 1: industrially speaking. Do do pretty goodness my ration, I'm slow today.

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Speaker 1: It took me like four seconds. You're slow. You didn't

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Speaker 1: forget to introduce you everybody, we're both on okay. But

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Speaker 1: so yeah, So the thing about gases, um when when

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Speaker 1: when you heat them up, they they do stuff. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they move the molecules and the gases move around a

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Speaker 1: lot more than they usually do. So let's say let's

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Speaker 1: say you've got a liquid, all right, You've got all

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Speaker 1: those molecules together in a liquid, their chain together, right,

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Speaker 1: they formed this this collection of molecules that are all

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Speaker 1: part of a larger hole. So example, you've got a

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Speaker 1: bucket of water, those molecules are all bound together to

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Speaker 1: make that water. Now you can you can separate some

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Speaker 1: water from that, but the molecules within that separate section,

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Speaker 1: they're still bound together. It's not like you've just freed

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Speaker 1: them and they're now flying all over the place. But

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Speaker 1: if you add energy, as in heat to that water

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Speaker 1: and you boil the water, that water starts to boil

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Speaker 1: off and form steam. It's the gas form of that substance.

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Speaker 1: And now the molecules can break free of each other.

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Speaker 1: So now you've got these free flowing molecules that are

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Speaker 1: zipping around at high speed depending upon how much heat

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Speaker 1: you've put into the system. And as it turns out,

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Speaker 1: they exert pressure. I mean, this has momentum. It if

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Speaker 1: it hits against stuff, it can press against stuff. And

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Speaker 1: if you're able to harness that in some way, you

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Speaker 1: can make that do work. Right. Yeah, yeah, it's it's

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Speaker 1: you know, when you've got a sealed container and you

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Speaker 1: create steam inside of it, it's going to exert pressure

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Speaker 1: on the sides of that container, which can then do

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Speaker 1: work yeah, or explode, as it turns out, depending upon

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Speaker 1: what you've made the container out of and how hot

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Speaker 1: you've made that water. Uh, yeah, Because that's the other thing,

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Speaker 1: is that water when it goes into steam, it's expanding, right,

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Speaker 1: You're talking about making it take up more space than

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Speaker 1: normally would, more volume than it normally would, And that,

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Speaker 1: as it turns out, is a very important part of

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Speaker 1: some early steam engines, the idea that you can make

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Speaker 1: something take up more room and as it condenses, meaning

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Speaker 1: that and the steam starts to cool down and turn

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Speaker 1: back into water, it's taken up less room. Right, it's

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Speaker 1: going to create a little bit of a vacuum you

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Speaker 1: can also use to do work. Yeah. So both of

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Speaker 1: those those things, the idea of steam being able to

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Speaker 1: press against stuff and the idea of steam once it condenses,

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Speaker 1: creating a vacuum, those are the basic principles behind your

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Speaker 1: your various kinds of steam engines. Now, this idea is

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Speaker 1: not brand new. First of all, You've got a lot

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Speaker 1: of people who will cite that A certain person named

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Speaker 1: James Watt was the inventor of the steam engine. As

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Speaker 1: it turns out, that's being a little premature to say

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Speaker 1: that he did. I mean he would. He certainly played

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Speaker 1: an instrumental role in making steam engines uh practical, But

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Speaker 1: you have to go way back if you want to

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Speaker 1: look at the people who were really the inventors as

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Speaker 1: far as we know of steam engines. That keep in mind,

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Speaker 1: we're talking right now about the first recorded instances of

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Speaker 1: people talking about steam engines. That the idea itself might

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Speaker 1: even be older, right, but the first recorded instances are

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Speaker 1: from the first century, yeah, Common era. We're talking a

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Speaker 1: hero or Huron or heroes or heroes of Alexandria. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He he was a Greek mathematician and uh inventor. Ye

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Speaker 1: he was born in Egypt, lived and worked and mostly

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Speaker 1: in Alexandria, but was of Greek origin, and uh did

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Speaker 1: a lot of different works. You know, he invented a

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Speaker 1: lot of different things, or at least wrote about a

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Speaker 1: lot of things that we presume he invented. It may

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Speaker 1: very will be that he was just writing about stuff

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Speaker 1: that other people have done, but as far as we know,

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Speaker 1: he's the one who originated these ideas. Yeah. He had

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Speaker 1: a few inventions that he wrote about. A coin operated device. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't even know if it was like a you know,

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Speaker 1: sandal vending machine or something, or you know, put a

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Speaker 1: coin in and watch the lion eat somebody. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I'm hoping fortune teller. Um it's Zartan you make up.

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Speaker 1: I wish I were big. Uh, Yeah, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: He also wrote a lot about the discoveries of the Babylonians,

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Speaker 1: the Egyptians and also other Greeks and also the Romans,

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Speaker 1: and a bunch of stuff about the properties of air,

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Speaker 1: which is going to come very much in handy for

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Speaker 1: one of these other things that he described. Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: uh I think you're you're referring to the A L pile?

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Speaker 1: Is that how you say that? How I say it?

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you how it's spelled. It's a E O

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Speaker 1: L I P I L E. And I do not

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Speaker 1: speak Greek. It's all Greek to me, So I and

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Speaker 1: Lawrence just shaking her head disapprovingly. Can you can you

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Speaker 1: hear in our echoe studio the rattle of my head shaking?

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Speaker 1: And I can certainly see it better? Uh, this this

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Speaker 1: room is better lit than our other studio was it's

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Speaker 1: much larger. It's it's like a nice cave. It is.

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Speaker 1: It is a nice cave. So this, this device that

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Speaker 1: Heron or hero or Heroes had designed, was an early

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Speaker 1: form of what we would consider a steam engine, although

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Speaker 1: from what we can tell, it was mostly meant a

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Speaker 1: sort of a decoration or distraction, all right, more and

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Speaker 1: more like a toy. And several of the things that

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Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about from these early periods

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Speaker 1: are more likely to be toys than anything else because concepts.

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Speaker 1: He was the idea of exploring this, this nature of

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Speaker 1: well steam can do these these wild wacky things. I

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Speaker 1: don't know how we would do this in anything, and

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Speaker 1: I don't know how we would use this in any

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Speaker 1: practical way, but look at this cool thing and what

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Speaker 1: it can do. So what his could do was it

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Speaker 1: was imagined like a big bowl made out of some

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Speaker 1: metal like brass. They got a big brass bowl. It's

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Speaker 1: actually sealed, so you put water in it, but then

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Speaker 1: you put a water tight seal on there. It does

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Speaker 1: have two pipes that come up from the top of

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Speaker 1: the seal that then meet up with a sphere that

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Speaker 1: is mounted on these two pipes. All right, the sphere

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Speaker 1: itself can can rotate along this axis that the pipes make.

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Speaker 1: There's some sort of steam tight ball bearings that were involved,

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Speaker 1: I guess. Also, by the way, we don't know that

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Speaker 1: this was ever built, but this was his design. So

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Speaker 1: in the the idea was that you put the water

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Speaker 1: inside this bowl. You would heat of the bowl, the

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Speaker 1: water would convert into steam, which would go up into

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Speaker 1: the pipes into the sphere. And the sphir itself had

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Speaker 1: two nozzles or two jets on on on opposite sides

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Speaker 1: I believe, right opposite sides facing so that they would

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Speaker 1: allow the ball to rotate once steam escapes, the same

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Speaker 1: way that if you attached to bottle rockets to two

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Speaker 1: sides of a wheel um and then you know, let

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Speaker 1: it let's let it push it along, right, So in

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Speaker 1: this case the pushing is kind of interesting. So let's

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Speaker 1: talk about what's going on inside that sphere, which, as

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Speaker 1: far as we know, was never actually built. But inside

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Speaker 1: that sphere sphere, Now, if the sphere had no nozzles,

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Speaker 1: if there were no there were no openings, there were,

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Speaker 1: but somehow there was just water in there that you

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Speaker 1: had converted into steam. That steam would be pressing, pressing

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Speaker 1: equally on all surfaces, exactly sphere interiors. So in other words,

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Speaker 1: if you're looking at it, if you were able to

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Speaker 1: slow things down to just look at things like a

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Speaker 1: nanosecond at a time, and you're able to observe individual molecules,

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Speaker 1: you would see these molecules bouncing off the various interior

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Speaker 1: surfaces of that sphere. But because they're going in all directions,

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Speaker 1: they're canceling each other out, which means that the ball

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Speaker 1: itself is staying still relative to its environment. Hypothetically as sathing.

