The Steamboating Forum

Hi. My name is Tony Seideman. I was quite active in the steam launch community in the late '80s and early '90s, but a variety of circumstances led to me doing other things--like restoring an extremely cash-hungry 1903 house.

I picked up some very nice items while I was in the hobby, and, thankfully, most are still in reasonably good condition. One of them is this unusually designed engine, which was restored by a true master, George King III, former chief engineer at Mystic Seaport.

It has a stroke of about 2.25 inches and a bore of around 4 inches. I think it might make a nifty steam launch engines.

I have no idea of where or when it was made, or who made it. George said the signs were it had been used well.

Anybody have any ideas?

Always someone has to be different! But what a dull world it would be if everything was the same! Why we'd still all be using steam! Hmmm so what's wrong with that? Den

Though this engine is relatively small, it is quite a potent beast. I've had it on top of two 2X12s, clamped fairly solidly, and it's made them bounce up and down several inches. I've done the math, and it probably produces three or four horsepower. How big a launch do people think it could manage?

From Den: ...."Why we'd still all be using steam!"

As a matter of fact, there is far more steam power in the world today than there was 100 years ago. Just that the public does not get to see it usually, but if you use electricity, you are almost certainly using steam power. Steam power generates over 80% of all the electricity in the USA, and over 80% of all the electricity for the rest of the world. This steam power output today is thousands of times the power produced in the early 1900's, which is erroneously called the "Steam Age"!

fredrosse wrote:From Den: ...."Why we'd still all be using steam!"

As a matter of fact, there is far more steam power in the world today than there was 100 years ago. Just that the public does not get to see it usually, but if you use electricity, you are almost certainly using steam power. Steam power generates over 80% of all the electricity in the USA, and over 80% of all the electricity for the rest of the world. This steam power output today is thousands of times the power produced in the early 1900's, which is erroneously called the "Steam Age"!

Which means that your computer is steam powered. Tell that to those people who say steam is old fashioned!

Would that make us "Trendsetters"??