I hate mowing so very much that I ran away from home for a day to avoid it. Of course, we all know that means when I do finally mow, the grass will be that much taller and harder to chop down. Still, it was worth it, because I got to view the behemoths of steam in action.
But First, A Word From Our Sponsor:
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top™ to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top™ to pop up in diaries posts around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist poster reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the doodle...
|
That's right. I ran away to farm show showcasing the steam tractors, threshers, rock crushers, and whistle blowers that are still in use on Oklahoma farms today.
I thrilled to a steam tractor pull, and watched steam threshers threshing last year's wheat harvest, and watched as steam driven saws neatly turned tree trunks into fragrant planks. I felt the deep, reverberating thrummmm of steam whistles, and watched as the tender built steam for another blow.
The steam engine has been chugging away in history since the 1st century, when Hero of Alexandria recorded the first working steam engine, the aeolipile which was mostly used as a visual wonder, but sometimes used to open temple doors; but it took until 1698 for the first commercially functioning steam engine to be used.
Reims boasted a church that had a steam powered organ in 1125.
Leonardo da Vinci designed a steam-powered cannon he called the Architonnerre.
Taqi al-Din designed a steam powered turn spit in Ottoman Egypt in the 1500s.
In 1606, Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont devised a steam pump that successfully drained the inundated mines of Guadalcanal, Spain.
Building on the steam experiments of Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester, and Tariq al-Din, and Denis Papin, Thomas Savery was able to develop the first commercially viable steam engine to drain the ever-deepening mines of southern England. It wasn't safe or very efficient, but it worked, and it led to the safer Newcomen Atmospheric Machine.
Then, of course, James Watt solved the problem of wasted steam, and the best thing about Watt's design was that it could be attached to the existing Newcomen machines to improve their function.
Of course, Watt was an ass who used his patent to suppress further steam research and improvements. The problem is that Watt's machines couldn't handle the higher pressures now being demanded of steam machines. He totally disregarded the fact that without the previous steam researchers, he'd never have gotten his patent. Such a petty man.
Fortunately, British patents didn't apply then to America, and the Americans ran with steam tech for a while, creating the high pressure steam engine the British couldn't thanks to Watts' suppression of experimentation. This gave us the steamboats and the Corliss Steam Engine (patented 1849, America) - the greatest improvement to steam engines since Watts' device.
And the Porter-Allen steam engine arose from the Corliss engine - not as good as the Corliss, but it had advantages the Corliss didn't, such as the ability to be coupled and run multiple devices, and to run at higher speeds - which was excellent for sawmills and rock crushers. The governor on the Porter-Allen was lighter and easier to use.
Many of the engines I photographed at the Steam and Gas Engine Show were powered by the Porter-Allen engine.
So, for eye candy - steam machines:
Small tractor, with a tiller attached:
The fuel box:
I have a video of this behemoth in action, but have no clue how to share it, so you get the still shot I took:
The business end of a 2 person steam tractor
A beaut of a steam tractor:
A view from the ground:
The business side of a steam tractor
The essential oil can:
A steam rock crusher
A steam thresher
The prettiest steam engine out there:
And so we steam along to the Tops: Top Comments, Top Mojo, and the ever enchanting Picture Quilt:
TOP PHOTOS
January 1, 2013
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
|