Russ Kisling's Page

This is an Triple Expansion Steam Engine, state of the art a while back.
It uses the expanding steam from one cylinder to feed the next. Up too a point, steam will keep expanding as it cools. And yes, they did make Quad Expansion Engines. Note that it is powered on both the up and down stroke. The larger cylinders would often be replaced by multiple smaller cylinders.

I want to make one of these so bad I can taste it. It seems to me that this progression could be continued to a final condensing stage with a cold water jacket or injection. The last stage would pull the piston with a partial vacuum rather than push with expanding steam or better yet both.

The Titanic had two 16K Hp Triple Expansion Engines, each had four cylinders and it's own screw. The steam leaving both engines was used to power a single 16K Hp Turbine Engine with it's own screw.

Cool huh.






If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." -- Winston Churchill