Contraptions

Compound Steam Locomotive

Compound Steam Locomotive

Bruce Ediger

This summer, we rode the 1880 Train, from Keystone SD to Hill City SD, and back. Easily worth the price of tickets, lots of fun, and you get to see South Dakota’s Black Hills in a way you won’t otherwise.

How Steam Locomotives Really Work

How Steam Locomotives Really Work

Bruce Ediger

Everybody who’s had kids knows that they love trains. I’ve visited the Colorado Railroad Museum and the Forney Transportation Museum several times because of kids. Both museums have a variety of steam locomotives. The Forney has a partially restored Union Pacific Big Boy.

I ended up wanting to know how locomotives worked, and why they look the way they do. Unfortunately, the emphasis at museums is always on how cool steam locomotives are, or the “gee whiz” factor. None of the museum gift shop books seemed to have this sort of content, tending more towards the stamp collecting aspects (4-8-8-4!).

My lovely wife gave me a book, How Steam Locomotives Really Work by P. W. B. Semmens and A. J. Goldfinch as a present.

2 Transistor LED Flasher

2 Transistor LED Flasher

Bruce Ediger

In an attempt to gain some electronics knowledge, I bought $30 worth of components and breadboards from Amazon, and built a 2-transistor LED flasher.

Everclear

Bruce Ediger

Summer 2021 I bought a Stirling Cycle engine kit. This is a type of heat engine, and in the case of the kit I assembled, the heat came from a small alcohol lamp.

I went to the local drive-thru strip mall liquor store to buy some Everclear.

Wireless Charging Detector

Bruce Ediger

I dropped my cell phone and cracked the screen, so I got a Google Pixel 6 and a wireless charging stand. I ended up looking up the “Qi” standard for these chargers. It seemed like the coils used to transfer energy weren’t particularly exotic in size, shape, material or manufacture, so I decided to try to receive some energy from the charging stand.

I’ve since revised this contraption.