Taking the idea of the oscillating engine along it’s natural progression the next in line has to be a triple cylinder. There are certainly not many of these around in fact I have never seen any other apart from the one shown here. This was also an Ebay find and the big attraction here was the fact that not only is the engine a triple cylinder oscillator but it is also a radial engine.
Unfortunately at this time I only have the one very poor picture of it which does not very clearly show the cylinder arrangement so I will try to get a couple of better shots when I get home next time.
As with all radials the entire assembly of cylinders rotates and in doing so the cylinders oscillate and open and close the steam ports. This drives the pistons and in doing so rotates the assembly. It is a very interesting and clever piece of engineering but I have not had it steamed yet. It turns over quite successfully on compressed air but the boiler does not have a burner with it so I have not been able to raise steam with it yet. I believe the unit to be quite old and it has obviously been restored recently although not in the most sympathetic manner. There is a bit too much heavy gloss paint for my personal taste but the model does stand out and an exceptionally interesting piece and to see the whole thing rotate on air is amazing.
So that is as far as my collection of oscillators goes. Next we can go a bit further up the evolutionary scale and look at slide valves.
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“Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days" |