Steamboat

[CDK]

In '49 or '50 I got this little boat as a Santa Claus present.
Pressed from sheet metal, probably made in Nuernberg, Germany where many toys were made. The little candle heated the few drops of water in the thin tube and the steam expelled the water pushing the boat forward in a somewhat irregular fashion, but faster than the toy boats with a battery and a Mabuchi electric motor I later bought for my kids.

I once suggested this type of propulsion to someone on this forum who wanted to build a boat with an almost zero budget, but he didn't take the bait.

Has anyone ever seen such a toy, small or large?

[TeddyDiver]

Potato cannons had some similarity.. 2" iron tube other end "blinded", a little water and a potato stucked in to the pipe. Thou a candle wasn't enough as a heat source :)

[baeckmo]

Ooh yeap, these were common back in those days, seems we belong to the same vintage....... . There was a study on pulsing steam jets done by some institution, I'll see if I can locate it! I remember they found that the steam generator should have a substantial thermal mass, but of course the efficiency was low.

The pulsation is in fact a similar resonance phenomenon as found in the pulsejets of the V1 rockets, operating in the Lenoir air standard cycle.

[boat fan]

Yes I do remember them CDK. They are called pop pop boats.

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=13&ved=0CBkQFjACOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nmia.com%2F~vrbass%2Fpop-pop%2F&rct=j&q=tin+toy+boat&ei=6e8HS4DjC4_-tQPmsqnACQ&usg=AFQjCNHVc3yks3IOW0rfP8WFTTDjvvZpDQ

[daiquiri]

Nice toys, but the most of energy is expelled as heat and is useless for propulsion. Maybe the efficiency could be improved a bit by intertwining the two tubes, to recover some heat from the steam.
Would the whole thing still work? Don't know...

[gonzo]

When I was seven or eight my dad built one for me.

[PAR]

Clearly we're a bunch of old farts with good memories of over a half a century ago.

[Submarine Tom]

I got one for Christmas not that many years ago and thought, "That'll never

work." Sure enough, given enough time, the little thing started banging

like crazy (popping really) and off it went in the bathtub.

Agreed, not very efficient on a larger scale.

Great learning tool though.

-Tom

[apex1]

In '49 or '50 I got this little boat as a Santa Claus present.
Pressed from sheet metal, probably made in Nuernberg, Germany where many toys were made. The little candle heated the few drops of water in the thin tube and the steam expelled the water pushing the boat forward in a somewhat irregular fashion, but faster than the toy boats with a battery and a Mabuchi electric motor I later bought for my kids.

I once suggested this type of propulsion to someone on this forum who wanted to build a boat with an almost zero budget, but he didn't take the bait.

Has anyone ever seen such a toy, small or large?

Was made by Schuco in Nürnberg from the late 40ies `til the late 50ies. Was really fast for its size. Hard to find today, much sought after collectors items (all early Schuco toys).

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Bought one last year, found one in a little shop in the UK somewhere although it looks like it could be made in India, bought it because i hadnt seen one before. Works pretty well, I was suprised.

My immediate thought was to make a bigger version-but......;)

like most of these ideas I never seem to get around to doing alot of them- working on big boats takes up all my time, and the customers......all my mental energy!!!!!!:( :(

J:p

[boat fan]

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&ved=0CA0QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.duckworksmagazine.com%2F03%2Fr%2Farticles%2Fsteamer%2Findex.htm&rct=j&q=pop+pop+boat+plans&ei=h1UIS5WzA4PqsQPMgunACQ&usg=AFQjCNGHt3FHt4Lw44WO_qNygBPvVPNGkA

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=4&ved=0CBMQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sticksite.com%2Fputputboat%2Fmetal-boat.html&rct=j&q=pop+pop+boat+plans&ei=ZlYIS6K_OYS2sgP-jqXACQ&usg=AFQjCNFq_VLr4AG4wxs8sqsiEvmDko8DlQ

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=8&ved=0CB8QFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alwayshobbies.com%2FStore%2FModel-Boats%2FSteam%2FBoats%2FPop%249Pop-steam-power-models&rct=j&q=pop+pop+boat+plans&ei=ZlYIS6K_OYS2sgP-jqXACQ&usg=AFQjCNFjqumBGCMbZS4V3bUELdg1rnJUUQ

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=7&ved=0CBoQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmjegado.free.fr%2Fpoppop%2Fpop-pop-boat.php&rct=j&q=pop+pop+boat+plans&ei=ZlYIS6K_OYS2sgP-jqXACQ&usg=AFQjCNF9sbUr25CtGqAMt4HI8idXd-cWbw

http://www.eclecticspace.net/poppop/poppop_en.html

[boat fan]

My immediate thought was to make a bigger version-but......;)

J:p


Try this ......:D


http://www.eclecticspace.net/index2.php?rub=poppop

Go to the english version , then select the link on the bottom right...." biggest pop pop engines in the world ".....:D

http://www.eclecticspace.net/doc/Big_pop-pop_engines_02_HQ.avi

http://www.eclecticspace.net/poppop/poppop_plus_gros/Assembly.jpg

[boat fan]

Clearly we're a bunch of old farts with good memories of over a half a century ago.


What can I say ....:D

[gonzo]

Old farts? I know what you mean. You are an old fart when the oldies radio station is playing music you never heard before.

[PAR]

You're an old fart when the oldies radio station is playing music you remember being a favorite when the grand kids were born.

[apex1]

Married Paul, when they married.

[CDK]

I had no idea about the cult around a toy from the 50's; that was quite interesting reading.
It is remarkable that I remember almost nothing about these years but never forgot the little boat.

All experiments to make a real size propulsion that way were in vain, although a few guys wasted money on a patent application. It is of course very tempting to have a propulsion system without any moving parts at all, but even the company Pursuit Dynamics, with UK government funding, never got further than press releases and computer animations, just like EEstor and their ultra-capacitor that nobody ever saw.