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Speaker 1: It's a perfect sphere, and that there aren't any you know,

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Speaker 1: major design flaws right there, Like there's not some weird

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Speaker 1: thing there that's blocking where molecules can usually hit. But

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Speaker 1: if you put an opening in that sphere, that means

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Speaker 1: some of the molecules are going to go through the

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Speaker 1: opening and escape, So that means they are not exerting

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Speaker 1: that force inside the sphere on the opposite side where

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Speaker 1: molecules are banging against that that edge of the sphere

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Speaker 1: that makes the sphere move. So in other words, it's

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Speaker 1: not even that steam is escaping, it's that the steam

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Speaker 1: that steam that is escaping is not counteracting the force

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Speaker 1: that's that it's uh counterparts are doing inside that sphere,

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Speaker 1: which I think is kind of an interesting explanation when

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Speaker 1: you think about it. And Uh, there was a a

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Speaker 1: site I was reading where his example was, imagine you

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Speaker 1: have a cardboard box, but you've taken the bottom and

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Speaker 1: the top off of it, and you've taken one of

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Speaker 1: the walls off of it. I think you put a

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Speaker 1: whole bunch of kids in there, just running around, and

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Speaker 1: whenever they hit one of the sides of the walls,

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Speaker 1: they careen off in a different direction. But because there's

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Speaker 1: one section side that doesn't have a wall, sometimes kids

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Speaker 1: just keep on running and they're they're outside of the box. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: the kids who are hitting the opposite side where there

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Speaker 1: is a wall, are moving the box. And yeah, so

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Speaker 1: it's forward motion keeps going, but it's left and right

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Speaker 1: motions stay more or less the same because they get

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Speaker 1: canceled out by the various kids. I thought, what an

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Speaker 1: interesting way to do that, And now I want to

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Speaker 1: Now I want to build this and I want to

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Speaker 1: watch it happen, probably from you know, a fifty foot

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Speaker 1: observation tower. I don't kids and me. That's not I'm

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Speaker 1: picturing that we could use podcasters instead of children. We

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Speaker 1: probably could, although we've got some kind of lazy podcasters.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, they might, you know, just kind of

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Speaker 1: push the wall. Our podcasters zombies. Well, you know, I

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Speaker 1: mostly interact with them after lunch, so that's always when

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Speaker 1: we get this neozies. Alright. So anyway, that was the

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Speaker 1: basis behind his idea. But he also had another one

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Speaker 1: that would use steam to do work. That was my

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Speaker 1: favorite example, so I had to include it. Yeah, this

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Speaker 1: one I had not seen it, but so so there

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Speaker 1: was a steam powered temple doors. That was the idea.

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Speaker 1: He I've got this great illustration. I'll show you after

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Speaker 1: the podcast, Laura. I'll put it up on our social

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Speaker 1: too when we when we get this podcast out. But

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Speaker 1: the idea was really kind of interesting. So in the illustration,

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Speaker 1: there's this altar and these temple doors, and the altar

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Speaker 1: has a little area in it where you could set

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Speaker 1: a sacrificial fire. Now that fire, the idea was that

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Speaker 1: the fire would heat up water that would create steam.

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Speaker 1: It would push the steam into a second container. That container,

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Speaker 1: in turn had a tube leading out of it, and

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Speaker 1: the other end of the tube would lead into a bucket. Now,

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Speaker 1: from what I can tell, it looks like the idea

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Speaker 1: is that the steam would push into this container. The

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Speaker 1: container would push more steam in through this other tube

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Speaker 1: that was leading to the bucket, and there the steam

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Speaker 1: would start to cool down and condense it turned into water.

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Speaker 1: So when they would turn the water, the water would

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Speaker 1: flow into the bucket. Yeah, which makes it heavy down.

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Speaker 1: And the bucket itself is suspended by a pulley, and

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Speaker 1: so because the bucket gets heavier, it starts to exert

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Speaker 1: force on the pulley and eventually would pull the pulley

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Speaker 1: so that the ropes on the other side of the

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Speaker 1: pulley would actually split into two ropes wrapping around these

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Speaker 1: two columns. And as those ropes the tension grew, it

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Speaker 1: would make those columns rotate. The rotation of the columns

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Speaker 1: in turn would open the temple doors. So by lighting

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Speaker 1: the fire, you would entice the gods to open the

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Speaker 1: doors for you, allowing people into your temple. Now, as

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Speaker 1: it turns out, I think that this was probably a

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Speaker 1: lot of work to open doors when you could just

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Speaker 1: walk up and open them push it. But as it

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Speaker 1: turns out, That's one of the reasons why steam technology

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Speaker 1: took so long to develop, even though we're talking about

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Speaker 1: just you know, just a few decades into the Common era.

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Speaker 1: That's when we're talking about steam engines. The reason we

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Speaker 1: weren't using them for work is because there were a

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Speaker 1: lot of other sources for work back in those days.

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Speaker 1: Like the Romans had lots and lots of slaves, and

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Speaker 1: as it turns out, the the history of Europe had

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Speaker 1: lots of that kind of thing. Either it was either

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Speaker 1: slavery or serfdom. Anyway, there was a lot of source

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Speaker 1: of cheap labor out there, so you didn't have to

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Speaker 1: worry about building things to make labor easier. That's what

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Speaker 1: those unfortunate people were for. Um. Yeah, and and also also,

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Speaker 1: you know, the metal working at the time was not

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Speaker 1: such that you could safely build boiler chambers that would

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Speaker 1: really withstand the pressures necessary. Right, you had a lot

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Speaker 1: of these prices. We wouldn't get into that until like

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Speaker 1: the eighteen exactly. You could build low pressure steam steam boilers,

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Speaker 1: but low pressure means that you can't do a lot

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Speaker 1: of work with them. They do. You know, you're releasing steam,

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Speaker 1: you're genering steam and releasing steam in a way where

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Speaker 1: it not exerting the kind of pressure you would need

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Speaker 1: to do anything really significant unless you were to be

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Speaker 1: incredibly clever with your design. But we'll get into that.

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Speaker 1: We we have to go a little bit further before

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Speaker 1: we get to that part. But these were the fundamentals,

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Speaker 1: right of steam power, This idea of being able to

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Speaker 1: to change water into another form and make it do work.

