Cartland Engines, Cartland Green, Rotary vane engine, B&S conversion, Launch, and Whizzer Moped conversion

Cartland Engines:

Rotary Vane

Bill Cartland of Jupiter Beach, Florida patented a rotary vane engine. It is an old design and thus probably not patentable. It has the advantage over air motor types of vane engines in that the vane is not affected by centrifugal force. In regular vane motors this force would cause excessive wear and friction on the outer housing.

Cartland attempted to put seals in the edges of the vane, that looked more or less like linear piston rings, to seal leakage of steam. He made one model that would haveproduced several hundred horsepower, but a critical shear part was made of bronze instead of steel and this sheared under load so the investor pulled his money from the project. This design could be made with two vanes so that it would be self starting and it could be balanced so that it would rotate at very high speeds. Usually any vane motor has too much leakage past the vanes to be of any practical use.

Cartland Green Engine

(Note: Click on a picture for a larger view, then your browser can enlarge it as well.)

This is so named because it was built by Bill Cartland for R. A. Gibbs and it is painted green. it is one of the most unique steam engine designs ever, being double acting uniflow with the head being a three-quarters inch thick plate of steel in the middle of things with some holes drilled into it. I call it the Green Engine and that has to do with the paint color and nothing else. It uses an eccentric driven piston valve. The trunk piston is also the cross head. The weakness in this design is in there being no room for packing where the piston rod goes through the head so steam leakage is possible.

It has piston intake valves and uniflow exhaust ports. Bill Cartland told me that this was a very smooth running well-balanced engine. Unlike most steam engines it has big roller bearings and large counter-weights on the crankshaft. The bottom piston is also the cross-head and as such it has many grooves machined into it for a labyrinth seal. The purpose of this design may have been to make a compact engine. One can only wonder at this stage.

Piston valve for steam admission.

Exploded view, built up crank, and piston/crosshead grooved for labyrinth sealing, uniflow design with two uniflow exhausts at each end. This will help to keep water from the crankcase.

Head in the middle with intake ports drilled into the head. The problem is not good enough sealing for the connecting rod going through the head. A thicker head would solve the problem. Bill Cartland said the engine ran very smoothly.

Briggs and Stratton Conversion

Another Bill Cartland Briggs & Stratton conversion to a steam engine. Bill insulated the cylinder with cotton rope and some type of urethane wrapping.

Bill Cartland Briggs and Stratton engine conversion with a VW cylinder for the steam cylinder

Engine with poppet valves for intake and exhaust

Bill Cartland B&S engine conversion with a VW cylinder for the steam cylinder

Engine showing the cam followers operating the push rods

It appears that a VW cylinder was bolted on to a small 4 stroke engine bottom end. The value in this engine is how the poppet valves were attached. First of all the cams were affixed to the crankshaft and then cam followers made so the push rods could be lined up easily and not rub on anything. As you can see with a steam engine the poppet intake and exhaust valve seats are not on the same plane. This is why a person needs to see something already designed by an experienced steam person. It will save years.

Launch

Bill Cartland, photos taken in 1998 and 2000 in Jupiter, Florida where Bill spent his later years working on small steam engine systems in his garage. Because of the many canals in his neighborhood Bill wanted a small boat that would drive slowly and quietly around. Bill converted everything from small model airplane engines to lawn mower engines to auto air conditioner pumps into steam engines. Most of this material is in my possession here in the shop.

Whizzer Moped Conversion

Bill Cartland's Whizzer Moped engine conversion

Bill Cartland Whizzer moped engine converted to steam. This is a uniflow engine, something easy to do with a two-cycle IC engine, and the intake valve is a poppet with the cam being a bump brazed onto the output crankshaft. Nice cam follower. And nice job of grinding most of the cooling fins off the Whizzer. This is in my shop.

Bill Cartland's Wizzer moped Steam engine conversion

Note the cam built into the crankshaft, the cam follower carefully hinged and the push rod to the poppet valve. The fins have been machined off the air cooled moped engine.

Whizzer engine made by Bill Cartland and modified for poppet valve steam intake and uniflow steam exhaust. Actually the uniflow exhaust used the existing two-stroke exhaust port. The piston would need to be changed to a flat top piston instead of using the two-stroke shaped piston top.

Rotary Vane Bill Cartland of Jupiter Beach, Florida patented a rotary vane engine. It is an old design and thus probably not patentable. It has the advantage over air motor types of vane engines in that the vane is not affected by centrifugal force. In regular vane motors this force would cause excessive wear and friction on the outer housing.

Cartland attempted to put seals in the edges of the vane, that looked more or less like linear piston rings, to seal leakage of steam. He made one model that would haveproduced several hundred horsepower, but a critical shear part was made of bronze instead of steel and this sheared under load so the investor pulled his money from the project. This design could be made with two vanes so that it would be self starting and it could be balanced so that it would rotate at very high speeds. Usually any vane motor has too much leakage past the vanes to be of any practical use.

Cartland Green Engine (Note: Click on a picture for a larger view, then your browser can enlarge it as well.)

This is so named because it was built by Bill Cartland for R. A. Gibbs and it is painted green. it is one of the most unique steam engine designs ever, being double acting uniflow with the head being a three-quarters inch thick plate of steel in the middle of things with some holes drilled into it. I call it the Green Engine and that has to do with the paint color and nothing else. It uses an eccentric driven piston valve. The trunk piston is also the cross head. The weakness in this design is in there being no room for packing where the piston rod goes through the head so steam leakage is possible.
It has piston intake valves and uniflow exhaust ports. Bill Cartland told me that this was a very smooth running well-balanced engine. Unlike most steam engines it has big roller bearings and large counter-weights on the crankshaft. The bottom piston is also the cross-head and as such it has many grooves machined into it for a labyrinth seal. The purpose of this design may have been to make a compact engine. One can only wonder at this stage.