The public today is misled when it comes to why steam technology is not developing. The average opinion is that steam technologies are outdated and have been replaced by more advanced ones. In fact, this is not the case, because all nuclear power plants and submarines are steam technologies. That is, they have not disappeared anywhere, they were simply ripped out of the hands of the public for the sake of those in power.
Remember the article "Hybrid technologies", where it was reported that the power of steam inventions was underestimated a thousand times and was not covered at all? So, those who tried to get acquainted with this topic may notice an amazing thing that in the publications of the "first steam tractor" many authors contradict each other, in each publication they indicate different inventors who were the first and what was the first model of the steam tractor. The most truthful are those who state "when the first steam engine was, it is not known for certain." And how can this be known, if patent law, introduced in Great Britain and very jealously protected by British laws, until 1800 did not allow anyone to build self-propelled carriages with a steam power plant. We also remember that the 1700s and 1800s … this is the time when it is not right,that libraries and archives all over the world burned, but also entire stone cities with ancient skyscrapers.
Secondly, according to tradition, they push us under the guise of the first tractor, they say, impractical, unadapted, low-tech and ugly such an image:
And in few places it is written that this is not just a steam tractor. This is a home plant transportable steam engine! A sawmill, a mill, a home weaving factory could work from it, it can be used as a generator for generating electricity, and in general it can be modernized for any type of production at home. That is, in the late Middle Ages, people could afford such a mechanical luxury that we can only envy. For that, people who are looking into their palms are told that not to work for an uncle, but to have their own business and their own industry, this is primitiveness.
Although everything is exactly the opposite. Economist Brian Arthur wrote, “In 1890 there were three ways to move cars - with steam, gasoline, and electricity. And one of them is the worst - gasoline. But the capitalists started to develop what? That's right, the most useless technology and supplant the most necessary.
The crowd was told that steam transport is slow, which is a complete misinformation, because few people know that steam cars successfully competed with cars with internal combustion engines until the 1930s. In the 1800s, steam cars rushed through city streets with might and main, developing decent even by today's standards of speed. In January 1906, Fred Marriott on a steam train with a surprisingly modest name "Rocket", accelerated to 205.4 km / h. "Raketa" overtook not only any car of that time, but even an airplane. The following year, the illustrious racer crashed - again in a steam car. As the investigation showed, at a speed of 240 km / h. At this time, gasoline-powered vehicles crawled at a snail's speed.
They differed from their gasoline counterparts in their extreme durability and reliability. Needless to say, if steam engines are still widely used in the UK. They could work on anything that burns - coal, wood, straw. Plus, do not forget the boiler can be heated with electricity, which can be obtained from the battery, from the sun, and from the movement of the transport itself.
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The engineers of that time argued that the internal combustion engine was not suitable for transport: it cannot be started without opening the transmission, it is enough to slow down it, and it stalls. The internal combustion engine does not develop sufficient traction over the entire speed range, and it has to be supplemented with a gearbox. Now look at the steam engine. She has the ability to automatically adapt to road conditions. If the resistance to motion increases, it slows down the rotation and increases the torque. If the resistance to movement decreases, it spins faster and faster.
The main advantage of steam engines is that they can use almost any heat source to convert it into mechanical work. Steam locomotives perform well at high altitudes, since their efficiency does not decrease due to low atmospheric pressure. Another advantage is low environmental pollution.
At the time of the Union, a steam car was produced at the Moscow Automobile Plant - the usual turn of the ignition key - and after 45 seconds the car starts to move. Another couple of minutes - and he is ready to start accelerating to a speed of 150 km / h with an acceleration of 2.7 m / s2. Riding a steam car is a pleasure. It moves silently and smoothly. Once in the cabin of such a steam engine, Malinin and Professor Chudakov sat down. They sat down and sit in complete silence. Only the professor presses the buttons and looks at the instruments. The engineer got bored and asks: "Isn't it time to go?" “And we have been going for a long time,” the professor replies. The speedometer showed 20 km / h - a decent value for those times. By our understanding, the streets were deserted then. But to hear the noise of a steam car even on such a street, one had to put one's ear to the exhaust pipe of the steam generator. An explanation is also required here. The engine of the Doble-Besler car operated in a closed cycle with steam condensation. 70 liters of water was enough for 500 km of driving. It was necessary to let off steam on the street only on rare occasions. Therefore, with well-made mechanisms in the car, nothing could simply make noise, and only the noise of a flame could be heard from the steam generator.
