Re: Steam engine/Helm

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Mon 25 Jul, Scratch wrote:
> Does anyone have stats for anything that resembles an early steam engine
> adjusted for spelljamming? I'm putting together a steam tech / high magic
> sphere and any help I could get with this would be appreciated.

Sounds like fun!


> If there isn't any one have any suggestions on how to go about designing
> one?

You might like to think about in terms of how large a steam
engine would be needed to move a ship of that size on water. Then
there is the question of how sophisticated the engine is at
wringing the energy out of the steam, and hence indirectly the
fuel - some of the later steam engines were very impressive in
this respect.


> How would one deal with the waste generated by burning coal? That sort
> of thing would foul an atmosphere in no time.

Putting your funnnel outside your atmosphere envelope, so the
smoke goes out into the vacuum of space is one idea, as is a
system for converting as much of the steam as possible back into
water so that it can be reused.

With a bit of ingenuity, it should be possible to use some of the
energy from the steam engine, to break down foul air into air. An
"air regenerator". But, the fact that you are burning something
using up air, to get your steam, is by strict science a definite
problem.

If this is fantasy/magical steam-tech, you could gloss over the
details of combustion, and say that as long as the "air
regenerator" stays in working order, the steam engine is not

considered to foul the air.


> How to convert mechanical
> energy into spelljamming energy or is all energy magical in nature?

Spelljamming drives seem to operate on the principle that you do
some sort of "work" which might move a normal ship along the
water, and this moves it through space. You could have an
"etheric turbine" if you wanted, which spins up a more than three
dimensional gyroscopic mechanism, to convert the mechanical
energy into spelljamming energy, or something else which you feel
suits the style of the steam-tech, like Cavorite paddlewheels on
the side, or mithral screws at the back. Maybe big fans for
vertical movement?


> What
> happens when the helm gets hit, boiler explosion?

You need to worry about fuel bunker, that holds the coal, water
tank that replaces the water lost as steam, the furnace that
heats the water into steam, maybe various high pressure steam
lines, the boiler, the actual mechanics of the steam engine which
turns the steam into mechanical motion, and the spelljamming
engine. A little chart listing these, with results, and how
difficult it is to repair, would probably do.

If the boiler is built right, boiler explosions should be pretty
uncommon, but hitting the boiler so it leaks steam would be
pretty bad. Armouring the mechanism looks like a good idea -
making it at least AC-2 shouldn't be too difficult, nor should
burying most of it inside the ship.

If your funnel is taking your smoke outside your atmosphere
envelope, hits on that should be considered, as it might get
blocked, or holed, so your atmosphere starts getting fouled.


> I imagine manning the
> helm would consist of a wheel to control side to side movements and a
> series of levers to control the other axis's. Any ideas?

That would do, or you could have the wheel twist in various ways
to get the different directions. Maybe thinking about the
controls on a submarine would help?

You might want to look up steam ships via Google, and see how
much coal took a ship how far, to get some idea about fuel.
Burning the bits of your wooden ship for fuel means you are
getting pretty desperate.

Also, taking a furnace into the phlogiston...

If your furnace was very carefully designed, with baffles and
such, effectively sealed, you might be able to use the explosive
nature of the phlogiston to help power your ship!

For example: assume fuel consumpion falls to a tenth, but if the
furnace is not in perfect condition when you enter the
phlogiston, a saving throw against explosion needs to be made,
and then made again on a regular basis (daily?), or there will be
a catastrophic explosion.

Preferably the engineer will do a thorough set of tests before
entering the phlogiston, to prove the furnace is safe. Diving
straignt into the Flow out of combat might be ... bad.

Alternatively, a smaller "phlogiston engine" might be used, which
uses chemicals (like powerful acids and other dangerous stuff)
without fire, to provide energy while in the Flow.


--
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/