My former client, the surgeon inventor I liked so much, once told me that when the time is ripe for an invention, it's a good bet more than one person is thinking of it at the same time.

I read about this fellow Bruce Crower in Time magazine the other day. His idea was to squirt a bit of water into the chamber of a conventional internal combustion 4 stroke motor just after the fourth stroke, giving it an extra two strokes.

The piston will be way hot, 1500 degrees apparently, and that waste heat would turn the water to steam, giving more bang for the unit of fuel.

When the idea hit me, about 10 years ago, it occurred to me that one drawback would be the need to go with 6 strokes. It might take the engine a while to warm up enough to utilize that steam power stroke I thought. How would one go from 4 stroke to 6 stroke w/o electrical/solenoid activated valves?

Now I'm thinking that though the coolant may still be cool, the chamber is going to be fairly hot shortly after starting the car.

Another concern I had was whether or not the steam power stroke would have enough power to be compatible with the other power strokes going on from other pistons. For the sake of discussion, imagine that each gas fired power stroke produces one hp-second of power, similar to an amp-hour, a measure of work over a period of time. If the steam powered stroke produced only 1/2 hp-second, would it be compatible with the gas strokes or would it just be in the way?

Apparently this fellow thinks he has a model that works, calling it a hybrid steam engine, claiming it can add 40% greater mileage. I fully recognize that a good idea is near worthless w/o the ability to get a working prototype up and running. All I have to do now is get going on a couple of other nifty ideas before I read that someone else has scooped me on that one.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K