Les Kerr from Australia describes a self-starting steam engine with electronically controlled, stepper motor driven valve timing. Having been trained as an electronic engineer by profession, one day I thought 1 would have a go at designing a double-acting steam engine in which the valves were controlled electronically rather than by a mechanical linkage. The first obvious advantage is that the valves would switch from fully open to closed in a few milliseconds making the engine more efficient and best of all it would be self-starting and be able to be reversed at the flick of a switch.
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