Networks: Steam Engines

Looked up more info on steam engines. Also confirmed that you don't need electrical components to make them run as well. This is looking good so far.

To understand further how it works I looked more into different designs of steam engines and their purposes.

Now, a brief history of steam engines. The idea to use steam to move objects was first made by a Greek called Hero, but at the time there was no application for this idea. Hero's design had a boiler and one piston. Later on, the first applications for steam engines were for pumping water out of mines and wells (Davies, 2007). The most famous of which were the machines by Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric steam engines in the 1700s (Lira, 2001).

James Watt converted the straight movements of the pistons into round and round motion in 1776. Before then they only moved in straight lines. Later on George Stephenson made more powerful steam engines that were used in machinery and factories (Davies, 2007).

Also found a pretty good diagram that explains how the straight movement of pistons is changed to a rotational movement. It explains how the Stephenson Steam Engine works in the Youtube video I posted previously.

A type of steam engine machine that we could do is the Stirling machine. It uses the same concept of using pressure to cause movement of pistons, but the difference is that a Stirling doesn't need an exhaust pipe. Instead a certain amount of gas stays inside the Stirling at all times. You could condense the water and use it again. In fact, if you want you don't have to use water and just use plain air that when heated expands, therefore increasing pressure. So that works too. The limitations of a Stirling is that it's impractical for cars andthings since the heat source is external. That won't matterbecause we're not building a car. It also takes time to produce anyuseful energy and it can't change its output of energy quickly (Nice, 2011).

This is an example of a Stirling engine running on just air with the flame heating up one end (Infarc, 2007):

This is another Stirling engine made from readily available materials like tin cans and balloons (Myfordboy, 2008):

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Reference list

Davies, A. (2007). The Steam Engine. George Stephenson. Retrieved April 24, 2012, from http://www.design-technology.org/steamengine.htm

Infarc. (2007, May 23). Stirling engine example [Video file]. Retrieved April 24, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF15NA4vR2w

Lira, C.T. (2001). Steam Engine History. Retrieved April 24, 2012, from http://www.egr.msu.edu/~lira/supp/steam/

Myfordboy. (2008, March 8). Stirling Cycle Engine from Tin cans [Video file]. Retrieved April 24, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hazK8kxd-uA&feature=relmfu

Nice, K. (2011). HowStuffWorks "How Stirling Engines Work". Retrieved April 24, 2012, from http://auto.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine.htm

Networks: Alternatives to Electrical Energy

Since we're aiming to create an alternative mailing system to the internet that is independent of the power grid, we'll have to look for alternatives to electrical energy. The setting of our project is about having our communications protected from solar flares.

Popular alternatives are solar, hydro, and wind power. But all these need electrical components to convert energy into electric energy. Therefore all these would actually also be affected by solar flares. Generators to create backup energy wouldn't either because unless they're well protected specifically against solar flares they won't work either.

Thus, our options must not have electrical bits in them like cells, resistors, wires, and so on.

Our earliest option was using rocket power fueled by a mixture of corn syrup and potassium nitrate. To be completely honest I'm not quite keen on that. First of all, there are safety concerns to consider. If we go this way we won't be seen much in the studio at all, also, even if we do make it, it would be difficult to stop the rocket at exactly the right place and to guide it around a curve. Also, if the destination for each package differs, how do you make sure the rocket has enough momentum to go all the way to the destination? In addition, it's also a bit excessive to be using potassium nitrate when we're only going to build a small working model of the system.

So in the first week, we'll be researching on more alternatives to increase our possible options.

Edrian found a simpler rocket we could do cheaply and simply if we still would want to build a rocket power mail system.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/q0yfrZkqPxQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(Foresttrenaman, 2009)

Another alternative I've thought about is using steam to move the network we're building, so I had a look at steam engines to see how they work.

This is an example of a Stephenson Engine on Youtube (PhillForSale, 2010):

Basically, heat is applied to the water and you get steam. The steam increases the pressure, which moves the piston. High pressure, high temperature steam leaves the exhaust pipe. Process repeats (Brain, 2011). It's all in the pressure that comes from the water expanding to form steam.

We could put gears and cogs on a steam engine that creates a round and round motion to move something like a conveyor belt to move our system. I'll look into this further throughout the week and keep an eye out for more alternatives.

And below is our schedule for this term. We absolutely have to follow this or do things with more focus and efficiency or else I have doubts that we'll reach the deadline. I have confidence that we can do this and make it work. I made the first week all about research and planning, since director Ben is away. That gives time to get a really solid idea to exactly how we're going to approach in making the network for when he gets back and we fill him in. Then we can jump right into experimenting and testing.

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Reference list


Brain, M. (2011). HowStuffWorks "How Steam Engines Work". Retrieved April 23, 2012, from http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/steam.htm

Foresttrenaman. (2009, May 7). How To make A Match Rocket [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0yfrZkqPxQ&feature=relmfu

PhillForSale. (2010, November 24). Working Model of Stephenson's STEAM ENGINE made of GLASS ! Rare! [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73txXT21aZU

Networks: Last day

FINISHED. The final result is completed. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out after Tim took care of the audio and exporting.



Now, improving my group. Even though our planning is pretty good compared to other groups, that's not the point. When you do something you do NOT compare yourself to other people. If you do that there will never be any true improvement in my point of view. When you want to become more than you are now, the only thing you should compare yourself to is the ideal of what you want to become. Look at your ideal, now look at you, now back again. If there's a difference and it's not up to standard, change it.

Now back to group improvement. I want more efficiency as the planning and time management wasn't as good as I wanted it to. I want more concentration and focus to aid in that efficiency I'm striving for. And finally, I want clarity of vision. Don't keep on switching ideas aimlessly, stick to the clearest one and develop it until the aim is obvious.

I want my group to have a nice head start for next term.

Networks: After Effects

Fixed up the transitions now Tim can fully start his work in AfterEffects. He'll have to do it on my lap top though since his is practically dead.

At the end of the day I had a look through the AfterEffects stuff, but there's an annoying screen that pops up saying the media required is missing and it turns out it hasn't been rendered yet. So I'll let that render at home, and see if that screen goes away.

I'll also need to look for some free music to put into the film as well.


We're so close to finishing, I just hope we can get everything done on time. I feel positive that we can.

Networks: Editing

Finished editing today.

Did most of the editing over the weekend and showed it to the group today to build up a final edit.

We're nearly there and it's actually looking better than I thought it would be. Just need to put in the transitions to smooth out some cuts and I can let Tim work on it with AfterEffects to make the shots look better, fix up the colours, add titles, and so on.

Networks: Filming day 3

Went back to Edrian's to film more re-enactments after we had a clearer idea on what to film since we now have all the content of the interviews and therefore the characters' stories pinned down.

We didn't get distracted at all today so that's a good thing.

I started the bulk of the editing today and I found it really slow and lethargic at first, to be completely honest for some reason I didn't feel very motivated. Only thing that kept me going was that I wanted this film to be finished and I didn't want to disappoint anybody either.

So I sorted through the footage for the usable clips. Ended up with a fair amount of usable material so that's good, and began piecing together the filim.

Networks: Filming day 2

Yesterday we were easily distracted but today we were very focused and out concentration did not drift.

Today we used the chromakey room to do our interview scenes. There's not much to say about them, but there's one little thing we forgot to do. I only remembered this when I got started editing out footage today.

That green reflection on our faces. What we should have done was bring along Edrian's light reflector to guide a bit of light on us to take away that green glow. It's lucky that this isn't obvious on the footage though.

Overall though, I think we did great today. Tomorrow, it shall be full on editing for me (editor) once we film the rest of the re-enactment footage.