# Not exactly plans... but lots of ideas



## Cedge (Dec 10, 2007)

I was bored last evening and went Googling. I'd never noticed that Google had a patents section before so, being curious in nature, I gave this new found toy a whirl. It turned into a marathon session which saw me into the wee hours of the morning. I suspect some of you will also enjoy it. 

Steve 

*Google Search For Steam Engine Patents *


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## Kludge (Aug 17, 2008)

Cedge  said:
			
		

> I was bored last evening and went Googling. I'd never noticed that Google had a patents section before so



Bringing back an old and lonely topic from obscurity ... 

Google Patents and Google Books are mines ripe for the picking. I also use Free Patents Online and a host of other sites like Gutenberg & the Internet Archive. If one's not too concerned about being all that legal, current texts appear on Usenet in several alt.binaries groups (which, of course, I know only by hearsay ;D) but they're not nearly as much fun as the older ones - 1920 or so and earlier where the copyrights have run out.

Old dead tree books of real interest appear at book sales with amazing frequency. While I was still on the mainland, I went to them, yard & garage sales and flea markets religiously as well as estate sales when I could. One of them yielded the texts a gentleman used in college as a ME student and not a one had a copyright date more recent than 1909. He was long deceased, the estate being sold off being that of his son which was being handled by his (the son's) grandchildren. One dollar for a box of books accompanied by a very strange look from the grandkiddies who wondered why _anyone_ would want them, let alone someone in his 30s (which I was then.) 

By the way, those books went to another hobbiest when I moved here, someone I knew would love and respect them as much as I did. _She_ did some amazing work using only a tricked out Unimat SL-1000 and an extremely steady hand.

Best regards,

Kludge


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## BobWarfield (Aug 17, 2008)

Patents are a great source of ideas.  Someone was looking at these crazy trochoidal engines. And I think Bog or someone said they're torpedo engines. So I popped over to patent search and searched for trochoidal torpedo engine and had all kinds of nice drawings to choose from.

Here's another potent source: Google Book search

http://books.google.com/books?q=steam+engine

They've digitized a ton of books, especially old books. I've gone through here and found useful info on things I was researching like slide valve timing or Stephenson linkages. You can find real old engineering texts on steam engine design.

My mother had a set of late 1800's Encyclopedia Brittanicas that had tons of great old machinery drawings too. Not sure what became of them.

Enjoy,

BW


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