Weird Machinery
 

In 1920 Henry Ford bought a yacht from the US Navy and named it Yankee Clipper. He had the steam recip machinery removed and replaced it with a Sun-Doxford . It was a 330SB4 engine which consisted of two 330 mm bore engines with aluminium columns and entablature mounted on a cast iron bedplate. It produced 1500 bhp at 200 rpm and each crankshaft appeared to drive a separate propeller although that must have been very difficult hydrodynamically as the props would have been very close together - or even overlapping. Or could it be that that the two shafts were combined in a gearbox near the stern to drive a single prop as the original steam engine probably did? Does anyone know?

Now this is what I'd call a 'Weird Machine.'

It makes me happy that there are people in the world crazy enough to build something like this.

https://youtu.be/IvUU8joBb1Q

:)

It's a Babbage music centre. (Remember the 3 in 1)?

And then there is this gem . A three throw crank with the side cranks connected to the the lower pistons of two cylinders and the centre crank connected to a transvers beam at the top connecting the top pistons of those two cylinders.
Unsurprisingly it was a Doxford concept design and unsurprisingly it didn't get beyond the drawing board.

I have a drawing but I can't upload it despite it meeting all the site's criteria. Also, log in "remember me " has stopped working. Anybody any ideas?

Have you recently set your browser to delete cookies on exit?

(Your description, though, conjures an image of wonder despite absence of upload).

I haven't knowingly changed anything David but it is an early edition of Windows10 and it's quite unstable. Will have a look.
The Double Doxford was proposed with 850 mm bore cylinders!

Restart has fixed the image problem and here it is in all it's glory.
Computer still can't remember me

I feel for the opposed piston, Doxford, people! I only have seen one opposed piston B&W in an ED boat, docked in Huskisson. I think it may have been Pegu or Deido, but I cannot remember.
Rgds.
Dave

Thank the good Lord I was only a lecky!!

Purists would say the B&W wasn't a proper O/P engine cos the exhaust piston was connected to an eccentric so couldn't transmit meaningful torque to the crankshaft. So it was really a 2-strole with a piston exhaust valve.

Thanks for the clarification, Tim! My Dad sailed with them on Blueys. Then again, during his time at Odyssey, when the fleet was massive, he got to work on every class, motor/turbine/steam recip, coal/FO, even standing by overnight on a Scotts'-Still. Now, that was a weird piece of kit!
Rgds.

Your father deserves a medal. No man should have been exposed to all the results of Marshall Meek's fertile brain, indeed an unusual and painful experience.
I'm scaling the Doxford attachment and will compare with those in CC Pounder and John Lamb, a fruitful and enjoyable mornings work until the Sunday Papers arrive.

I thought a Scott-Still probably trumps anything else that made it into production. Although maybe a double acting 4-stroke might run it a close second? And there there was the free-piston gasifier ...... !

Found this on the Still Steam-Diesel engine - Yes that definitely qualifies as weird...

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/P...till/still.htm

There were two versions of Scotts'-Stills: One, diesel above/steam below and the other Diesel, first cylinders and then three steam reciprocating cylinders. That is the ship my Dad worked by on. Both had an auxiliary turbo generator. The problem was, they would turn something on, and the genny would go south, quickly. My Dad's experience was with the Donkey Boiler to keep power on,urged to,"Keep 'er in de blud, Lar!!".

One ship was Dolius (I think Diesel then steam cylinders). I cannot remember the other (Atreus??). Only two were built but soon converted. The next "occurrence" to Marshall Meek were the extremely high pressure steam ships......... Nuff said!

Rgds.
Dave

Excellent link, Malcolm. Thank you! So Eurybates, it was. Yes, six diesel cylinders and two steam. As I said, my father had the privilege of working on all the classes, post war (50's) before going to sea.
Rgds.
Dave

For those of us with a fascination and/or addiction to weird engines , there is a book (>550 pages!) that may cure us:
"Opposed Piston Engines, Evolution, Use and Future Applications" by Jean-Pierre Pirault and Martin Flint.

Nearly eighty quid! (£75.24 on Amazon)
I think I might have to take a bit of time to think about that....

I'll buy a copy and give it to someone I don't like.
Perhaps I should buy a dozen.

Has anybody tried to understand how a rotary engine, such as were used in Sopwith Camels, actually works? That is definitely weird machinery! I have a book with an exploded diagram of a rotary engine and it seems to me to be as easy to understand as some of the popular advanced Soduko puzzles in the morning paper.

All I can extract from the description is that the crankshaft is fixed and the crankcase complete with cylinders rotates around it. I got lost trying to figure out how fuel is delivered to the combustion chambers.

