A naphtha launch, sometimes called a "vapor launch", was a small motor launch, powered by a naphtha engine. They were a particularly American design, brought into being by a local law that made it impractical to use a steam launch for private use.
A naphtha launch, sometimes called a "vapor launch", was a small motor launch, powered by a naphtha engine. They were a particularly American design, brought into being by a local law that made it impractical to use a steam launch for private use.
By the 1880s, the small steam engine was well established as a power unit for small steam launches, as well as for large boats. However US law, prompted by some past boiler explosions, required that all steam boats carry a licensed engineer at all times. Although this was no difficulty for a commercial craft, it prevented small steam launches from being used for personal and recreational purposes. Becoming such an engineer required an apprenticeship of two years beforehand. One of the few amateurs to achieve this and to become their own engineer was Rosamund Burgess, wife of boat designer Starling Burgess. [1]
A more popular alternative to the steam launch was the naphtha launch, which used an alternative power source. [2] Advertisements of the period used the deliberate phrase, "Every Man His own Engineer!" [3] to highlight this legal restriction.
The first naphtha launch appears to have been British, reported in the French journal La Nature in 1888. [4] This launch, Zephyr, was the invention of Alfred Yarrow, a well-known builder of steam launches for some years previously. Similar launches were produced in the same year by the Swiss company Escher Wyss AG. [5] One of these was Alfred Nobel's graceful aluminium-hulled sloop Mignon, of 1892. Another, also of aluminium, was the Aluminia of 1894.
The first American naphtha launches recorded were those of the Ofeldt company of New York, who would later become well known as makers of naphtha engines. [5] They described this as the 'Essh' system, and may have been licensees of the Escher Wyss patents. As well as Ofeldt, complete launches were also offered by the Gas Engine and Power Co. of New York. By 1890 they claimed to have sold over 500. [6]
The typical naphtha launch was an open launch of around 24 feet (7.3 m) in length. These were pleasure craft intended for use on fine-weather excursions. [7] [8] After all, a commercial boat with a professional crew would not suffer from the regulatory problem that led to their invention. Naphtha launches appeared in the finest circles, in the best yacht clubs [9] and under the ownership of some celebrated names. [10]
Few examples survive today. Some sources claim one, [11] others four. [12]
This sleek 22' long craft is believed to be one of only four in existence.
The naphtha engine is an external combustion engine, generally similar to the type of small steam engine already in use for steam launches. The working fluid is naphtha, which unusually is also used as a liquid fuel to power the boiler. Appearance is similar to a steam launch, having a small vertical boiler and vertical cylinders.
The burner for a naphtha engine uses naphtha itself, and is similar to that used for steam cars. Although such convenient and self-regulating liquid fuel burners were also used on steam launches, most launches at the time of the naphtha engine's heyday were still using solid fuel.
To avoid problems of premature condensation, the engine and boiler units were mounted together. Engines were three-cylinder single-acting vertical simple expansion engines, with 120° crankshaft spacing, so as to be self-starting without dead centre problems. [lower-roman 1]
The boilers were of spiral monotube form. These were single-pass "water-tube" steam generators, where liquid at one end of the tube boiled by the time it reached the end, without any looped circulation. Similar boilers, although with conventional water and steam, were also used for steam cars such as the White. The boiler was mounted directly atop the engine, and encased in a polished brass or copper casing with a short funnel above. The purpose of the funnel was merely to vent fumes above the heads of passengers, rather than to act as a draught to draw the fire.
Unlike coal or wood, the jet burners used did not require additional draught. [lower-roman 2] The boiler was fired with a pressure jet burner, a small quantity of pressurised naphtha being tapped off from the boiler. [5] A prominent tube and funnel on the front of the boiler casing (sometimes mistaken for a whistle) is the air inlet. The fuel jet mixes with the downwards air flow in this vertical tube, then the mixed air and fuel is fed to a ring-shaped burner inside the boiler casing. For starting, a hand air pump was used to pressurise the fuel tank and encourage fuel flow, together with pre-heating of the burner coil by lighting a little of the fuel in a tray below it. [5]
There was no throttle valve or regulator to control the engine speed. As was commonly used on single-pass spiral monotube boilers, the burner output was regulated instead with the fuel valve and the boiler responded quickly enough for this to be sufficient. [13]
Lubrication of the engine was performed by the fuel itself, collected in a sealed wet sump arrangement beneath the crankcase. The naphtha fuel [lower-roman 3] was an acceptable lubricant and this avoided the problem of separating lubricating oil from condensed fuel vapour leaking past the piston ring seals. It did however require careful sealing of the crankcase. [5]
The engine valvegear was simple, compared to that of contemporary steam engines. A single rotating overhead camshaft ran above the cylinders, parallel to the crankshaft. Eccentrics on this shaft actuated a transverse slide valve for each cylinder. The valve camshaft was driven at engine speed [lower-roman 4] by gears from the crankshaft. A prominent handwheel on the camshaft allowed the engine to be reversed, in a similar manner to slip-eccentric valve gear by shifting the phase of the camshaft relative to the crankshaft. [5]
External water-cooled condensers were used, simple pipes run under the hull, along the length of the keel. [5] Despite the obvious risks of damage from grounding, these seem to have given little trouble in service. The fuel tank was in the fo'csle of the boat, well away from the engine and risk of fire. This fuel tank was pressurised by the returning naphtha, avoiding the need for a fuel pump.