Let's look at the pre-revolutionary powerful royal steam tractor "Putilovets":
And here is a steam tap at Gisburne (New Zealand), 1889:
Let me remind you that in addition to steam transport, electric transport was also widely developed - combine these two technologies, as they did in the past, and we get absolutely fuel-free horseless! Let's read a little more literature from the network from people who studied steam technologies in order to understand - everyone who has not superficially heard about steam technologies, but studied, all these people unanimously say that the murder of steam technologies and not their development is dulling.
By our understanding, the streets were deserted then. But to hear the noise of a steam car even on such a street, one had to put one's ear to the exhaust pipe of the steam generator. An explanation is also required here. The engine of the Doble-Besler car worked in a closed cycle with steam condensation. Seventy liters of water was enough for a 500 km drive. It was necessary to let off steam on the street only on rare occasions. Therefore, with well-made mechanisms in the car, nothing could simply make noise, and only the noise of a flame could be heard from the steam generator.
Imagine this picture - the car does not make noise, does not hum, you sit behind it, like with a book by a comin or like a fire, frying a barbecue
Unlike steam technologies, the combustion of fuel in the cylinder of an internal combustion engine (ICE) occurs at a constantly changing amount of oxygen and temperature, which leads to the formation of a huge volume of toxic substances. A passenger car for an hour of work produces enough of them to kill more than one person. In the burner of a steam generator, all processes take place under constant and best conditions, therefore the toxicity of the exhaust of a steam car is hundreds of times lower than that of a car with an internal combustion engine.
The steam generator, which turned the locomobile into a truly unique vehicle, was developed by American inventors by the Doble brothers in 1914. It consisted of 10 flat coils connected in series in a heat-resistant steel body - a type of a complicated version of a moonshine still. With the help of a pump, cold water from the condenser was fed into a tube wrapping around the walls of the case, where it was heated a little, and then it entered the coils, boiled and turned into superheated steam. Doble's engine started in just a minute and a half!
The question arises: if steam engines are so good, why not put them on tractors or, for example, on airplanes? And in general for all vehicles? Why didn't they supplant internal combustion engines? The answer is as simple as it is bitter: steam cars and tractors were eliminated as a result of collusion between oil companies and major automakers - another reason for the victory of a more complex, less powerful and less durable, moreover, air-polluting ICE over a steam engine.
It's simple: the production of cars with internal combustion engines by the 1920s turned into a colossal industrial sector, closely associated with oil production and refining. The automotive industry and the oil industry were capable of crushing anyone, and locomotives were “crushing” because of what: the steam engine does not work for several years, like an internal combustion engine, but for a hundred years and more. There are still machines that are two centuries old, and you can still start and drive them. And he does not need gasoline, and engine oil; so, you see, the whole oil industry could come to naught. And at the turn of the 1920s-1930s, troubles began with locomobiles. In 1933, British legislators introduced a weight-based freight tax, which put heavy steam trucks at a disadvantage compared to carburetor trucks, and in 1934 reduced tariffs on imported petroleum products.“In a strange way, available sources of water necessary for boilers (roadside water heaters and reservoirs) disappeared, and problems began with suppliers of component parts. This caused problems with sales and production - and, as a result, financial difficulties. Locomotive manufacturers were slowly driven to ruin and then bought out by car companies. Then the shops were immediately closed, the equipment was taken out, and the drawings of the locomotives were hidden in the archives "the equipment was taken out, and the drawings of the locomotives were hidden in the archives "the equipment was taken out, and the drawings of the locomotives were hidden in the archives"
And now we remember that the same story happened with trams: "How the city municipal electric transport was destroyed in the United States."