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Speaker 1: It would just take a you know, a millennia and

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Speaker 1: change before anyone started to think about it in another

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Speaker 1: more practical way. Yeah. Our next own factor is from

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Speaker 1: three Blastco Degara. He was an officer in the Smash Navy,

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Speaker 1: and we don't know for sure that he actually tried

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Speaker 1: to do this or that what he proposed was in

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Speaker 1: fact a steam engine, because it's pretty vague, but he

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Speaker 1: was talking about creating some sort of paddle boat that

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Speaker 1: may have been steam powered. Yeah. The phrase used in

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Speaker 1: the literature is vessel of boiling water. Right, so as

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Speaker 1: far as we know the vessel of boiling water, well

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Speaker 1: you could guess that, well, that must mean that it

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Speaker 1: was using steam in some way, but because there isn't

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Speaker 1: enough context there, we can't be certain. But it sounds

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Speaker 1: like the idea was that you would use some sort

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Speaker 1: of vessel of boiling water to generate steam in order

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Speaker 1: to turn the paddles on a boat, very much like

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Speaker 1: we would see uh centuries later. But that the history

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Speaker 1: books don't record any great Spanish paddle boats sailing across

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Speaker 1: various European waters. So I guess we can probably draw

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Speaker 1: the conclusion that this was an interesting idea that was

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Speaker 1: never actualized, or if it was, it sunk um. And

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Speaker 1: the next one's a sixteen o one, which not that

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Speaker 1: not that long afterward, when a fellow named Giovanni Batista

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Speaker 1: della Porta wrote in a book called Spiritali of an

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Speaker 1: invention that would use steam pressure to raise a column

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Speaker 1: of water through a vacuum created by steam when it condenses. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is what you were talking of out earlier, Lauren,

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Speaker 1: right along the same lines, or I guess, along opposite

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Speaker 1: lines of all of these people who are theorizing that

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Speaker 1: you know, you can you can convert steam, convert water

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Speaker 1: to steam within a closed container and that will result

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Speaker 1: in increased pressure. That the opposite, if you can condense

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Speaker 1: steam into water, that it will create a vacuum. Right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And that's that was an interesting idea that would again

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Speaker 1: be capitalized on later. But this is the very basis

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Speaker 1: of the earliest steam engines that we're doing work. Not

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Speaker 1: that you were using steam to push something, but rather

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Speaker 1: that you had created a chamber where steam, once it

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Speaker 1: cools down and condenses into water, creates the suction force

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Speaker 1: through the through creating a vacuum and thus can pull something.

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Speaker 1: And uh. In fact, as we'll talk about in just

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Speaker 1: a couple of minutes, that's really how steam engines got

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Speaker 1: their start. Uh. And again it that one of the

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Speaker 1: nice things about this, and I really do mean it

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Speaker 1: as a nice thing, is that you could use a

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Speaker 1: low pressure steam engine to create this effect. You didn't

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Speaker 1: have to create high pressure to push something. You could

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Speaker 1: just create steam in a low pressure environment, allow it

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Speaker 1: to condense, and then it would create this this force

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Speaker 1: all on its own. So uh, it ended up being

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Speaker 1: a much more safe way of using steam power, especially

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Speaker 1: early on, before we had really reached the level of

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Speaker 1: machining parts that could withstand those intense pressures that happen

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Speaker 1: when you create lots of steam in a confined space.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if any of our listeners are familiar

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Speaker 1: with a little program called MythBusters. Uh, MythBusters, of course,

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Speaker 1: a Discovery Channel show. I was a huge fan, well,

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Speaker 1: well before I even worked for How Stuff Works, I

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Speaker 1: was a big fan of the show. But I got

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Speaker 1: to see MythBusters live in Atlanta. They came down and

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Speaker 1: did a behind the scenes kind of tour and they

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Speaker 1: talked a little bit about the various explosions that they've

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Speaker 1: seen on the show. And the reason why I'm saying

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Speaker 1: this is that the the explosion they said was the

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Speaker 1: most impressive and most terrifying was the water heater explosion

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Speaker 1: because when you have that water under you know, turning

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Speaker 1: into steam under the intense pressure, and if you've cut

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Speaker 1: off all the safety valves, which you should never ever

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Speaker 1: ever do, right then yeah, safety valves on on boilers,

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Speaker 1: in fact, are one of the terrific inventions without which

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Speaker 1: we probably would well we certainly wouldn't be here because

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Speaker 1: we'd have a totally different world, our world we never

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Speaker 1: would have had happened. So um, yeah, because he showed that,

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Speaker 1: you know, you could essentially it would turn a water

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Speaker 1: heater into part bomb, part rocket, and it was just

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Speaker 1: you're talking about superheated water that's well past the boiling

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Speaker 1: point due to the pressure hitting the air, boiling instantaneously

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Speaker 1: turning into super hot steam. So just being close to this,

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Speaker 1: even if you weren't hit by shrapnel, you could be

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Speaker 1: burned severely just from the steam. This is serious stuff.

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Speaker 1: So that's why these low pressure engines were the first

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Speaker 1: foray into steam engines. Although we're still not quite there yet.

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Speaker 1: We're just talking about theory at the moment. All Right,

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Speaker 1: I've I've got one from two Okay, this was Ferdinand

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Speaker 1: um Verbs I'm going to go with that pronunciation um

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Speaker 1: He He might have he was living in the Imperial

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Speaker 1: Chinese court at the time, and he may have created

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Speaker 1: a working steam car or toy um interesting. He at

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Speaker 1: least drow up plans for one, and I'm not sure again,

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Speaker 1: it's it's really yeah, it's it's hard to say a

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Speaker 1: lot of these things from these earlier inventors, Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: they haven't survived. So they may have one we don't

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Speaker 1: know if they were ever built and then just were

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Speaker 1: destroyed or lost, or we don't know if you know,

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Speaker 1: they just was just in the plans but never actually built.

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Speaker 1: One thing that I do believe was built In sixteen

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Speaker 1: seventy nine, a French scientist and math professor named um

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Speaker 1: Venice Papa from from Yes, France. I already said that excellent, Um,

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Speaker 1: I've created the first pressure cooker, which is really a

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Speaker 1: direct application of what dela Portia was talking about. Um.

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Speaker 1: This was I think the official name translated is the

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Speaker 1: digester or engine for softening bones, which isn't creepy at all.

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Speaker 1: That does. It made me think of Serial Killer in

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Speaker 1: the slightest but by but by attaching to this pressurized

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Speaker 1: chamber slighting piston, uh you know, and then heating the pot,

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Speaker 1: the expanding steam would push the piston up, and then

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Speaker 1: the vacuum created when the steam cooled liquid liquid would

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Speaker 1: pull the piston back downtcha um. And this is going

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Speaker 1: to become extremely important very soon. Yeah. Uh. There were

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Speaker 1: a lot of other people who were thinking about steam

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Speaker 1: engines at this time. So while you know, you would

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Speaker 1: argue that steam engines really didn't come into play until

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Speaker 1: the mid seventeen hundreds, it was the sixteen hundreds where

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Speaker 1: we had lots of people theorizing about it. They were

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Speaker 1: kind of laying the groundwork that would allow the The

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Speaker 1: following scientists engineers, mechanics, you know, just interesting people who

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Speaker 1: who thought about steam power and began to put it

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Speaker 1: to our to a practical application. They would follow and

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Speaker 1: build upon the discoveries that the their forefathers had come

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Speaker 1: up with, and those included people like Jacob Besson. There's

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Speaker 1: a little guy named Leonardo da vinci Um. He had

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Speaker 1: three turtle friends, as I recall, and was trained by

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Speaker 1: a rat uh Florence Vault, Thomas Grant, Edward Ford. Lots

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Speaker 1: of people were really talking about steam at this time,

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Speaker 1: and then that leads us up to a fellow who

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Speaker 1: patented an idea in six Thomas Savory, and he was

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Speaker 1: the one who who was really interested in this idea

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Speaker 1: of using the condensing steam to do work right. Well, okay,

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Speaker 1: so it's a little bit of background on what he

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Speaker 1: what he patented. So coal mines were booming at this

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Speaker 1: time because England was facing this timber crisis. There were

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Speaker 1: increases in ship building and lots of firewood being used,

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Speaker 1: so so coal mining was becoming huge all right. So

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Speaker 1: cole was starting to become the fuel of choice in England,

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Speaker 1: and of course that would remain true for the next

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Speaker 1: couple of centuries and so he patented this thing that

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Speaker 1: he called the miners friend Um because a problem in

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Speaker 1: coal mines as you wind up getting water in places

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Speaker 1: where you really don't want water, and like where there

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Speaker 1: are people underground or where you're yeah, exactly where you're

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Speaker 1: trying to work, and it's much harder when in there,

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Speaker 1: you know, would completely submerged exactly. We'll talk more about

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Speaker 1: that in the podcast that we're going to record immediately

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Speaker 1: after this one. But so, but so he uh so

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Speaker 1: he patented this thing that I don't again like, I

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Speaker 1: don't think he ever built it. Yeah, it was a

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Speaker 1: design for a device that could pump water out of minds,

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Speaker 1: using a steam powered apparatus to to operate the pump.

