PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Here is where we focus on separating the facts from the fiction, identifying what we KNOW from what what we DON'T KNOW about the life and work of Townsend Brown
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Mikado14
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by Mikado14 »

Thank You Mr. Griffen. It needed to be said.

Mikado
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy
Linda Brown
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by Linda Brown »

Mr. White,

I nearly missed your message in the comments section right beneath Pauls " Back in the Saddle " remarks.

Thank you for all of that. I take your words and your interest extremely seriously.

Courage ... but Fare Forward Voyagers! Linda
htmagic
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by htmagic »

Linda Brown wrote:Mr. White,

I nearly missed your message in the comments section right beneath Pauls " Back in the Saddle " remarks.

Thank you for all of that. I take your words and your interest extremely seriously.

Courage ... but Fare Forward Voyagers! Linda
Linda,

I believe Mr. White is right. First other countries come forward with UFO reports. Now the US follows. Here's an astronaut's version:
http://news.aol.com/article/astronaut-claims-alien-cover-up/101479?icid=100214839x1206309326x1200340275 wrote:Astronaut Claims Alien Cover-Up

filed under: Science News, Weird News

(July 25) - Former NASA astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell told a British radio host this week that governments have been covering up contact with aliens for more than six decades, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The 77-year-old veteran of the Apollo 14 mission said, "I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we’ve been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real."

Former NASA astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, shown in 1972, claims that Earth has been visited by aliens and that governments have covered up contact with aliens for more than 60 years. Click through the photos to see reported alien and UFO sightings.

"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so," he said, "but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it."
Mitchell claimed the infamous 1947 incident in Roswell, N.M., where several people saw an alien spacecraft crash, did in fact happen. The military has said the so-called spacecraft was actually a weather balloon.
NASA quickly downplayed Mitchell’s comments. "Dr. Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue," a statement from the space agency read. "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe."
Yeah, right. And pink pigs don't fly. Check out the poll and 93% believe life exists elsewhere in the universe and 81% think Earth has been visited by aliens. So if it were to come out we are being visited, I don't think many would be shocked. And if the polls say this with that percentage believing in alien life, why cover it up anymore? Maybe it should be released, just like the power source for Tesla's electric car. People are tired of being lied to and squeaking by earning a living while the 15% inflation and energy costs robs us of any gains. Most families are 1 or so paycheck from economic disaster.

Mikado, and to answer your question about the missing penny and where did it go, and I say TAXES! And it isn't a penny, it's a dollar! Now some are scratching their head on what we are talking about, so I will direct you here:
http://www.high-techmagic.com/Games/dollar.html

By the way, some of you may know about the missing dollar but there is a link and where the dollar really went. For in fact, the missing dollar is but an illusion, just like the value of what the Federal Reserve are printing thousands of! :wink:
Anyway, the explanation might be good for a chuckle.

Enjoy!

MagicBill
Speeding through the Universe, thinking is the best way to travel ...
Mikado14
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by Mikado14 »

htmagic wrote:
Mikado, and to answer your question about the missing penny and where did it go, and I say TAXES! And it isn't a penny, it's a dollar! Now some are scratching their head on what we are talking about, so I will direct you here:
http://www.high-techmagic.com/Games/dollar.html

By the way, some of you may know about the missing dollar but there is a link and where the dollar really went. For in fact, the missing dollar is but an illusion, just like the value of what the Federal Reserve are printing thousands of! :wink:
Anyway, the explanation might be good for a chuckle.

Enjoy!

MagicBill
Magic Bill, I know it was a dollar, I was making a joke about the missing penny.

For those that are interested, here is the link to the first talk of the "Three Cowboys" and the missing dollar. Oh...it was a bloody battle, Paul on one side....Victoria on the other.....there were no prisoners taken that day. As Paul would say from the "Holy Grail"....."Can we call it a draw?", Except both sides looked liked the black knight.

https://www.ttbrown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4758#p4758

Mikado
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy
htmagic
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES - EHD THRUSTERS at Blazelabs

Post by htmagic »

Mikado,

I looked at the original post you gave and then saw Rocky's response:
https://www.ttbrown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4758#p4769
And then Elizabeth's (EHD) response. The funny thing is she is right and so is Rocky. If the room cast $25, for the three folks it cost $8.33 each and essentially $0.66 for a tip (which makes up the $2 bellhop tip) which adds to a total of $27. That makes the room + tip = $27 like Rocky said. Then each kept $1 for themselves for $10 each for the original $30 room.

But getting to something else, did anyone see this on EHD thrusters?
http://blazelabs.com/l-intro.asp

I am most interested in this photo:
Image

Now this was at the Bahnson laboratory. I notice the toroidal coil under the canopy. But can anyone identify the stand it rests on? It appears curved and like a transformer core or something.

MagicBill
Speeding through the Universe, thinking is the best way to travel ...
natecull
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by natecull »

Thinking about Bill Lear, Reno, alleged uranium mining, and what he might have been doing during the 'steam car' years. Do we need another thread for that now?

The thought that just now popped into my head was that the primary attraction of building a steam car is so you can decouple the heat source from the drive chain. Now the car might have just been an expensive waste of time. But if you did succeed in building one, and if you happened to know of a very compact 'exotic' heat source, it seems like you could pretty much leverage most of the research you'd done in the 'white' world and with very little modification drop a 'black' heat source into the military version.