One of the attractive features that first led inventors to consider naphtha as a working fluid was its low boiling point, compared to water. This allows a relatively simple engine to be constructed, although it actually represents a limitation on the efficiency of such an engine. At the time, thermodynamics was already an advanced science and the limitations of thermodynamic cycles were well understood by physicists, if not by all engineers. By limiting the range of temperatures between which the engine worked, this actually reduces the potential efficiency of the engine, rather than increasing it. [14]
An earlier use of low boiling point fluids had been Du Tremblay's ether engine of the 1850s. [14] This was used for a bottoming cycle as an addition to a steam engine. Waste heat rejected through the condenser of the steam engine was used to boil ether and drive a second cylinder.
Swedish-American inventor Frank Waldemar Ofeldt (1836–1904) also designed the Alco Vapor engine, sold by the Alco Vapor Launch Co. [6] This burned kerosene and used alcohol (probably 'wood alcohol' or methanol) as a working fluid. This may have been a measure to avoid the Escher Wyss patents.
Later Ofeldt also designed a more conventional steam-generating water-tube steam boiler. This was similar to the "Lune Valley" pattern, a central drum surrounded by coiled water tubes, but with irregular wedge-shaped coils rather than a simple circle. [15]
The "Simplex Naptha engine" built by Chas. Willard of Chicago was more akin to an internal combustion gas engine with timed spark ignition. [16] It is outside the scope of this article.
Despite the obvious hazards and occasional reports of fires, [17] [lower-roman 5] the naphtha launch appears to have worked reasonably well and safely.
The naphtha engine is not well known amongst model engineers, but at least one detailed reproduction has been constructed. [19]
In the 1921 novel of the popular Tom Swift series, Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters , [20] the hero rescues passengers with the aid of a naphtha launch, describing it as "old-fashioned". The author also passes comment as to them being "a trifle treacherous" to light. [20]
A railway locomotive using solid naphthalene was built by Schneider-Creusot in France in 1913. This had no relation to the naphtha engine. It was a 70 bhp internal combustion engine, similar to a petrol-paraffin engine, which operated as a petrol engine and once started and warmed up could be switched to naphthalene simply as a cheaper fuel. The naphthalene was melted and vaporised by a water jacket, heated by the engine. [21]
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed, by a connecting rod and crank, into rotational force for work. The term "steam engine" is generally applied only to reciprocating engines as just described, not to the steam turbine. Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either complete steam plants, such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine.
The camshaft is a rotating object— usually made of metal— that contains pointed cams, which converts rotational motion to reciprocal motion. Camshafts are used in internal combustion engines, mechanically controlled ignition systems and early electric motor speed controllers. Camshafts in automobiles are made from steel or cast iron, and are a key factor in determining the RPM range of an engine's power band.
A combustion chamber is part of an internal combustion engine in which the fuel/air mix is burned. For steam engines, the term has also been used for an extension of the firebox which is used to allow a more complete combustion process.
In internal combustion engines, variable valve timing (VVT) is the process of altering the timing of a valve lift event, and is often used to improve performance, fuel economy or emissions. It is increasingly being used in combination with variable valve lift systems. There are many ways in which this can be achieved, ranging from mechanical devices to electro-hydraulic and camless systems. Increasingly strict emissions regulations are causing many automotive manufacturers to use VVT systems.
A W8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine with four banks of two cylinders each, arranged in a W configuration.
Live steam is steam under pressure, obtained by heating water in a boiler. The steam is used to operate stationary or moving equipment.
Mamod is a British toy manufacturer specialising in manufacturing live steam models. The company was founded in 1937 in Birmingham in the UK by Geoffrey Malins. The name is a portmanteau of Malins Models. Malins started off making steam engines which were sold under the Hobbies brand name but he soon started selling them under the Mamod brand name. The first models produced were of stationary steam engines. Much later the company also began creating models of road rollers, traction engines, steam wagons and other steam road vehicles. These models were aimed at the toy market, so were simple to operate and ran at low boiler pressures for safety but were not accurate scale models.
