home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- train
- 23
- Steam engines, like this one, burn
- wood or coal to boil water which
- pressurizes a piston, which moves a
- crankshaft, which turns the wheels.
- It's actually quite simple, that is
- why Richard Trevithick was able to
- build the first steam engine in
- 1804 -- it was so heavy, it crushed
- the rails it ran on.
- ...
- The largest steam engines ever
- built were the Union Pacific Big
- Boys, built in 1941. These engines
- weighed over 690,000 pounds,
- generated 6300 horse power, and
- could pull over 8 million pounds
- (that's a lot of Cheez Wiz).
- ...
- Steam engines were replaced in the
- U.S. by diesel and electric trains,
- but they are still built in China
- in areas where coal or wood are
- more plentiful than diesel fuel.
-