Steam is the power source of the day. It powers the trains that connect the great cities, and it powers the ships that fly though the air. Typically, the boilers are coal or oil fired, although one can still find wood fired steam engines in poorer, or seldom visited backwaters.
For a time, the forests were cut down to supply the hungry steam engines, but after coal and oil boilers became available all new boilers are of one of those two types. Researching steam engines turned up a few interesting facts:
If we add in mechanical replacements for things we take for granted, like GPS (ask me how that works!) , computers, and even line of sight cell phones (no, really!). Things get weird quickly. But it is these kind of thoughts that make the story gears grind in my brain...
For a time, the forests were cut down to supply the hungry steam engines, but after coal and oil boilers became available all new boilers are of one of those two types. Researching steam engines turned up a few interesting facts:
- The source of steam (power) and the way to convert that steam to usable form are completely separate parts. It is fairly easy to convert a wood burning boiler to an oil burning one without changing out the actual engine itself.
- If you start using a steam turbine, you can get higher efficiencies than gas or diesel. This is why most power plants (including nuclear ones!) use steam turbines to generate electricity. Not gonna be in this book, but it is interesting.
- Steam engines are HEAVY compared to diesel or gasoline engines. Major reason for the change-over to those engines, except in those industries where economies of scale come into play (railroads).
If we add in mechanical replacements for things we take for granted, like GPS (ask me how that works!) , computers, and even line of sight cell phones (no, really!). Things get weird quickly. But it is these kind of thoughts that make the story gears grind in my brain...