Naphtha Launch ABBIE

[46Kit]

Just read a very interesting article in Wooden Boat Magazine, issue #225, titled: The Cruise of the Naphtha Launch ABBIE. You may know naphtha by it's more common name of "white gas" or "Coleman fuel" if you want to put a brand name on it. Anyway, it seems that just prior to the advent of the internal combustion engine at the turn of the 20th century a power plant was developed which was an external combustion engine (like a steam engine) that used naphtha to both fire the burner and as the vaporizing medium which was pumped through the cylinders. I had never heard of this type of engine and obscure or arcane forms of locomotion is like, "my thing!"

The article describes a month long camping voyage around Lake Superior in 1889 when that area was still pretty much virgin wilderness. I figured the camping and the Coleman fuel powered boat may be of interest to some of you.

Wooden Boat Magazine can be a little challenging to find so here's a link to a Wikipedia article on Naphtha Launches if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphtha_la ... tha_engine

Regards-HW

[Lazybones]

Thanks Harley. I had never heard of a naptha engine.

[Wolffarmer]

The bit of a description you gave makes it sound like a major fire looking for a place to happen.

Randy