 |
| Streamliner 435 - Fabio Araujo 252 piece jigsaw puzzle |
I usually don't have much luck tracking down the origin of pictures used to make jigsaw puzzles but this time I think I found it. Fabio has a web page about this image, including a YouTube video showing the sequence of layers it is made from.
On a barely related note, I think I figured out why steam locomotives only have two pistons driving large wheels and why automobiles and cars have multi-cylinder engines.
While I'm sure 19th Century engineers understood that multiple small pistons could do the same amount of work as one large piston. It does make the machine more complex, and when you are just trying to get something to run, simpler is better. So I think they were kind of locked into that mindset. But another factor has to do with the state of machine tool design.
Each part made on a lathe requires multiple cutting tools. In the 19th Century, each tool was set up individually, so if you were making multiple parts you had to go through the whole setup procedure for each part. When the 20th Century rolled around, we got the turret lathe, so multiple tools could be set up one time on a turret and when you needed the next tool it was simply a matter of rotating the turret to the next position.
Also, large pistons are big and heavy, so once you have it chucked up in the lathe, you want to do as much work as possible before you move to the next one. Smaller pistons are easier to work with.
P.S. It took me an hour and a half to complete the puzzle.
Steam locos also use double acting cylinders, steam is admitted alternately to opposite sides of the piston. This is why the piston rod does not articulate like an automotive connecting rod-it has to go through a pressure seal. In modern terms it is a lot like a four cylinder engine.
ReplyDeleteI went on board the SS Great Britain once; beautifully restored, an old slave-trader ship harboured in Bristol UK. It has a steam engine too, a HUGE V2, the bore and stroke are each about 2 or 3 meters !!!
ReplyDelete