READERS’ PROJECTS, THE FIRST STEAMER?
Robert amuses himself with a short but interesting project using materials entirely found in his workshop.
Julius de Waal is a designer who has his own website (www. vapeuretmodelesavapeur.com/ telechargements5/index.html). He is based in New Zealand and is also on the modelengineer website, and he offers a massive range of models of all types. Yet little is written about him or models made from his designs which are free to download for personal use.
Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’ and similar were the first locomotives to run on rails but what was the first mobile steam engine? It is thought that William Murdoch was the first to demonstrate that steam power could be used to power a vehicle. In 1794 in Cornwall, he built a working model that still exists in Birmingham’s Thinktank museum, but as he worked for James Watt, he of beam engine fame, Murdoch was dissuaded from continuing with his engine and he continued with his work on the engines produced by James Watt.
Now I had a bit of spare time (I was still working as a part-time wood turner so no furlough for me) and looking on the internet and Julius de Waal’s site I found a set of drawings for the Murdoch engine.
“The wheel
rims I made were machined
out of aluminium
plate and that was hard to keep round...”
Scrap search
This drawing is rather large ,the same size as the original. I did not have any 30mm diameter brass/ bronze tube but I did have some 15mm brass tube. The resultant wheels would be 300mm diameter with rims made of 12mm steel rod, how do you bend a circle from that? So into the ‘scrap’ box I went and all I needed was found except for some very small wood screws.
The wheel rims I made were machined out of aluminium plate and that was hard to keep round – the wheels are just about circular. The boiler has no regulator or safety valve and is a flat-sided box so the model will be display only – I do not think that it would pass any tests, but it is silver soldered .
This was the start of mobile powered steam which lead to railed locomotives, and on the website is a animation of how it all works. There is also on Youtube a video of a full-size version of the engine being driven round a car park – you can find it at https://youtu.be/ephkogv9xam