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Speaker 1: But again, you're not using steam to push something. It

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Speaker 1: was a design where the condensing steam would create a

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Speaker 1: pulling force that would move some sort of piston or

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Speaker 1: which in turn would move some sort of lever that

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Speaker 1: in turn would operate a pump and pull water out.

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Speaker 1: One of the problems was that it was even based

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Speaker 1: just on the does ligne, they could tell that it

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Speaker 1: was going to be fairly limited in how far it

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Speaker 1: could draw water. Something like you know, between twenty and

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Speaker 1: thirty feet maybe um, and that would be something that

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Speaker 1: future engineers would improve upon. Hate to interrupt this steamy conversation,

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Speaker 1: but it's time for us to take a quick break.

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Speaker 1: All right, Let's get back into talking about steam engines.

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Speaker 1: So we have worked our way up to seventeen twelve

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Speaker 1: when a fellow named Thomas Newcoming invents a steam engine

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Speaker 1: that is following along the same lines as Thomas Savory's idea,

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Speaker 1: the idea to pump water from mines. The basic design

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Speaker 1: was like this. You had a boiler, and the boiler's purpose,

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Speaker 1: of course, is to hold the water and to allow

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Speaker 1: that to heat up to steam. Right, So the steam

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Speaker 1: would move into a cylinder which had a piston in it.

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Speaker 1: But again, it wasn't meant to push the piston. The

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Speaker 1: pistons natural resting place was at the top of the

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Speaker 1: cylinder because the piston was attached to kind of a

430
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:08,240
Speaker 1: counter lever arm and the other end of the arm

431
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:10,600
Speaker 1: was pulled down by gravity. It was meant to be

432
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,160
Speaker 1: heavier than the side that the piston was attached to, right,

433
00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:17,240
Speaker 1: And so when the steam would cool, it would condense,

434
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:19,200
Speaker 1: and then the force of the vacuum that created would

435
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:23,000
Speaker 1: pull the piston down and the lift to the other

436
00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:26,240
Speaker 1: side of the which would operate the pump. So here

437
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 1: you've got this pulling suction that is moving the piston downward,

438
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 1: lifting the other end of this this lever up, and

439
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 1: that in turn was using it was actually activating the pump,

440
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:40,679
Speaker 1: pulling the water out of the mine. And the the

441
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:42,600
Speaker 1: way this would work is that once you had that

442
00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:46,240
Speaker 1: steam cool down, uh, the way they would cool it

443
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:49,200
Speaker 1: down is actually inject water into the cylinder. So you've

444
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,439
Speaker 1: got the cylinder, it's heated up, you've got the in

445
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 1: fact that heat was the cylinder was quite warmed. They

446
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 1: had to cool the cylinder down to condense the steam

447
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:59,359
Speaker 1: back into water. So the inject water into it helps

448
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:02,439
Speaker 1: cool the steam down, pulls the piston down, and then

449
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:05,119
Speaker 1: they would allow the water to heat up again. The

450
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:09,200
Speaker 1: steam would slowly enter into this uh cylinder as gravity

451
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:11,920
Speaker 1: was pulling the other end of the lever, the heavier

452
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,480
Speaker 1: end back down again. That pulls the piston back to

453
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 1: the up resting place and steam would fill the cylinder again.

454
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,239
Speaker 1: You'd have to cool it down again. You do this

455
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 1: over and over again. Now, if you're listening and you're thinking, wow,

456
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:26,000
Speaker 1: that that sounds like that might not be terribly efficient.

457
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 1: You're right, because it meant that you had to keep

458
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:31,960
Speaker 1: cooling and heating that cylinder over and over, which meant

459
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 1: that you had to continuously burn fuel so that you

460
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:39,840
Speaker 1: could continuously heat the water to create this this section.

461
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 1: And furthermore, I have other people working to cool down

462
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: the cylinder. However, all of this was still more efficient

463
00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:47,879
Speaker 1: than housing an entire team of horses to do the

464
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:51,119
Speaker 1: same war right, right, And so it ended up actually

465
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 1: being such a useful device that they were used well

466
00:24:55,880 --> 00:25:01,000
Speaker 1: after improved devices were made, so up until the nineteen yeah, yeah,

467
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:03,639
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't until like it was in the

468
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:07,399
Speaker 1: late seventeen sixties when you would get a big improvement

469
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:11,080
Speaker 1: over this design. But even then, even after that improvement

470
00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: was made, these were very reliable pumps and have been

471
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:16,760
Speaker 1: used for quite some time. You can actually see one

472
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:20,480
Speaker 1: if you go to Dearborn, Michigan. There's the Henry Ford

473
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:24,360
Speaker 1: Museum and they have on display one of Newcomen's actual engines.

474
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 1: So this is one of the ones that dates back

475
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 1: to the early eighteenth century, which I think is awesome.

476
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 1: I totally want to do a text stuff series where

477
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 1: we go to different museums and see and talk about

478
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 1: this kind of stuff. If anyone wants to invest. Yeah,

479
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,879
Speaker 1: so hey, if you guys all think that's a great idea,

480
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 1: let us know and we'll pass those along to Discovery,

481
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 1: because I don't know how I'm going to swing this

482
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 1: on my own other than you know, really working on

483
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:56,639
Speaker 1: my hitchhiking skills. Lauren's nodding. Okay, so anyway, that's great radio,

484
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:00,080
Speaker 1: But no so so, like I said, this was not

485
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:02,679
Speaker 1: terribly efficient because of the cooling and the heating of

486
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 1: that cylinder. Right, So, if you could find a way

487
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:08,480
Speaker 1: of creating this vacuum to cool the steam down but

488
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,960
Speaker 1: to not have to worry about heating and cooling the

489
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,320
Speaker 1: cylinder itself, thus wasting fuel, you could make this a

490
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 1: much more efficient system. And, as it turns out, and

491
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:23,639
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty nine, James Watt can put the plans for

492
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,200
Speaker 1: this one. Now. He's the guy who often we credit

493
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:28,399
Speaker 1: as the inventor of the steam engine. Though all you

494
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:32,000
Speaker 1: guys have been listening, you know that's not exactly true,

495
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 1: because he really just took this new Coomman engine and

496
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,240
Speaker 1: added a separate condenser to it. Right, So, what he

497
00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: did was he essentially added a separate chamber that connects

498
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:42,919
Speaker 1: to the cylinder, and so the cylinder would fill up

499
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 1: with steam and then move into the separate chamber where

500
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:48,920
Speaker 1: it would condense, and still you would still get the vacuum.

