I didn't know that Bernd, what's dihydrogen monoxide?

what's dihydrogen monoxide?

It's one of the most common compounds on earth. 70% of the earth's surface is covered with it.

Yes and surely you are aware that it is becoming increasingly rare in it's pure form?  In fact, the largest supply of "pure" dihydrogen monoxide, is right here where I live.  We treasure the stuff.  It's worth more than gold or precious stones.  It may one day be the most valuable resource we have, I think it already is. [wink]

Yes and surely you are aware that it is becoming increasingly rare in it's pure form? In fact, the largest supply of "pure" dihydrogen monoxide, is right here where I live. We treasure the stuff. It's worth more than gold or precious stones. It may one day be the most valuable resource we have, I think it already is. [wink]

Yup, and some people have the unmitigated gall to flush it down the toilet wash their cars with it, and sprinkle the stuff on their lawns.  Shoot, the local power plant heats the stuff to its gaseous state and then runs it through turbines hooked to generators. At least they have the sense to cool it down and re-use it in the boilers. The railroads used to waste it indiscriminately in their locomotive boilers by heating it, passing it through pistons and then releasing it to the atmosphere.

Sort of like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmm4H6alHCE

It made a neat noise exhausting out the stack, but what a waste. [nudge, nudge, wink, wink]

Notice how very clean that smoke is - it's either gray, white, or almost clear - those are some Very talented firemen!!!

Actually they are not wasting dihydrogen monoxide. They take it heat it to 212° or higher. This kills pathogens. The DHMO is then passed through the cylinders to do work. It is then passed on to the atmosphere were it evaporates and comes down somewhere else as falling DHMO (short for  dihydrogen monoxide). So it's cycled through a steam engine to clean and use as power and then returned to the atmospher for reuse at a later time.

I was going to comment on the clean vapor too Benny. How come the Chinese can produce a clean burning steamer and we can't? Obamanomics perhaps.

Bernd

Nah, if you do it long enough, you can make good steam.  You have to have a fireman who is very good at what he does; he mixes just enough fuel with just enough water to produce his power.  it's all in this mix ratio, and nothing more.

Most of what you see here in the US are special effects down for the purpose of photography - because everybody love seeing a big black plume above the engine.  We have had good burners here, but the end problem is, a diesel locomotive is so much more efficient - 2 or 3 times more - than a steam engine ever will be - it's that whole external combustion versus internal combustion issue.

If you can entirely contain the combustion, in a power plant, for example, then you have the economy of scale where steam is economical.  Much of this, though, is powered by cheap coal.

Actually they are not wasting dihydrogen monoxide. They take it heat it to 212° or higher. This kills pathogens. The DHMO is then passed through the cylinders to do work. It is then passed on to the atmosphere were it evActually they are not wasting dihydrogen aporates and comes down somewhere else as falling DHMO (short for dihydrogen monoxide). So it's cycled through a steam engine to clean and usreuse at a later time.e as power and then returned to the atmospher for  reuse at a later time.

Depends on what you mean by waste. A conventional steam locomotive had a rather short range on a tender full of DHMO. Had it been sent through a condenser and re-used, you could have gotten a much greater range without using auxiliary tenders.  OTOH, apparently that would have caused a considerable waste of coal as shown by this South African Railways 25C (note the condensing tender). Apparently the 25C could go 500 miles on a tank of DHMO since recovery was not 100%. Of course, that which did not get condensed got recycled into the atmosphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHjAT2_7ALY

Actually, it was also a waste of good video tape. Who wants a reciprocating steam engine that emits sounds resembling a gas turbine?

I was going to comment on the clean vapor too Benny. How come the Chinese can produce a clean burning steamer and we can't?

How do you know they're burning so cleanly?  Maybe they're just burning albino coal.

Good point about the purification, by the way.  A steam locomotive could be seen as a DHMO purifier, doing useful work while simultaneously removing every contaminant animal, vegetable, or mineral from fairly large quantities of DHMO.  Of course, most inject the byproducts of combustion back into the exhaust, but since the main particulate component is carbon anyway, it's essentially spitting out clouds of Brita DHMO filters.  Well, almost...

The color of the exhaust out of the stack.

When the firing mixture is perfect, the color is a light gray or almost clear.

When the firing mixture is fuel rich, you get a large black cloud. It's dramatic, hence it's popular with the cinemas.  What you're seeing is essentially unburnt coal exiting the stack.  You'll also see it on grades or where there's heavy loads where acceleration is involved. 

When the firing mixture is water rich, the smoke is a large white plume.  Most common Downhill, the smoke coming out of the stack is cooler so it's condensing faster. 

Now when you see a locomotive on a grade, it's using up almost all of its steam as fast as it can get it; the fireman is firing it as much as he can to keep the water boiling, but it doesn't boil fast enough - like with a top fuel dragster or even any engine on a grade [diesel, semi] the excess fuel exits the stacks as black smoke.

At least, this is how a couple old hoggers explained it on a South African Garret, from a resource I read years ago on the net.  They had two teams firing this engine, one on the to trip and one on the return; the first crew was experienced and the engine ran smoothly; the entire time the smoke was gray or clear.  The second crew was green, and the smoke reflected it: the smoke was white or black, and the engine ran terribly.  Same engine, different crews.  and the crews' attitudes afterwards reflected how it ran.  The first crew gave credit to the engine while the latter blamed all their woes on the engine.  You can't teach carburetor tuning with a textbook; in the end, it takes experience.

Benny, here you go, have a read. It wasn't done in the US but overseas.

http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/newsteam/modern50.htm

Bernd