|
The Millenium Christmas Toy and Steam Day at Leicester's Museum of Science and Technology had slightly warmer weather than last year, but with the odd sharp rain shower and a stiff wind blowing, but with plenty of people around, many genuinely interested in what they were seeing. The Space Centre is taking shape in the background, although exactly WHAT shape is debatable! It appears to be made of inflatable clear plastic, through which a full size space rocket can be seen. The French family engines consisted of Andy's Ruston Hornsby PR and the AP, (almost a serious problem with the PR, when it stopped due to a lack of oil from the drip oiler - the wind was just blowing the oil away from its intended location), Jim took the Root and Vandervoort, which ran without faltering all day, the Fairbanks Morse Eclipse, the model Eclipse had its first public outing, and the Lorenz engine he had just purchased for an American friend. Helen's Maytag also had another succesful outing. Unfortunately, in the haste of preparing for the show, Jim could only find one six volt battery but had three buzz coil engines to run. Someone loaned him a second battery, but the full size Eclipse ended up being the one which ran least. The model ran impressively for much of the afternoon, and attracted a good audience. The Maytag almost lived up to all the rude comments made about it, but it turned out to be a combination of wet weather and unmeasured fuel mixture. Once the fuel mixture was corrected, she ran loudly and happily. The Lorenz simply ran quietly and consistently all day, stopping only once mid-afternoon for refuelling, and not even objecting to the heavy rain shower. |
|
|
Jim's Index |
|
|
Main Site Index |
|
|
©FBI 2000