In a piston engine, the valve timing is the precise timing of the opening and closing of the valves. In an internal combustion engine those are usually poppet valves and in a steam engine they are usually slide valves or piston valves.
The hot-bulb engine is a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignites by coming in contact with a red-hot metal surface inside a bulb, followed by the introduction of air (oxygen) compressed into the hot-bulb chamber by the rising piston. There is some ignition when the fuel is introduced, but it quickly uses up the available oxygen in the bulb. Vigorous ignition takes place only when sufficient oxygen is supplied to the hot-bulb chamber on the compression stroke of the engine.
The Sheppee was an English steam automobile manufactured in York by the Sheppee Motor Company run by Colonel Francis Henry Sheppee, son of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Faulkener Sheppee. After long service with the army in India, Colonel F.H. Sheppee created the Sheppee Motor Company in Thomas Street, York around 1902. The firm mainly made steam-driven commercial vehicles but in 1912 at least two passenger cars were made with 25 hp engines and flash boilers. In 1913 they announced they had got a site on the Birmingham Road near Worcester where they would build a new factory for production of their 3-ton steam wagons.
Cyldon was the brand name for a range of model stationary steam engines, manufactured in Enfield, Middlesex, England between 1947 and 1951 by Sydney S Bird & Sons. The name Cyldon was an amalgamation of Sydney Bird's two son's names Cyril and Donald.
The Junkers L88 was Junkers' first geared V-12 engine, appearing c.1930 and based on a pair of 6-cylinder L8s. In 1932 a supercharger was added. It was used in the first pressurised aircraft, the Junkers Ju 49 and, for a while, in the large G 38 airliner and its Japanese built military version.
Internal combustion engines come in a wide variety of types, but have certain family resemblances, and thus share many common types of components.
Escher Wyss & Cie., also known as Escher Wyss AG, was a Swiss industrial company with a focus on engineering and turbine construction. Its headquarters were in the Zürich quarter of Escher Wyss, which takes its name from the company.
A steam motor is a form of steam engine used for light locomotives and light self-propelled motor cars used on railways. The origins of steam motor cars for railways go back to at least the 1850s, if not earlier, as experimental economizations for railways or railroads with marginal budgets. These first examples, at least in North America, appear to have been fitted with light reciprocating engines, and either direct or geared drives, or geared-endless chain drives. Most incorporated a passenger carrying coach attached to the engine and its boiler. Boiler types varied in these earlier examples, with vertical boilers dominant in the first decade and then with very small diameter horizontal boilers. Other examples of steam motor cars incorporated an express-baggage or luggage type car body, with coupling apparatus provided to allow the steam motor car to draw a light passenger coach. An early example with the all-in-one was photographed working on the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad during the American Civil War, in Tennessee, circa 1863-64. One American firm, Grice & Long, devised various versions in the mid-1860s for use on suburban and city street railways, using their proprietary mechanical patents. In the 1930s some highly evolved steam motors represented one of the final developments of the steam locomotive. The concurrent development of internal combustion-powered or electric-motored railway motor cars proved most popular circa 1900-1950s and those obviating the need for steam-powered cars.
The Fiat AN.1 was an experimental Italian water-cooled diesel straight six cylinder aircraft engine from the late 1920s.
An internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine. The force is typically applied to pistons, turbine blades, a rotor, or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into kinetic energy which is used to propel, move or power whatever the engine is attached to. This replaced the external combustion engine for applications where the weight or size of an engine was more important.
The Mercedes-Benz OM 138 is a diesel engine manufactured by Daimler-Benz. In total, 5,719 units were produced between 1935 and 1940. It was the first diesel engine especially developed and made for a passenger car. The first vehicle powered by the OM 138 was the Mercedes-Benz W 138. The light Mercedes-Benz trucks L 1100 and L 1500 as well as the bus O 1500 were also offered with the OM 138 as an alternative to the standard Otto engine.
Stuart Turner Ltd is a British engineering company, based in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, founded by engineer Sidney Marmaduke Stuart Turner in 1906.
A Naphthalene locomotive was tested in France in 1913. It was built by Schneider-Creusot for use in their own plant.
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A properly dressed couple seated in their wicker deck chairs head out into the bay in an 1890s naptha-powered fantail launch.
Yacht Club Notes --J Morris Vail has bought a brand new naptha launch named “Getty” from Julius Peterson of Tarrytown. Its length over all is 28 feet, beam 6 feet, 2 inches, and the engine is a Kipp seven-horse power two cycle. The boat has a torpedo-boat stern and standing top. The new arrival looks as though it would be a smart one and will be a fine addition to the fleet.
...he turned on the naphtha, and threw in a blazing match to ignite it, this act saving his hand. Naphtha engines are a trifle treacherous.