A 1974 report by U. S. Senate Councilor Bradford Snell provided evidence that from 1936 to 1950, General Motors, together with Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, and Phillips Petroleum, created shell holding companies through which they bought tram lines and liquidated them. Direct threats, blackmail, deception and bribery of officials were used, extensive connections of the leadership in the ruling and banking circles were used. As a result, trams were gradually replaced by smelly, slow buses. The manufacturer of these buses was all the same General Motors.
In the same way, the struggle was waged with electric vehicles. For example, in 2006, a documentary film “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Was released in the USA, which tells about the emergence, use, and failure of the electric car in the USA. The film explores the roles of the automakers, the oil industry and the US government in curbing the development and distribution of electric vehicles. This story is striking in that electric vehicles, seized by various means from their owners (ransom, claims, etc.), were destroyed - in particular, at GM factories.
By the way, competitors “killed” the steam car more than once. The emergence of more and more advanced locomotives in the middle of the 19th century. In England, it was very alarming for cabmen companies, railroad workers and owners of cargo barges (a significant part of the cargo in this country was transported along rivers and canals). Already in 1831, under their direct pressure, the use of locomobiles was imposed with high duties and restrictions were imposed on their movement on public roads. And in 1865, parliament passed the Locomotive Act, a law limiting the speed of movement to six miles per hour (in cities - three) and requiring a person to walk in front of self-propelled vehicles, waving a red flag and blowing a horn. The arguments of the opponents of vehicles were ironclad: the cars, they say, are too fast and pose a threat to pedestrians. The law was repealed in 1896.- after the appearance of cars with internal combustion engines: the railway workers and river workers were not able to fight them. But steam engines resisted and even in the same England experienced a kind of renaissance of popularity in the 1920s - due to the rise in the price of gasoline. However, the competitors that gained strength - no longer river workers with railway workers, but auto concerns and oil companies - did not doze, and in the mid-1930s the star of locomotives went down.
In the United States, the Bessler brothers put a steam engine on an airplane. “On April 12, 1933, the American inventors, brothers George and William Bessler, together with engineer Nathan Price, demonstrated to the general public a quite ordinary-looking aircraft called the Airspeed 2000. Although the plane was just a converted classic model of a biplane, its“filling”was very unusual, because that the propeller was driven by a steam engine. The two-cylinder V-shaped steam engine produced 150 hp. Ten gallons of water was enough for about 600 km of flight. The aircraft had a huge number of advantages over ICE vehicles. Firstly, the engine power did not depend on the flight altitude and the degree of rarefaction of the air - this was an eternal problem with gasoline or diesel engines. If at a low altitude the steam engine was inferior in power to an internal combustion engine, then at an altitude of over 2000 m it gave the latter a considerable head start. Secondly, the plane was completely silent - only the whistle of the propeller. This was an invaluable plus from the point of view of the aircraft's invisibility during hostilities. In all the newspapers of that time, the phrase flashed that when a pilot talks to a passenger, their conversation can be heard on the ground! And also - simplicity of design, no need for expensive fuel and oils, economy, long resource …In all the newspapers of that time, the phrase flashed that when a pilot talks to a passenger, their conversation can be heard on the ground! And also - simplicity of design, no need for expensive fuel and oils, economy, long resource …In all the newspapers of that time, the phrase flashed that when a pilot talks to a passenger, their conversation can be heard on the ground! And also - simplicity of design, no need for expensive fuel and oils, economy, long resource …
The ability of the aircraft to reverse travel and quick braking was especially noted. When the Airspeed 2000 landed, the pilot switched on reverse - and the propeller, rotating in the opposite direction, almost instantly and gently, unlike the brakes on the chassis, stopped the car. Airplanes with internal combustion engines at that time were not capable of such "tricks". The Airspeed 2000 was successfully operated (in service in the US Post Office), but the idea was not continued. The Besslerov plane flew until 1936, after which its traces are lost. N. Price subsequently proposed his ideas for steam aircraft engines to Lockheed, but was rejected. In addition to the Bessler brothers, Harold Johnston made the steam plane around the same time.