501
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:51,800
Speaker 1: But because you didn't have to worry about heating or

502
00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:55,159
Speaker 1: cooling the cylinder itself, you didn't have to use as

503
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 1: much fuel. And as a result, depending upon which source

504
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:01,200
Speaker 1: you read, they say he didn't have to worry about

505
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:04,480
Speaker 1: cooling the celinder, just let it continually exactly because we

506
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:07,560
Speaker 1: knew when the boiler exactly, you didn't have to Yeah,

507
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 1: you didn't have to keep on burning fuel to take

508
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 1: compensate for the fact that you had to use water

509
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 1: to cool it down. So according to some sources, that

510
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: would mean that you say, between fifty and sev of

511
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:24,400
Speaker 1: the fuel you would usually use to operate the steam engine. Well,

512
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 1: that's what made steam engines suddenly practical from a fuel standpoint.

513
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:32,439
Speaker 1: So they had are even proven to be able to

514
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 1: do practical work, but they weren't very efficient. They used

515
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:38,000
Speaker 1: so much fuel that it became one of those questions

516
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,240
Speaker 1: of well is it even worth it to invest in this?

517
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,439
Speaker 1: Uh and then with this invention, it made the steam

518
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:47,720
Speaker 1: engine something that was truly possible in lots of different applications.

519
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 1: And that's when we really saw a figurative explosion and

520
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:57,159
Speaker 1: steam technology. There were some literal ones. In fact, that

521
00:27:57,200 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 1: was one of the things what was really concerned about.

522
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 1: He wanted to continue working in low pressure boilers, low

523
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:08,399
Speaker 1: pressure steam engines because he felt that any sort of

524
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,920
Speaker 1: high pressure application was far too dangerous to be practical.

525
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 1: And he spoke out, yea and uh. The thing was

526
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,640
Speaker 1: that in other areas of industry there were lots of improvements,

527
00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 1: like in machining and metalworking, so there were people who

528
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:28,800
Speaker 1: were working on building stronger, more secure boilers and engines

529
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:33,160
Speaker 1: that could handle high pressure. What was just very cautious

530
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: about the whole thing. So it was one of those

531
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: the development of high pressure engines would wait for another

532
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 1: probably forty years or so. Um. But anyway, what stuff.

533
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: He became known as a genius in his own time.

534
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 1: Everyone was crediting him with the creation of this magnificent technology. Um.

535
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,320
Speaker 1: I'm sure that he was happy to receive that. But

536
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:02,480
Speaker 1: in the same or that when he created these improvements

537
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 1: to the newcoman engine, there was another fellow, Nicholas Kugno,

538
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 1: a French military officer, who developed a steam powered car,

539
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 1: and it was designed to toe artillery pieces and it

540
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: could only move it about two miles per hour, which

541
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 1: is about three point two kilometers per hour, and so

542
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:21,720
Speaker 1: it was never really used. It wasn't really seen as

543
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:25,120
Speaker 1: practical the idea here because it wasn't. Yeah. I read

544
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 1: about it being um it being displayed in Paris where

545
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:31,160
Speaker 1: they were running it and it ran into a wall.

546
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:33,440
Speaker 1: But since it ran to a wall two miles per hour,

547
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 1: no one noticed. That's a true story. Um. Yeah, So anyway,

548
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 1: it was. But it was an early example of a

549
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 1: steam powered car, if you can call it that. It

550
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 1: really looked more like a like a long wooden dolly

551
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:52,080
Speaker 1: with a huge boiler on the end of it. Um.

552
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:54,200
Speaker 1: It certainly didn't look like a car the way we

553
00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 1: would think of a car today, But it was designed

554
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 1: to tow artillery. Yeah. We will get into some actual

555
00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:04,200
Speaker 1: steampowered cars very soon. Uh so sight that's when James

556
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 1: Picard and Matthew Wassboro build a steam engine with rotary motion.

557
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: So this is using various levers and other devices like

558
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 1: a crankshaft to transfer this reciprocal motion, which is that

559
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:22,200
Speaker 1: up and down motion of a piston, into a rotational motion. Now,

560
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 1: those of you who listen to our transmission episode will

561
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:27,000
Speaker 1: know all about this, and that's why I'm not going

562
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,960
Speaker 1: to go over it again because that episode nearly broke us.

563
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 1: It was about cars, which I don't know if you

564
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,040
Speaker 1: guys have picked up on this. I'm not a big expert.

565
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: Neither of us are really gearhead should have grabbed Scott probably, yeah, anyway,

566
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:46,240
Speaker 1: but yes, it trans translated this reciprocating motion into rotational force.

567
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 1: So that ended up being another important development, Um, although

568
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 1: it wasn't really used in a practical sense for a

569
00:30:54,080 --> 00:31:00,040
Speaker 1: while longer. Um There's one had another terrific addition to

570
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 1: to his engine, and that was three. He created a

571
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:06,000
Speaker 1: double acting engine, right right, Well, this was an idea

572
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 1: that ends up being really important in steam engines later on,

573
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: although mostly used in high pressure engines not low pressure engines.

574
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 1: The idea of being that you can you have a

575
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 1: cylinder that has valves on either end of the cylinder,

576
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,719
Speaker 1: and so as the piston is moving toward one side,

577
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 1: steam is escaping out of that side and it's you know,

578
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: it's increasing on the other side, right, and then once

579
00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 1: it gets to the end, the valve switch and so

580
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 1: the piston moves to the other side and steam is

581
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: coming into one end and escaping out the other. Now,

582
00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 1: with Watt's designs, of course, we're talking about using that

583
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:41,160
Speaker 1: suction force, so it's the condensing that's pulling the piston

584
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: from one side to the other. But later double action

585
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 1: steam engines would actually use steam force to push the

586
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,600
Speaker 1: piston one side and then on the other side. In fact,

587
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 1: that's how most of the locomotive steam engines used steam.

588
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 1: Um and man, I love those locomotives too, But then,

589
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: you know, I think every kid who got to play

590
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 1: with them was fascinated. Certainly people like Walt Disney became

591
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:10,840
Speaker 1: obsessed with them. I think that's a safe term. But

592
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:12,960
Speaker 1: then we started seeing steam engines used in lots of

593
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,120
Speaker 1: different ways. We're getting up to the eighteen hundreds now,

594
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: and that's really where the steam era takes off and

595
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 1: you start seeing steamboats, paddle steamers, locomotives. In eighteen o one,

596
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 1: a man named Richard trevithi it was an English miner

597
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 1: and engineer, built a steam powered locomotive called the puffing devil.

598
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: It could go on short trips, but only on short

599
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 1: trips because he had trouble keeping the water hot enough

600
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:42,000
Speaker 1: to generate steam consistently. That actually was a real issue

601
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:44,600
Speaker 1: with a lot of steam engines, the idea of how

602
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 1: do you how do you heat the boiler properly? And

603
00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:50,080
Speaker 1: I believe his engines were the first that we're using

604
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:52,800
Speaker 1: steam to actually push pistons rather than the condensation in

605
00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:56,240
Speaker 1: the vacuum to pulse exactly. Trevith was of the school

606
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 1: of thought that high pressure steam engines their time had come.

607
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,920
Speaker 1: It was safe enough, you could do it. What again

608
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:06,480
Speaker 1: was not sold on this idea, but Trevor think certainly

609
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:08,880
Speaker 1: thought that this was something that you could do. And

610
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:13,840
Speaker 1: the early ones were still pretty inefficient. They weren't terribly fast. Um.

611
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:19,640
Speaker 1: He would eventually build a little locomotive for for amusement.

612
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,120
Speaker 1: Really it wasn't meant as a form of transportation. It

613
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: was called the catch me who can at a top

614
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,479
Speaker 1: speed of twelve miles per hour, which is about nineteen

615
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 1: kilometers per hour. I think I think this was in

616
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 1: display in London. Some track was already laid around the

617
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 1: UK and the rest of Europe because horses would use

618
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 1: the track to pull pully tim pole cards along, right, exactly, yeah, exactiently.