Getting the fuel air mix to the cylinders - There is a big carburettor on the back of the (fixed) crankcase. The mixture feeds into the crankcase, like on a small two stroke, and is distributed up inlet pipes to each cylinder.
The valves are opened by two monster cams, in the crankcase, and pushrods.
There is also a total loss lubricating system.

The part that I have never been able to fully engage with is how they got the power from the magneto to the spark plugs. I have guessed that there was some sort of slip ring, also in the crankcase.

I have a manual that covers the Armstrong Siddeley "Cheetah", "Tiger" and "Lynx" rotary engines, you could teach the basics to almost anyone and take most it apart with a handful of tools. They must have been super-robust.

She is weighing up it's value against the Doxford crankcase door I had lusted after.

Posts #22 & 23.

Thanks chaps. The other slightly puzzling aspect was the throttle control. All I could find out was that the engine basically ran continuously at maximum revs and the pilot controlled power when landing by "blipping" a cut-out switch to the spark plugs.

The lubricating system used castor oil or similar I believe, and so apart from having to suffer a fairly common problem with "piles" from sitting in a hard seat at high altitudes, pilots of the Camel had to put up with being doused in the escaping castor oil, which undoubtedly had the same effect on their bodies at 15,000 feet that it would on the ground.

My copy hasn't arrived.
Does that mean that I am back in the good books or has it been delayed in the mail ? ..........:wave:

Dinny Fret, it's on the way. Bit of a problem with the address, Mundrabilla (haha) Melbourne, near Narvik. It may be the scenic route but eventually it'll make you in Wagga-Wagga. It's not to be used in the Bar-Bee-Queue or the Ball-A-Bong. Cobbler.

There is security in obscurity.

Glad that you didn't waste money on a stamp. :jester:

For the sake of Newton stop that man taking any more Vegemite. Obviously it should not be exported to a country where poteen is readily available.

Bar-bee-Queue. Now we are getting near to what the potions industry was trying to do with the stuff. Spread it on the skin to minimise UV penetration in latitudes to which the honky was not intended. Either that or an attempt at a systemic moderator of skin pigmentation for Better Levels of Melanin, to the same ends.

The crankshaft is hollow, feeding into the cranckcase. Induction pipes lead from the 'case to the inlet valves. Castor oil was the lubricant, metered into the hollow shaft. This kept the pilots very regular as it was a total loss system.


Now, if you really want to hurt your brain, http://www.idflieg.com/siemens_shiii.htm


The cylinders rotate one way, the prop the other. Germans....

Now, Tim, ES and Varley are invited to join me in making this engine water-cooled! Then again, maybe not a good idea with centrifugal forces and extra weight! I had often wondered about "rotary" engines........Now I know.......enough to STAY AWAY from them! I will stick with herr Doktor Wankel for "rotary cylinders".

Good laugh!

Rgds.
Dave

You could arrange the coolant plumbing to circulate the coolant via centrifugal force.
Just sayin'


Somewhere on the net is a 1/4 scale Bentley rotary, a runner.


Regards guys, as has been pointed out I think I've found a good place.

Good stuff! You go fix the seals!

I had enough with Sulzer 9RD90 rotary exhaust valves, the fins being, probably, more delicate than a butterfly's wing!

Rgds.
Dave

The rotating gubbins could take care of circulating the coolant I agree. It is the weight of that coolant, jackets and coolant cooler that would be the worry.

Wasn't glycol used as coolant in the Merlin? How was that 'pumped'?

The usual way, a centrifugal pump. They used pure glycol & if the Spit stood still too long it would boil. At speed in the air all was well. No fans, you see -

"Coolant Cooler":jump:


Forgive me for pointing out that one of the reasons for whirling finned cylinders was effective albeit asymmetrical cooling.


The rotary engine was a relatively short lived phenomenon, a step to a goal that was not yet clearly in sight.


By far the finest engine to come out of WWI was the Napier Lion. The finest rotarys were designed by none other than W.O. Bentley, however their day was already past.


Wellness.

here - a good use of the Lion. https://oldmachinepress.com/2020/03/...durance-racer/


And second only to the Lion was the Hispano Suiza, which also found it's way into four wheeled things - https://velocetoday.com/driving-the-big-ones-delage/


Well, the title is "weird machinery"

Bentley Speed Six at Nordschleife. Ettore Bugatti once described Bentleys as "les camions plus vite" after losing to them at Le Mans. I beg to differ with le Patron. They were rubber shod locomotives - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ykz8sT_nb4


And then - 28 litres of four cylinder insanity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnuevzsKTdc


Wellness.

That Speed Six is clearly faster and more difficult to handle than any modern driver could cope with.
if you pay attention, the car is mostly in second and third gear. The clue is, no vintage whine in direct drive.


Wellness