Black Powder engine theroy

[kcmillin]

Have you ever heard of a black powder engine that runs?

Me neither. I have seen attempts on tv, but no success at all.

So, I have an idea that just might work. It involves a semi-automatic pistol/rifle, and a connecting rod and flywheel, with some sort of "Valve" mechanism to pull the trigger at the right time.

If you mount a connecting rod wrist pin pivot on the sliding part of the rifle I.E. an SKS or AK47, and connect it to a crank with the same throw as half the slide, and then pull the trigger it will rotate the flywheel, then time the trigger pull with a valve gear of some kind.

This should work. Right?

I dont know if I will ever be able to try it though.

Bullets get expensive, this would not be a cheap engine to run.

kel

 

[kcmillin]

Long story short.

Basicly the moving part of the semi auto weapon would act as a piston.

and blanks would be used of course. Maybee with a welded barrell to transfer the most energy to the flywheel.

kel

 

[tmuir]

This may interest you.

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[BigBore]

Rof} Rof} *club*

Thank God "Captain" had his hi-tech forehead goggles on. I always wear mine that way to protect my frontal lobe.

Ed

 

[GailInNM]

Many black powder engines were used from the 1930's at least into the 1970's for engine starters. They just did not run very long. Rolls-Royce engines used a lot of them, most commonly found in Spitfires, and quite a few radial engines were equipped with them. Some jet engines were equipped with them, B-57's for one. Black powder was used on many of them, but slow burning Cordite was also used. The most popular was the Coffman starter. I was around RB-57's used for research at White Sands Missile Range in the early to mid 1960's. If there was no wind, the aircraft would disappear in the cloud of black powder smoke as it was typical to start both engines at the same time.

The Coffman starter fired a cartridge to power a piston that drove a screw to convert to rotary motion, kind of like forcing a lead screw to rotate by pushing on a milling table. This would crank the engine. Several cartridges were available, from 3 to 7 as I recall, and if the engine did not start a second cartridge could be fires after the piston returned home.

Here is a video that includes a B-57 at startup about 6 seconds into the video.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmZOEa8oabw[/ame]

 

[Maryak]

We had 2 x Napier Deltic 18cyl 2 stroke diesels as the main propulsion and 1 x 9cyl pulse generator in Ton Class Mine Sweepers. I did a stint in HMAS Gull in 1963 when we swept the Bouganville Channel of WWII Japanese mines to allow the development and start up of the Bouganville Copper mine.

These engines were cartridge start with a mechanism akin to a revolver barrel with 5 shots. It was a rare occasion when we needed more than one shot to start each engine.

Gull's sister ship Curlew.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Movie: Flight of the Phoenix with James Stewart.
Isn't that what he was using in trying to start the engine?

 

[kcmillin]

Cool, I did not k now that.

I would consider the steam engine type to be cheating though.

But I never new thew were used for starters. I would love to see the b57 starter by itself.

kel

 

[shred]

The way the AK and SKS action works, it's tapping a little bit of the powder gas to push a piston that drives the works for the next shot. Ignoring the distress downrange, it's a single-action engine with a funky valve and gas source. The 'flywheel' is via a spring so as to allow non-regular cycling. If you swapped in a flywheel and trigger-trip mechanism instead of the spring, it would work, but in the US anyway would be a big no-no without a lot of paperwork and law enforcement attention.

Hmm... has anyone built a model engine with a spring instead of a flywheel?

 

[steamboatmodel]

Many black powder engines were used from the 1930's at least into the 1970's for engine starters. They just did not run very long. Rolls-Royce engines used a lot of them, most commonly found in Spitfires, and quite a few radial engines were equipped with them. Some jet engines were equipped with them, B-57's for one. Black powder was used on many of them, but slow burning Cordite was also used. The most popular was the Coffman starter. I was around RB-57's used for research at White Sands Missile Range in the early to mid 1960's. If there was no wind, the aircraft would disappear in the cloud of black powder smoke as it was typical to start both engines at the same time.
The Coffman starter fired a cartridge to power a piston that drove a screw to convert to rotary motion, kind of like forcing a lead screw to rotate by pushing on a milling table. This would crank the engine. Several cartridges were available, from 3 to 7 as I recall, and if the engine did not start a second cartridge could be fires after the piston returned home.
Here is a video that includes a B-57 at startup about 6 seconds into the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmZOEa8oabw

I say did you notice the high tech hearing protection, Whats that speak a little louder.
Regards,
Gerald.

 

[vlmarshall]

Movie: Flight of the Phoenix with James Stewart.
Isn't that what he was using in trying to start the engine?

Yes. ;D

 

[Maryak]

I say did you notice the high tech hearing protection, Whats that speak a little louder.
Regards,
Gerald.

When you sit this close to them at full power with afterburner, for a year, that's exactly your response.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[vlmarshall]

The way the AK and SKS action works, it's tapping a little bit of the powder gas to push a piston that drives the works for the next shot. Ignoring the distress downrange, it's a single-action engine with a funky valve and gas source. The 'flywheel' is via a spring so as to allow non-regular cycling. If you swapped in a flywheel and trigger-trip mechanism instead of the spring, it would work, but in the US anyway would be a big no-no without a lot of paperwork and law enforcement attention.

I'm guessing this would be a new form of Hit & Miss engine? ;D

 

[hitandmissman]

Some Field Marshal farm tractors used a blank shotgun shell to start with I believe.

 

[Richard1]

They did it was a 12 gauge and was fired by hitting the firing pin with a hammer. I have driven one many years ago.

Richard.