619
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 1: In fact, you have the birth of the locomotive is

620
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 1: really an English thing. We think of it as a

621
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:49,480
Speaker 1: very American thing here in the United States because it

622
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:52,760
Speaker 1: was so defining of that era, as we really like

623
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 1: to just take ownership of everything we do. I mean,

624
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 1: you know, it's that wall is not so great China. Well,

625
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,200
Speaker 1: think we need to take another quick break because I've

626
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:06,240
Speaker 1: got the vapors. Not not really, it's just that's that's

627
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 1: steam related, Okay bye. In eighteen o four, London brewery

628
00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:22,800
Speaker 1: engineer named Arthur Wolfe improved this high pressure boiler design

629
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: through something called compounding, which uses excess steam from one

630
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,240
Speaker 1: piston to fire a second piston and then a third.

631
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:32,480
Speaker 1: This creates less heat loss in the system and winds

632
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:34,600
Speaker 1: up with you know, you have to burn less fuel,

633
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 1: which is great more efficiency again, making it more of

634
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:42,879
Speaker 1: a practical power solution. And uh, moving up to seven.

635
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,760
Speaker 1: That's when another big name and steam engines this someone

636
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 1: Anyone who has followed the story of steamboats, anyone who's

637
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:52,359
Speaker 1: familiar with Mark Twain is going to know this name.

638
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:56,480
Speaker 1: Robert Fulton. He introduced the first steamship to provide regular

639
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 1: passenger service in America. Average speed of the steamship was

640
00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 1: five miles per hour or eight kilometers per hour. Yeah. Well,

641
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:06,600
Speaker 1: you know, if you don't have to paddle, it's fast enough.

642
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:10,880
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's it's uh. And again it's one

643
00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:13,400
Speaker 1: of those things that another one those defining images in

644
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:16,480
Speaker 1: American history. You think back to things like, you know,

645
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:18,799
Speaker 1: like the Mark Twain stories, and they all have this

646
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:23,719
Speaker 1: sort of evocative image of the great steamship. Of course,

647
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: Mark Twain was a steamship. Yeah, yeah, yeah, um. And

648
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 1: in fact, Mark Twain, that's a steamship term. It's actually

649
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:34,880
Speaker 1: a term for how deep the water is, which you

650
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:36,839
Speaker 1: would know if you ever have sailed on the rivers

651
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 1: of America. In Disney World, just pay attention on on

652
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 1: that boat, because they'll tell you all this. That's where

653
00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:46,319
Speaker 1: I got it. So I'm citing my source, uh, Disney World.

654
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:48,440
Speaker 1: I was just there. I don't know if you know that.

655
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 1: That's that's where he was. George Stevenson, he was another

656
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:58,160
Speaker 1: English engineer, and he built a steam locomotive to run

657
00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:01,840
Speaker 1: on rails, yep, and it carried thirty tons of coal

658
00:36:02,239 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 1: four d fifty feet uphill at four miles per hour

659
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,839
Speaker 1: or six kilometers per hour, which doesn't doesn't sound like much,

660
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:11,400
Speaker 1: but that's a huge amount of weight to have to transfer,

661
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:15,479
Speaker 1: and it was a huge improvement over traffics version, which

662
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 1: could haul about ten tons of iron about ten miles.

663
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,399
Speaker 1: So although it didn't go very far, it certainly had

664
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 1: to carry a lot of stuff and up an incline,

665
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 1: so you know, it was a big improvement over taking

666
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:32,000
Speaker 1: like a super long route in order to avoid having

667
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,239
Speaker 1: to go up an incline like that. UM Now at

668
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:38,080
Speaker 1: this stage the steam engines worked with this. Like I said,

669
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:40,960
Speaker 1: the steam press is on either side where you've got

670
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:43,320
Speaker 1: the piston with the valves there. The valve will control

671
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:45,760
Speaker 1: where the steam can enter and where it can exit.

672
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:48,399
Speaker 1: So the steam comes in one side. Now this case

673
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:50,400
Speaker 1: we do have the steam pressing right, so the steam

674
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:52,719
Speaker 1: comes in on one side of the cylinder, pushes the

675
00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:58,000
Speaker 1: piston across. The steam exits out as uh of one

676
00:36:58,000 --> 00:36:59,919
Speaker 1: part of the valve while steam comes into the other

677
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 1: into the cylinder, the piston keeps that that seal steam

678
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 1: tight and then the piston moves back across the way

679
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,360
Speaker 1: it came the first time. Uh, and you've got this

680
00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 1: this process of a stroke exhaust and then the second

681
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:16,839
Speaker 1: stroke and it's exhaust and it goes over and over

682
00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:19,920
Speaker 1: and over again. Meanwhile, you would have the piston attached

683
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,520
Speaker 1: to some other form of device that would help, uh,

684
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:27,920
Speaker 1: move the whole project, whatever it happens to be. So

685
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:31,200
Speaker 1: with a locomotive, it might be a lever that is

686
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:34,719
Speaker 1: then connected to a wheel. So one move of the

687
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 1: piston would be a half turn of the wheel, and

688
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 1: the move of the piston going back the other way

689
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:41,000
Speaker 1: it would be the other half turn. And that's where

690
00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:43,640
Speaker 1: you get that locomotive force where you can have the

691
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,800
Speaker 1: train moving down the track and having that steam escape

692
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:51,759
Speaker 1: is what gives the trains there choo choo sound. That's true.

693
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:54,400
Speaker 1: So you know when you hear the sound of the

694
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 1: steam escaping and it goes over and over. What's why

695
00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:01,080
Speaker 1: kids called trains choo choose the thing? They do it anymore,

696
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:04,520
Speaker 1: or if they do, it's kind of that skew morphism thing.

697
00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: Because of course, you don't have many steam powered trains

698
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:09,919
Speaker 1: these days unless you go to Walt Disney World, where

699
00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:13,160
Speaker 1: you can write a train around Main Street, USA, and

700
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,319
Speaker 1: this podcast, strangely enough, is not brought to you by

701
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:19,279
Speaker 1: Disney World. No, no, I was brought to you by

702
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:23,359
Speaker 1: Disney World, apparently, I believe. Usually on steam locomotives, it's

703
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 1: called it it's called a crosshead. The the portion that

704
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,520
Speaker 1: links out from this piston, and that's going to be

705
00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:32,080
Speaker 1: connected to something called a drive rod, and then coupling

706
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:34,160
Speaker 1: rods are going to what going to be what drives

707
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,440
Speaker 1: the wheels. Yeah. I usually do have to have a

708
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:40,240
Speaker 1: couple of different elements in here to translate the motion properly,

709
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,840
Speaker 1: because otherwise, again you've got that reciprocating motion, which is

710
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:47,120
Speaker 1: just going in two directions. Right, it's either going up

711
00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: and down or left and right. However, you know, it

712
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:51,720
Speaker 1: depends on your orientation and the orientation of the device.

713
00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 1: But that limits what you can do unless you use

714
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:58,520
Speaker 1: other gadgets to kind of translate that motion into something

715
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:01,120
Speaker 1: that can do useful work. I mean, unless you just

716
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:04,560
Speaker 1: need to open and close the door repeatedly, then then

717
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 1: you could just have a pole attached to it. But

718
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:10,960
Speaker 1: otherwise you would need something more more versatile. So by

719
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:14,879
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty five, steam locomotives were starting to be used

720
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,280
Speaker 1: to haul passengers on a regular basis at that point.

