Trent Shipley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote,
I think that internal combustion gasoline and diesel engines would
have been much more attractive in the 1930's and 1940's. They
were more efficient and had better power to weight ratios.
....
Gasoline internal combustion engines just offered *much* better
power to weight ratios.
That is a very good point!
Given the technology of the times, what do you think would have been
the power to weight ratio of a Stirling engine whose fluid was, say
compressed hydrogen at 3000 lbs/sq-in (3000 psi, ~200 bar, or 20
megaPascals). How would that power to weight ratio compare to a
gasoline internal combustion engine?
Is hydrogen at that pressure a good heat fluid? I know helium at that
pressure is good, but don't know about hydrogen. I picked hydrogen
because it was much much cheaper than helium. If argon is better,
then argon would be a good choice. It became available at an
affordable price after 1900, as a side effect of liquifying air,
before helium.
What were good power to weight ratios? In the 1930s, did a good
engine produce 1 hp of output for each 2 lbs of weight (i.e., approx
800 watts per kilogram or even 1 kw/kg) or was the ratio better than
that? I don't know.
--
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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