brent Tom and wetgeek mused about the Aquarius single piston idea almost like powering trains, idea-wise.
I was struck by the fact that Aquarius uses a double-action piston, which is the design principle of steam engines:
Steam Engine Piston
Aquarius Engine Piston
That's all. The difference, of course, between a steam engine's double-action piston and the Aquarius double-action piston is the the former is driven by steam pressure and the latter is driven by internal combustion pressure. Just a bit of, as you put it, musing.
brent Made me think maybe we have to look backwards to look forwards? Meanwhile I'll patent that...
Only in the sense that a lot of different piston types have been developed over the years -- single-action (think your car), double-action (steam engine, Aquarius, others) and opposed-piston (some modern diesel engines), to name a few. Single-action piston design has dominated the field so completely that we don't think of the others.
WetGeek The news report where I originally heard about this engine pointed out that the company has quite a high valuation already, presumably based on their generator business.
Yes, and all that the company seems to be doing in the auto business is melding the Aquarius generator to hybrid-electric, although I can't tell whether the Aquarius automobile will use batteries as an intermediary.
If not, I'm curious about how the Aquarius generator keeps power even during the double-action cycle. Steam locomotives do so by using two double-action pistons, one on either side of the engine, operating at 90 degree opposing cycles. When the cycle is accurately "tuned" the engine runs smooth as silk. If the timing is off, even by a few degrees, the engine runs like a sack of, well.
