Hero's Handy Dandy Steam Slave!

I believe you're misunderstanding what I'm trying to say, so I created a diagram of what I meant.
If i properly understand what you're shooting for there, it's physically impossible as drawn. Are you trying to change the rotating power from the aeolopile to reciprocating? If so, then you're talking about crank and connecting rod. You still need the two supports, i don't think that an aeliopile could function without them, and move the point off the turbine to outside the supports, otherwise your crank will hit the axle everytime the turbine makes a revolution.
 
Oh yeah, I also thought that you could use it to power a lathe or a drill. Or a mechanized glass harmonica, if that's your sort of thing.
 
You could attach the knife/cleaver to a trip hammer (see "Little Tipper(TM)") for chopping action, though it'd by necessity be a lightweight blade (that darned torque problem again). You could dice light green veggies like lettuce or maybe celery, but even a carrot may cause it difficulty.

Edit: the glass harmonica would be feasible if the player has a light touch. The lathe? Maybe, if the operator has a very light touch. The drill? again that torque is an issue. Drilling takes torque to move through hard wood. The aeopile has less torque than a dreidel*. With a very thin-threaded drill or wide-bladed drill that works slowly and only scrapes out a small sliver at a time it's possible to make a really slow drill.


*C'happy C'haunnukah everyone!
 
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You could attach the knife/cleaver to a trip hammer (see "Little Tipper(TM)") for chopping action, though it'd by necessity be a lightweight blade (that darned torque problem again). You could dice light green veggies like lettuce or maybe celery, but even a carrot may cause it difficulty.

Edit: the glass harmonica would be feasible if the player has a light touch. The lathe? Maybe, if the operator has a very light touch. The drill? again that torque is an issue. Drilling takes torque to move through hard wood. The aeopile has less torque than a dreidel*. With a very thin-threaded drill or wide-bladed drill that works slowly and only scrapes out a small sliver at a time it's possible to make a really slow drill.


*C'happy C'haunnukah everyone!

I may be wrong, but couldn't you overcome the torque issue by attaching multiple engines?
 
I may be wrong, but couldn't you overcome the torque issue by attaching multiple engines?

Theoretically with the right gearing (in the same way that theoretically a long enough lever can move the earth), but we're talking literally scores if not hundreds of aeopiles to produce the torque of even a simple one-chamber piston engine. The gearing will be so complex and prone to failure because of the complexity, and the system so big, that it goes beyond impractical.

I'm not joking about the lack of torque. It was negligible. You could stop it by hand. And its efficiency was equally pitiful: less than 10% in terms of joules of energy in wood burned for joules in work performed.
 
I'm bringing this thread back to life because of a related idea/question I had.

Making ancient steam engines faced a number of problems, including the quality and quantity of metals available. Would using large clay/ceramic boilers be better, and possible? I assume these boilers would have to have thick walls to cut down on explosions and cracks. They would be too heavy for anything but stationary applications.

Any thoughts?
 
Heron wasn't some sort of universal genius. He simply recorded things for previous generations. Stop making my soul ache with these threads. ;_;

*curses Rome forever*
 
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I'm bringing this thread back to life because of a related idea/question I had.

Making ancient steam engines faced a number of problems, including the quality and quantity of metals available. Would using large clay/ceramic boilers be better, and possible? I assume these boilers would have to have thick walls to cut down on explosions and cracks. They would be too heavy for anything but stationary applications.

Any thoughts?
Clay boilers? Lord no, the tolerances would be weepingly low on a ceramic boiler. What kind of pressures were you expecting to get from something made of clay?
 
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