I shed many a tear when the steam engines went out of style on the railroads. I'd like to seem them come back, but I realize the diesels are more efficient.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
You all know how powerful and varied are the effects of which steam engines are capable; with them has really begun the great development of industry which has characterised our century before all others.
I'm fascinated by steam engines and with Victorian engineering generally, and as a corollary to that, I'm fascinated by the idea of long-lived technologies.
Mode of providing steam power to locomotives.
The railroad originally was as completely dissociated from steam propulsion as was the ship.
I could imagine that boats sailing in harbors will only use electric engines. And then once they are out in the water they will use diesel.
Clearly, there are many places where diesel is king or gas-turbine is king, or IC engines will win, but there are many places in the world where, as we've seen, they just won't do the job. The modern version of the Stirling engine has some very, very attractive characteristics, and we're trying to optimize it for some of those applications.
Every small boy wanted to be a steam engine driver when they grew up in the old days, including me. There's something very special about them - the noise, the smell, the steam coming out everywhere.
When I came to town and saw the price of diesel went above regular gas, that burnt me up.
Most people are really stunned to find out that the technology has been around for more than 100 years, and that the diesel engine was in fact invented to run on vegetable oil.
We cannot rely on imported fuels forever, and we aim to replace traditional oil and gas boiler systems with products which are much more efficient.