721
00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:21,080
Speaker 1: Before then, it was pretty much used in cargo, right.

722
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: I think the very I think five was the very

723
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:27,240
Speaker 1: first ride of a passenger steam locomotive. That was George

724
00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 1: Stevenson's Locomotion number one. It carried some cargo and maybe

725
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:34,319
Speaker 1: about six hundred passengers or so, and that was that

726
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,879
Speaker 1: was its maiden voyage. I hear that everybody was doing

727
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:41,560
Speaker 1: a brand new dance now to do the locomotion. Okay,

728
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:43,640
Speaker 1: Laurence shaking her head again. So I guess I need

729
00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:47,759
Speaker 1: to move on alright, So eight hundreds from all the

730
00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 1: way through eighteen eighty, we're gonna make a big skip

731
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:51,560
Speaker 1: unless you have something you want to add in that.

732
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 1: Uh not really, no, I guess I guess I could

733
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:56,160
Speaker 1: put in at this point that the popular kind of

734
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,640
Speaker 1: boiler that was being used at this time, and and

735
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:01,799
Speaker 1: this is going to become in for safety reasons. The

736
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:04,160
Speaker 1: popular kind of boiler was a fire tube boiler, which

737
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,360
Speaker 1: basically consists of a tank of water perforated with furnace

738
00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:11,440
Speaker 1: pipes and the you know, the hot gases from generated

739
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:14,200
Speaker 1: from the fire from the fire in these pipes that

740
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 1: are going through this cylinder of water are what is

741
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:19,880
Speaker 1: heating the water. It's a pretty efficient way to do it,

742
00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:22,759
Speaker 1: but it also means that the whole tank is under

743
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure. So therefore if at burst, it's

744
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:26,680
Speaker 1: going to lead to that big scary explosion that we

745
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier. Right. So the heating element here

746
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 1: are these these pipes that run through the boiler. The

747
00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:34,839
Speaker 1: water surrounds the pipes, the pipes get hot because of

748
00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:37,920
Speaker 1: the fires creating these hot gases. You also, by the way,

749
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,360
Speaker 1: have to have something to vent the hot gases out of,

750
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:44,120
Speaker 1: so so you didn't just have steam venting out, you

751
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:47,320
Speaker 1: actually had hot air hot gases venting out to based

752
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:49,880
Speaker 1: from whatever the heat source was. See, that was one

753
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:52,719
Speaker 1: of the problems that earlier inventors had run into, was

754
00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:54,160
Speaker 1: that they were trying to figure out a way of

755
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:56,520
Speaker 1: creating this hot water, and some of them were doing

756
00:40:56,520 --> 00:41:00,320
Speaker 1: things like using a red hot iron uh inserted uneath

757
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 1: the boiler. But that heat starts to dissipate, and once

758
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:06,000
Speaker 1: it does, you don't have power anymore. So it was

759
00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:08,319
Speaker 1: only through creating something that would be allow you to

760
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:11,200
Speaker 1: generate a fire and continuate generate. So even though we

761
00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:13,879
Speaker 1: talk about steam powered trains. Have you ever seen those

762
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:17,120
Speaker 1: movies where they're shoveling coal into a furnace, Well, you

763
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:19,920
Speaker 1: have to generate the steam, right, It's not the trains

764
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:23,560
Speaker 1: not running on coal. The coal is what's generating the

765
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:26,960
Speaker 1: heat in the fire. It's it's the fuel that creates

766
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:29,400
Speaker 1: the creates the heat that allows the water to boil,

767
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 1: that makes the train go, and the green grass grows

768
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 1: all around and around. So yeah, so moving up to

769
00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:41,600
Speaker 1: eight Between eighteen eighty, steam engines are used in practically

770
00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: every major industrial application, and in fact really both figuratively

771
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:51,839
Speaker 1: and literally drive the industrial revolution. Uh. In eighteen eighty

772
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:55,600
Speaker 1: Charles A. Parsons invinced the first steam turbine. So now

773
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:58,319
Speaker 1: we're getting into a way of using steam to not

774
00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:04,399
Speaker 1: just push something mechanically, but also generate electricity, which would

775
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:09,000
Speaker 1: become really important as well. Uh. In eight are actually

776
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 1: really eighteen six is when we first start seeing steam

777
00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:15,560
Speaker 1: powered cars in the United States, the Stanley Steamer being

778
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:20,120
Speaker 1: the popular model, also affectionately called flying teapots. Have you

779
00:42:20,160 --> 00:42:22,000
Speaker 1: ever seen a picture of these? They really do look

780
00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:25,399
Speaker 1: like horseless carriages. When you hear that term, it looks

781
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,839
Speaker 1: like it's a carriage that's missing a horse in front

782
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:30,719
Speaker 1: of it, and it's got one usually one lever that

783
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 1: you use for steering, and that's it, and uh, you

784
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 1: just uh, you know, god speed. They were really popular.

785
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 1: They went in this early kind of period, more than

786
00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:47,120
Speaker 1: sixty of them in the United States, and sixty that's

787
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 1: obviously a tiny number these days, but you're talking back

788
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 1: then where only a small sliver of the population would

789
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:57,200
Speaker 1: have had access to it, both monetarily and just opportunity

790
00:42:57,239 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: from opportunity's sake, you know, not everyone lived in in

791
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:02,600
Speaker 1: an area where they could get access to this. Also,

792
00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:05,560
Speaker 1: keep in mind that these machines were usually used for

793
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:09,520
Speaker 1: intercity travel. It's not something that the idea of traveling

794
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 1: across country really wasn't wasn't part of the automotive industry

795
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:17,320
Speaker 1: at that point, whether it was steam powered or gas

796
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:20,399
Speaker 1: powered or even electrically powered. We talked about electrical cars,

797
00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:25,120
Speaker 1: and they predate the gas engine vehicles as well. Um,

798
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,200
Speaker 1: if you wanted to go across the country, you've got

799
00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:30,480
Speaker 1: a train. You didn't you didn't drive your car at

800
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:34,319
Speaker 1: this time. But we get up to a sad time though,

801
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:36,760
Speaker 1: we're getting up to for those of us who happened

802
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:39,920
Speaker 1: to like that. Cho choose. Yeah, as of about nineteen sixty,

803
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:42,439
Speaker 1: we're going to see the end of the locomotive era. Yeah.

804
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:46,319
Speaker 1: You don't see many places producing steam powered trains these days.

805
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:49,160
Speaker 1: If they are, it's for some sort of amusement park

806
00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:52,520
Speaker 1: or something along those lines. It's not meant as a

807
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:54,920
Speaker 1: means of travel. There are some steam powered engines that

808
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:57,520
Speaker 1: are still in operation in various places around the world,

809
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:00,279
Speaker 1: but they aren't really being produced because we have alternative now,

810
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:03,000
Speaker 1: all right. Certainly by the nineteen thirties, people had started

811
00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:06,640
Speaker 1: to realize that internal combustion engines using gasoline as a

812
00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:10,719
Speaker 1: fuel were much more efficient and cheap to use than

813
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,320
Speaker 1: these than these external combustion engines, which is what a

814
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: steam engine is. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Um, So

815
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:20,760
Speaker 1: we start seeing this end of this era in around

816
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:24,200
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty, But it doesn't mean that we're no longer

817
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:27,920
Speaker 1: using steam engines. We still are, right right, partially because

818
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 1: we have improved the kind of boiler that's used. Water

819
00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:33,680
Speaker 1: tube boilers are kind of the inverse of that fire

820
00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:35,839
Speaker 1: tube boiler that I was talking about earlier. It's it's

821
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:38,880
Speaker 1: basically a furnace that's perforated with water pipes instead of

822
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:42,000
Speaker 1: being a water tank that's perforated with furnace pipes, and

823
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,080
Speaker 1: there's water inside of furnace. You've got tubes of water

824
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:48,280
Speaker 1: inside of furnace and uh and yeah, so so only

825
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:52,279
Speaker 1: those tubes are under pressure and therefore it's safer overall. Right,

826
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 1: there's less of a less of a chance for our

827
00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:58,279
Speaker 1: catastrophic breakdown. Although again with valves proper valving you you're

828
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:01,440
Speaker 1: pretty safe most of the time. And yeah, back in

829
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, you know, way back then, a team

830
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:09,320
Speaker 1: of engineers built a car called the Inspiration, which is

831
00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 1: steam powered high speed car uses a turbine engine, not

832
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: a piston engine, steam powered, and it broke the land

833
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:20,800
Speaker 1: speed record for steam powered vehicles. UM. The average speed

834
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:24,719
Speaker 1: was a breezy one forty eight miles power or two

835
00:45:25,560 --> 00:45:29,800
Speaker 1: kilometers prower. That's fast. Yeah, you're being powered by steam.

