Hi Randall, Thanks for putting together this informative video. It's good to see someone paying tribute to these early pioneers. Ericsson's ship was powered with one of his open cycle hot air engines but it was grossly underpowered. The piston were so large tables were placed on them so people could dine riding up and down. Ericsson's engine's used regerenrators or recouperators same as Stirling but were an open cycle so that eliminated the necessity of a cold side heat exchanger. Also I doubt that Ericsson's engines were actually isothermal compression since they operated much like a Brayton but instead of adding heat inside the cylinder with combustion they added heat to the outside of the expansion cylinder. Braytons contribution to internal combustion is that he added the heat intermittently to the expansion cylinder much like Ericsson did. In the Brayton air / fuel is cutt off early in the stroke and the gasses expand as volume increases. However one major difference between Brayton and Ericsson is that regenerators were not normally used on Brayton engines. One engine called the Burger engine (patent # 657392) was one of the attempts at using a regenerator. Other engines like the Barber, Buckett, Roper and Trewella actually operated on a cycle more like what is described as the Brayton cycle. If you search you tube for a Brayton / Ericsson engine you will see an engine I made attempting to combine the 2 cycles. I also made an authentic Brayton engine since there are only 5 originals and none have run since the 1920's .
The main reason we don see Ericsson and Stirling engines is that they are external combustion which requires a complex and expensive heat exchanger to get the heat into the engine. The Stirling is a closed cycle which also requires equally costly / complex exchanger to remove the heat.
You should have told some of the history of George Brayton... he was a remarkable man who made huge contributions to the development of early engines. The first Brayton engine of 1872 used ether town gas or a vapor carburetor. The gas and air was sucked into the compressor and pressurized in a tank. The fuel/air would burn as it entered the expander and sometimes the gauze that was supposed to prevent the flame from getting to the tank would fail and would result in an explosion. Brayton solved this problem by switching to oil (kerosene) fuel in 1874 by only compressing air in the tank and the engine now used a burner and fuel injection pump. The compressed air passed trough the burner and was heated as it entered the expander cylinder. If you are not familiar with the way a Brayton operates it is much like any 4 cycle engine except intake and compression happen in one cylinder (compressor) and expansion and exhaust happen in another cylinder (expander) and all 4 cycles happen in one revolution. The combustion is not an explosion but rather the air and fuel are burning as they enter the expander (constant pressure). My engine is mostly identical to the original Brayton except that I'm using a lean burn combustor with a spark plug for ignition instead of the burner. I did make an original version of the engine using the burner but it smoked a lot and didn't make the power I thought it could. I wanted to build the best Brayton possible so people could see this is a really useful engine. I've been working on the Brayton on and off for the past 15 years. As far as we know there are 5 original Brayton engines in existence. 2 at the Smithsonian, one at the Ford Museum one in the submarine at the Pederson Museum one in Germany at the Technum and 2 Brayton cycle engines in Selden automobiles. Supposedly the last time an original engine was running was in the 1920's In 1887 Brayton switched to 4 stroke engines and designed one that is very similar to the modern diesel. As far as I'm aware this is the only operating original style Brayton that has the compressor / expander layout. th-cam.com/video/jyrRRDsxZr4/w-d-xo.html
Just a few days ago the Technikum museum in Germany got one of the 6 remaining Brayton engines running...the engine dates from about 1875. As far as I'm aware this is the first time an original Brayton engine has run since the 1920's th-cam.com/video/g7h3Hd40GfY/w-d-xo.html Very cool!
Hi Randall, Thanks for putting together this informative video. It's good to see someone paying tribute to these early pioneers. Ericsson's ship was powered with one of his open cycle hot air engines but it was grossly underpowered. The piston were so large tables were placed on them so people could dine riding up and down. Ericsson's engine's used regerenrators or recouperators same as Stirling but were an open cycle so that eliminated the necessity of a cold side heat exchanger. Also I doubt that Ericsson's engines were actually isothermal compression since they operated much like a Brayton but instead of adding heat inside the cylinder with combustion they added heat to the outside of the expansion cylinder. Braytons contribution to internal combustion is that he added the heat intermittently to the expansion cylinder much like Ericsson did. In the Brayton air / fuel is cutt off early in the stroke and the gasses expand as volume increases. However one major difference between Brayton and Ericsson is that regenerators were not normally used on Brayton engines. One engine called the Burger engine (patent # 657392) was one of the attempts at using a regenerator. Other engines like the Barber, Buckett, Roper and Trewella actually operated on a cycle more like what is described as the Brayton cycle. If you search you tube for a Brayton / Ericsson engine you will see an engine I made attempting to combine the 2 cycles. I also made an authentic Brayton engine since there are only 5 originals and none have run since the 1920's .
The main reason we don see Ericsson and Stirling engines is that they are external combustion which requires a complex and expensive heat exchanger to get the heat into the engine. The Stirling is a closed cycle which also requires equally costly / complex exchanger to remove the heat.
You should have told some of the history of George Brayton... he was a remarkable man who made huge contributions to the development of early engines. The first Brayton engine of 1872 used ether town gas or a vapor carburetor. The gas and air was sucked into the compressor and pressurized in a tank. The fuel/air would burn as it entered the expander and sometimes the gauze that was supposed to prevent the flame from getting to the tank would fail and would result in an explosion. Brayton solved this problem by switching to oil (kerosene) fuel in 1874 by only compressing air in the tank and the engine now used a burner and fuel injection pump. The compressed air passed trough the burner and was heated as it entered the expander cylinder. If you are not familiar with the way a Brayton operates it is much like any 4 cycle engine except intake and compression happen in one cylinder (compressor) and expansion and exhaust happen in another cylinder (expander) and all 4 cycles happen in one revolution. The combustion is not an explosion but rather the air and fuel are burning as they enter the expander (constant pressure). My engine is mostly identical to the original Brayton except that I'm using a lean burn combustor with a spark plug for ignition instead of the burner. I did make an original version of the engine using the burner but it smoked a lot and didn't make the power I thought it could. I wanted to build the best Brayton possible so people could see this is a really useful engine. I've been working on the Brayton on and off for the past 15 years. As far as we know there are 5 original Brayton engines in existence. 2 at the Smithsonian, one at the Ford Museum one in the submarine at the Pederson Museum one in Germany at the Technum and 2 Brayton cycle engines in Selden automobiles. Supposedly the last time an original engine was running was in the 1920's In 1887 Brayton switched to 4 stroke engines and designed one that is very similar to the modern diesel. As far as I'm aware this is the only operating original style Brayton that has the compressor / expander layout. th-cam.com/video/jyrRRDsxZr4/w-d-xo.html
Just a few days ago the Technikum museum in Germany got one of the 6 remaining Brayton engines running...the engine dates from about 1875. As far as I'm aware this is the first time an original Brayton engine has run since the 1920's th-cam.com/video/g7h3Hd40GfY/w-d-xo.html Very cool!
awesome man
great fucking video man