Author Topic: Interesting boiler design  (Read 2956 times)

Offline ddmckee54

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Interesting boiler design
« on: September 05, 2019, 09:56:34 PM »
As a bit of background information I have been interested for years in the Lombard and Phoenix steam powered log haulers that were used by the some of the Northern logging companies - mostly during the winter months.  While researching the Phoenix company that was based out of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, I stumbled across a reference to the Phoenix "Centiped".

This was apparently the steam powered equivalent of a WWII half-track.  I have always loved the odd-ball stuff so naturally I loved it.  I have found exactly 1 picture and it originally appeared in an article written in the January 7, 1922 edition of the American Lumberman magazine.  Apparently Phoenix built at least one prototype of the truck.  From the content of the article I would guess that it was a press release from the Phoenix company.  Looking at the picture one has to wonder what the boiler looked like, as there isn't much room on that truck for a 60BHP boiler.

The article said that the boiler had been designed by W. H. Winslow of Chicago. Ill.  After searching for a while I came up with the a patent application, that was filed by Winslow in May of 1921.  This leads me to believe that this was at least similar to the boiler used in the Centiped.

This looks like a fairly neat boiler, it's compact, modular, and it should be quick to steam.  I was wondering how this style would work out as a model boiler.  It could be built in modules just like the full scale version and the parts pressure tested as you go.  If part of it had a irreparable leak you'd just have to rebuild that module, not the whole boiler.  The biggest drawback that I can see is that it doesn't have much water capacity so a good feed-water system would be a must.  What do you think?

I was going to attach the patent application PDF, but the file size is 1117KB and the maximum attachment size is 1024KB.  I don't have Adobe Editor so I couldn't cut out any parts of the file, but I am going to try to attach a screenshot of one of the patent application drawings.

Don

Offline crueby

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Re: Interesting boiler design
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2019, 10:19:08 PM »
Hi Don,
Those are such interesting machines - Pheonix licensed the track patents from A.O. Lombard, and Pheonix came up with a lot of changes to the layout from what Lombard was doing. I don't know about this particular boiler, but you may want to get in touch with Terry Harper through the Maine Forest & Logging Museum (he has also done a lot of posts on other forums). Terry has done a lot of research into these machines, and may be able to help out. He has done a lot of posts over on the SmokStack forum. There are still a couple of Phoenix's surviving. Another guy that knows a lot is Paul Breton up in Maine, he and his brothers have restored some of the machines, and may be able to help out too.

Chris

Offline tghs

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Re: Interesting boiler design
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2019, 11:30:05 PM »
the K. N. Harris book shows some water tube boilers close to the type,, the scale of the project will play into if this boiler can be done,, I'm in the gathering materials phase of  a 1/6th scale "Ward" boiler,, another type of water tube light weight fast steaming boiler.. even at 1/6th scale it will be a challenge ..
what the @#&% over

 

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