by jjohnson » Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:49 pm
I think he lost me when he explained how he thought a steam engine worked. I understand that conceptually he is trying to create a high pressure inside the cylinder to force the piston in one direction with a crankshaft to convert linear motion to rotary - that's all stock engine stuff. But the idea that water enters a low pressure chamber and flashes into steam, which pushes the piston down etc, and then the steam "turns back into water" describes no steam engine that I've ever heard of, and doesn't seem consistent with being able to do work. Steam is typically created (using heat) outside the cylinder, is introduced into the cylinder when the cylinder volume is near a minimum (near top dead center) and the hot steam under a lot of pressure, pushes the piston along the cylinder, and is exhausted, at which point the flywheel action of the rotating assembly and crank returns the piston back to TDC for another shot of steam.
However, his plasma explanations were less than clear, and how ball lightning is created inside the cylinder was not obvious from his video, either. I'm not saying the idea is without merit or can't work, but it wasn't explained very clearly to me at all. One hopes that test runs with measurements of energy in and energy out and all the usual engineering trials are published real soon to see if he has something any more efficient than a good Geman Diesel engine or not. Anyone have access to any more detailed description than this YouTube video?
Jim
Jim