An article in the collection of works "Development of steam cars and aircraft": "According to information received from reliable sources, in the suburbs of Berlin, in an atmosphere of special secrecy, an aircraft driven by a steam engine has been under construction for many months. The project manager is Herr Hüttner, Lead Engineer at the Klingenberg Power Plant.
After the publication of the technical and tactical characteristics of the aircraft in the newspaper The Daily Telegraph, a Czech correspondent who had access to this information was arrested in Berlin.
It would seem, where, if not in the Soviet Union, free from the dictates of oil and automobile tycoons, in a country with a planned economy, to establish the production of cars with a steam engine?
Leading NAMI specialists, who, naturally, were familiar with Doble's developments, in 1935 suggested the Soviet government to start work on the development of steam cars, tractors and armored vehicles. However, their appeal went unanswered. In 1938, NAMI got the task to start developing such machines, but … did not receive funding. In 1949, the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant produced a trial batch of the NAMI-012 truck, the steam engine of which was fueled by wood, for remote forestry areas. The car showed fairly high performance, but for some reason it was not allowed into mass production. Developed in the early 1950s, the NAMI-0125 trucks, which worked on both solid and liquid fuel, and the NAMI-012B, which operated only on liquid fuel, remained projects, although they were very promising. It is difficult to find an explanation for this decision.
In the USSR, they were also engaged in the development of the installation of steam engines on airplanes - also an extremely promising direction that did not develop in the world due to the opposition of aircraft building and oil companies. By the way, back in 1934, a group of students of the Moscow Aviation College designed (as a thesis) a steam aircraft engine for the U-2 training aircraft. In 1939, the aircraft engine engineer P. Douz even published the book "The Steam Engine in Aviation", but the Soviet leadership was not interested in this topic, although an aircraft with such an engine would fly completely silently and would have a huge ceiling. That is, the USSR could get silent high-altitude fighters, bombers and transport aircraft - and gain a huge advantage over enemy aircraft in the coming war.
Why didn't the USSR, independent of the "damned imperialists", begin to seriously work on steam engines (although locomotives were made in small sulfur in Bryansk, at the pre-revolutionary Maltsov plant, from 1873 to 1957)? This is where we enter the realm of speculation, there is no evidence. But one can still assume: the same reason, why in the West. The Soviet economy of the 1930s depended on the supply of Western technology and equipment, and foreign partners probably explained to Soviet leaders: no locomotives are needed. Moreover, in the 1930s and 1940s, the famous "red millionaire" American A. Hammer, who was associated with both the oil and the US automobile industry, lived in Moscow (he created the Occidental Petroleum oil company, and also lobbied for the construction of the Gorky Automobile Plant by the company Ford). To him, the "friend" of Lenin and Stalin,it was easy to explain to the “red directors” that the internal combustion engine was much better than the steam engine.
After the "oil shock" of 1974, the Swedish company SAAB began to produce locomotives, but something went wrong. In the UK, a small company Britain Steam Car Challenge is currently engaged in steam cars: its Inspiration, by the way, is a record car, its maximum speed is 273.6 km / h. Mercedes-Benz also produces Unimog shunting locomotives in small series. Yes, in Bashkortostan, in the village of Mikhailovka, a farmer himself made a steam tractor "Orlik" and posted a commercial on the Internet. And in Great Britain, competitions of vintage locomotives are held annually. And that's all.
But the history of world mechanical engineering, in the case of the development of steam technology, could have taken a completely different path - in particular, humanity would have been saved from the dictates of the oil giants. And with the ecology in cities, things would be incomparably better.
End of publication "A detective story of a steam engine". As you have already seen, the topic is vast, interesting and just serves for what humanity lives in general - it is to create, invent, develop. But instead, we are forced day after day, year after year, spinning like a squirrel in a wheel, wasting our time on emptiness.
Bullets of Snowfall