The Red Brick Times

This is a bone for Andy since I tortured him with the the water-powered car garbage a while back. I came across this while looking for stuff on old Gnome Rotary engines. They claim 85% efficiency at low revs with higher torque. What do think?

OK, I sent this a week ago and I know you guys are all depressed about the Nucular Winter you seem to be suffering, but I would think that would be a good reason to bundle up and type some drivel into a computer. What's up?
Posted 8:19 PM by A. O. (13) comments

       Comments:

I must admit that I too get kind of disappointed when nothing new shows up here for a time. In the first year or two it really bugged me.

Next month the ol' RBT will have been around for four years, something I didn't expect when I started it. As best I remember I didn't really expect much of anything though. It was done more or less on a whim. I created a quick prototype then said "nah, nobody'll be interested", and deleted the whole thing. But the idea stuck with me and, partly because I had access to a server and no cost was involved, I recreated it and asked a few people to take a look and tell me if they thought the idea worth pursuing. The response was positive enough that I informed a wider audience and, because of their interest, registered a domain and away we went. It was a new toy, everybody posted occasionally, word spread further, and it was on a roll.

Well...., after a while I noticed that there were periods of time when I was the only one posting. I'd ask, "Hey, where the hell is everybody?” Silence. I'd say, "Y'know, you can post random thoughts, a slice of your day, anything! C'mon!" Nada. I got tired of seeing whole strings of posts with my byline. This was never intended to be a personal blog and I had no interest in writing one. I'd stop posting. Things would go silent. I figured that was the end of that. Then, eventually, a new post would appear.

Maybe in reality what had happened was that the initial flurry of people joining and posting had encouraged my expectations to become too high. I was ever so pleased with myself being able to create and contribute something that was so obviously used and enjoyed that when use fell off, as I said, it really bugged me.

My expectations gradually changed. Over time I saw (just) enough use to keep my interest and keep me motivated enough to spend effort improving the format and dealing with the odd glitch (damned comments!). Occasionally something especially poignant (Skip’s death) or especially cool (Andy and John sponsoring a full year – you could have knocked me over with a feather) happened.

I wish there was more activity here but hey, people do what they do. I still want to make it nice. Like putting the bullets in front of each comment, something I really thought helpful. That may seem a small thing but, for reasons I won’t bore you with, it took forever. On the other hand there’s not enough activity to justify major additions (I was thinking of an “RBT Reader” link where we could suggest and comment on books we’re reading. Maybe in a BBS type format.). A major addition takes too much effort only to find nobody uses it.

Damn, I do go on don’t I? Seeing someone else mention an absence (temporary I hope) of posts/comments just started me thinking I guess.

# posted by  whatley : April 27, 2005 10:49 AM
 
By God, you do go on, Russell!

I guess my frustration derives from wanting a more sustained discussion as opposed to simply commenting (wittily, of course)and moving along, but then again we are the prototype for the TV, short attention span, instant gratification, disposable society.

# posted by  A. O. : April 27, 2005 12:07 PM
 
Multiple power pulses per engine crankshaft revolution equates to higher torque, lower vibration. Parasitic losses remain - valve (pushrod or overhead cam), accessories (alternator, water pump, a/c compressor, belt friction). Interesting mechanical variation with a real advantage on reduction of piston side loads against cylinder walls. The hammering taken by conventional crankshaft engines precludes more exotic materials (like ceramic). When we can go to all ceramic, we can dispose of cooling systems and lubrication, and increase efficiency even more.

# posted by  Andy : April 28, 2005 8:26 AM
 
I'll assume that "dispose of cooling systems" means that ceramic will dissipate heat well enough by itself, but dispose of lubrication too? What's up with that?

# posted by  whatley : April 28, 2005 9:26 AM
 
Andy I came across that looking for stuff on old Gnomes because I thought the idea could be used to build a front -wheel drive motor cycle only to find that it was tried in 1922(http://www.7393.org/images/history_04_megola1922.jpg). The problem seemed to be the total loss lube system that threw out more oil than a '57 Panhead primary chain. If the Revtec system would allow for materials that don't require lubrication then the system becomes feasible again plus you get the added benefit of high lowend torque.

PS- Russell how do you insert a link into Comments?

# posted by  A. O. : April 28, 2005 9:49 AM
 
Tony - To make a link you need to use an html tag. Here is a brief how-to showing the tag and syntax.

# posted by  whatley : April 28, 2005 11:40 AM
 
Link test 1922 Megola Front Whell Drive Motorcycle

# posted by  A. O. : April 28, 2005 3:17 PM
 
Cool. It works!

# posted by  A. O. : April 28, 2005 3:18 PM
 
Posting seems to be a bit slow. It's been three hours and the last comments still haven't shown up on the site. There was real delay with the initial message also. Is this a page problem or a Blogger problem?

# posted by  A. O. : April 28, 2005 6:34 PM
 
I'm not sure I understand what you're referring to. From what I can see you created a successful link at 3:17pm, posted that you saw that it worked at 3:18pm, then that posts didn't show up at 6:34pm. What didn't show up or was delayed?

Could it be that your browser is reading from cache instead of re-downloading the source? Force a re-download through Ctrl-F5 and see if that helps.

# posted by  whatley : April 28, 2005 7:45 PM
 
That could be it. I had checked the link from the comments page because the mesages were not showing up on the RBT. That prompted my last post. I'll keep an eye on it.

# posted by  A. O. : April 29, 2005 12:23 AM
 
That was it. Anyway to get that done automatically?

# posted by  A. O. : April 29, 2005 12:25 AM
 
The setting to force a browser to always reload a page depends on which browser you're using. It'll be under "options" or "internet options" somewhere. Look around, you'll find it. I always make my cache size very small as well.

FYI: When you "publish" a post in Blogger you're taken to a status page. When that page reports the post published you can be sure it's there. Adding a comment doesn't provide that verification. As best I can tell (it's new to me too) it goes into a "first come first served" queue then, depending if it's the first comment or not, a sequence of events take place that are different from those initiated when posting to the main page. Without going into anymore detail lets just say that comments can sometimes take a bit longer to appear than regular posts do.

# posted by  whatley : April 29, 2005 6:34 AM
 
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