The Steamboating Forum

What about a mechanical drive driven with the main engine via spedometer cable? Could use while under way to give an amount of fuel proportionate to the current steam consumption.

Adjusting for the right feed rate would be as simple as swapping out the drive gear, similar to when one would adjust the speedo for a change in tire diameter or rear end gear ratio.

I hadn't thought of a direct drive. I had given some small thought to a clock drive like an old phonograph. And I might arrange an eccentric drive off of the crank. I have a lubricator on my locomotive that has a small ratchet so that the output turns at a small fraction of the input stroke.

Andrew gets by with a solar panel. Modern computer fans move a lot of air with not that much noise. The idea of a noisy fan turns me off.

Looking at his design it looks like the pellets drop from the metering disk into the shute. I don't see what keeps the fire from sending flames and heat up that shute? Maybe it is enclosed at that point.

This cries out for the steam half of a reciprocating feed water pump to advance his metering disk at intervals inversely proportional to the boiler pressure. My mind is starting to hurt.