836
00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:31,799
Speaker 1: And I think I think that that is that's still

837
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:34,600
Speaker 1: the standing UH land speed record. I know that there's

838
00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:38,240
Speaker 1: another team working on it. There's a US steam team

839
00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:41,880
Speaker 1: that's working on building its own UH steam powered vehicle

840
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:44,879
Speaker 1: that they hope will break that record. But as far

841
00:45:44,920 --> 00:45:46,880
Speaker 1: as I know, that has not happened yet as of

842
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 1: the recording of this podcast. Yeah, and there is there.

843
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:52,760
Speaker 1: There are a few companies that are working on test

844
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:56,520
Speaker 1: versions of steam powered cars. There's one called Cyclone Cyclone

845
00:45:56,520 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 1: Power Technologies, which is working with Raytheon on the defense

846
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:03,759
Speaker 1: contractor at the moment, and in fact, the the U

847
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:06,839
Speaker 1: S team is working on a high speed vehicle called

848
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:09,200
Speaker 1: the Cyclone. That's what the name of the one that

849
00:46:09,239 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 1: they're hoping will break the records, the cycling. Yeah. Yeah,

850
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:15,359
Speaker 1: they're you know, they're producing these engines that would fit

851
00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:19,000
Speaker 1: in the you know, standard vehicle engine space. That's a

852
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:21,279
Speaker 1: big deal too. We didn't even mention that. But the

853
00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 1: steam engines of traditionally were very large because you had

854
00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:26,279
Speaker 1: to have a boiler, You had to have something that

855
00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:28,920
Speaker 1: could contain a lot of water to generate the steam

856
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:31,320
Speaker 1: you needed, and you know, you were venting that steam.

857
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:34,960
Speaker 1: So it wasn't like your recap capturing and reusing, and

858
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:36,919
Speaker 1: even if you did recapture it, especially with the old

859
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,160
Speaker 1: condenser models, even if you did recapture it, you were

860
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:43,080
Speaker 1: still losing some So it's it wasn't something that you

861
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:45,239
Speaker 1: could run indefinitely. You might be able to run it

862
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:47,040
Speaker 1: for a long time, but you know that's one of

863
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:50,440
Speaker 1: those challenges is trying to miniaturize something like steam power,

864
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:53,280
Speaker 1: which uh, you know it doesn't work so well. Also

865
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 1: turns out to be a big part of the steampunk movement,

866
00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:59,960
Speaker 1: this kind of idea of avoiding the miniaturization. You know,

867
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:03,319
Speaker 1: you want these kind of bulky things that have lots

868
00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:07,640
Speaker 1: of character to them. You know, they're shiny and brassy, unuseful,

869
00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:10,120
Speaker 1: but really full of characters. Yeah, no, it's got lots

870
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:12,640
Speaker 1: of character. It's just looks like, Wow, you know, that's

871
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:16,040
Speaker 1: a great, uh steampunk version of a mobile device, and

872
00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:21,000
Speaker 1: it only weighs seventy pounds and burns every time you

873
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:23,520
Speaker 1: use it, right, Well, you know that would obviously you

874
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:26,240
Speaker 1: would be much more frugal with your use. You wouldn't

875
00:47:26,239 --> 00:47:28,480
Speaker 1: be picking up your smartphone every five seconds at dinner.

876
00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:31,600
Speaker 1: I'm speaking about my own personal behavior at this point.

877
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:34,960
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's still other companies that are developing steam

878
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 1: engines for power generation, usually for places in the world

879
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:41,200
Speaker 1: that are not on a power grid and therefore do

880
00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:45,520
Speaker 1: not have access to electricity. There's one called a uniflow Power,

881
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:50,040
Speaker 1: which is unveiled a generator back in steam generator, steam

882
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:54,240
Speaker 1: powered generator, I should say, didn't generate steam. You generated

883
00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 1: power through steam. Um. But it was meant to help

884
00:47:58,040 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 1: communities that are not direct connected to power grids to

885
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:04,280
Speaker 1: to deliver electricity to parts of the world that otherwise

886
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: would not have it. So we're seeing steam still being

887
00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:10,480
Speaker 1: used in applications today. Absolutely, And I mean, you know,

888
00:48:10,520 --> 00:48:12,839
Speaker 1: I want to point out that most of the electricity

889
00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:16,840
Speaker 1: generated is technically steam general. Sure, I mean that's what

890
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:20,040
Speaker 1: nuclear power is, that's what a coal power plant is, right, Yeah, Yeah,

891
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:22,760
Speaker 1: we're talking you're burning a fuel that is generating steam

892
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:27,919
Speaker 1: that is turning usually yeah, exactly. Even things like the

893
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 1: plasma waste converters. I've talked about those in the past

894
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:32,919
Speaker 1: where they've talked about using the excess heat in order

895
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:35,920
Speaker 1: to generate steam that would turn turbines and be kind

896
00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:38,600
Speaker 1: of a co located with a power generator. So you'd

897
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:42,400
Speaker 1: have a trash disposal and power generation unit all put together.

898
00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 1: But it's using steam to do that. It means plasma

899
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: to to break down the trash power a level of

900
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:52,799
Speaker 1: efficiency of of how hot you can get water, how

901
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:56,120
Speaker 1: quickly with how the work? Yeah, and then how can

902
00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:58,719
Speaker 1: you how can you take something that normally would just

903
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:01,680
Speaker 1: be considered a waste eye product and turn it into

904
00:49:01,920 --> 00:49:05,080
Speaker 1: useful stuff. You know, heat. We often think of all,

905
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 1: we lost a lot of our energy through heat. But

906
00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:09,080
Speaker 1: if you can recapture that heat and make it do

907
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:11,000
Speaker 1: work like you can with steam power, then you're in

908
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:13,000
Speaker 1: good shape. So yeah, that kind of wraps up our

909
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:16,120
Speaker 1: discussion about steam engines. Uh, this was a fun one

910
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:18,680
Speaker 1: to do. It's totally another one of those look backs

911
00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:22,000
Speaker 1: on on the technology of days of your that are

912
00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:26,759
Speaker 1: still relevant today. I hope you guys enjoyed that classic episode.

913
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 1: If you have suggestions for future topics of current episodes

914
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:33,080
Speaker 1: of tech Stuff, send it to me via Twitter. The

915
00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:35,880
Speaker 1: handle is text stuff hs W and I'll talk to

916
00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:43,640
Speaker 1: you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart

917
00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:47,479
Speaker 1: Radio production. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit

918
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:50,640
Speaker 1: the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

919
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:52,040
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.