What would give you such a heat source? Not fission as we know it, and probably not an RTG either. And as far as we can tell, that sort of technology, despite being the obvious thing to do, hasn't done at all well on the market and hasn't made its way into the standard US military deployment either. No reports that I know of that, eg, the Stryker or hummvee or anything recent runs on anything other than gas.

But that sort of 'dual use' thinking is what I would look for, if I were looking for undisclosed agendas.

But then googling 'lear steam car' gave me this conversation which seems interesting and possibly contradicts what I was thinking. Not the hits I got last time.

http://www.steamautomobile.com/ForuM/read.php?1,105
Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Jim Crank (IP Logged)
Date: May 3, 2001 11:31AM

The Lear Chevy Monte Carlo powerplant was a total failure.
It used a turbine identical to the one used in his bus, only the nozzle block used fewer poppet valves and the gearbox ratio was different than the bus, in that the output of the car had to match the speed of the small block Chevy engine.
Lear did not employ one person who knew anything about steam cars, nor would he listen to anyone with real steam car experience.
The main problem was that he used a turbine not knowing that when the throttle was opened, a turbine has the worst water rate known, like an open steam line. His small parallel tube steam generator went whoosh out the exhaust and that was that.
They used a 5 1/4" single stage impulse turbine that had to spin at 85,000 rpm to get any efficiency.
The Deltic engine was never used in the Chevy conversion, it was the wet dream of Ken Wallis, a fraud of an English so called engineer who knew even less than Lear about steam cars. Lear eventually fired him.
Learium was a total fraud, it never existed. Strictly publicity.
I know because I was a consultant to the State of Calif. on the bus project and also owned the Monte Carlo powerplant when I bought the remaining hardware from LMC Corp. after their bankruptcy. The gearbox and turbine from the Monte Carlo and the inlet throttle assembly were used in my steam race car which holds the world's land speed record for steam, in spite of what the British would be record car challanger people would have the world believe. Their car seems to be in eclipse now.
The turbine wheel sits on my desk as an ornament and a reminder to never use a turbine in an automobile.
Lear was the same as the rest of the would be steam car builders that surfaced in the 1958-70 period. They were in the government grant business NOT in the steam car or alternate energy business.
The same fraud now being worked with electric cars.
William Lear did NOT make any 100 cars by any stretch of the imagination.
He built ONE bus and ONE Chevrolet Monte Carlo sedan conversion. The bus was briefly used in San Francisco and the car never ran.
The Chevy was dismantled and the power plant put into a test frame with a dynomometer attached when the project ended. No Lear steam car resides in any museum today.
I was a consultant to the State of California on that bus project and never was there any more than one feasibility car conversion made, or I certainly would have seen them.
I was able to buy the Monte Carlo powerplant when I purchased all the remaining hardware from the successor to Lear Motors, after they went bankrupt. There was only one such unit.
Where did you get this information? I suspect the usual Lear publicity, which was as accurate as a comic book. Just like his Indy race car, which was built; but would never have run, Learium, and the Indy race track next to the Lear plant in Reno, all phony publicity.
So...

was the 'steam car' project an expensive failure, an old man's pipe dream, a bit of dual-use research, or a cover for something else?

If this guy is correct, the 'cover' idea seems a little more plausible.

Interesting article here too:

http://www.8trackheaven.com/frankschmidt4.html
What was Lear like?

He was a weird character. One of the first things we had to do when we set up our plant in Detroit was remove all the clocks out of the building. The Lear factory, office, plant, whatever, never had a clock in it. It was like a gambling casino… he didn’t want you to know what time it was.

Another thing was that Lear never slept! You would see him wandering around the plant at 3 in the morning. He operated by taking naps, maybe 4 or 5 naps in a 24-hour period. He would take 20-40 minute naps, then he’d be up and going again. His office was right off the engineering department, and the only thing in that office was a couch. Wherever he went in his company there were couches like that. He’d go in there, shut the door, lay down, take a little nap. That’s the way he lived. His bodyguard would stand right outside the door.

We had a weird place in Wichita, too. It was the only aircraft plant I ever worked in that had a barbershop. Bill felt that your hair grew on company time, so it should be cut on company time! (laughs) You could call down there, get an appointment, and get a hell of a nice haircut. The other thing we had was a kitchen. It was a walled-in area right in the middle of the building. You could go in there 24 hours a day and you’d find a nice big kitchen with 4-5 tables, and everything you’d find in a kitchen: stove, sink, refrigerator, freezer, oven, the whole works. Completely stocked. Dishes, food, anything you’d want. It was all free.

After we got all the problems solved, got the thing up and running, Bill lost interest in the 8-track. He was off on something else. As soon as it was no longer a challenge, he would lose interest in it. From there he got into the steam cars out in Nevada, using "Learium," the magic thermal conversion fluid for the Lear Steam Car (laughs). The final thing he got into right before he died was "The Pusher," a Canard-type of aircraft. It was supposed to be most high performance, fuel-efficient aircraft around. He thought he could do the Learjet all over again. That’s when Sam and Moya got together, and there were a lot of bitter feelings about that. That’s what her book (Bill and Me) is about.

So his concept was just to live there at the company, a self-contained little city, no need to leave!

That’s the way he operated, and he expected his people to do the same. I remember one time we worked 36 hours straight. We slept on desks. Plus we ran on a shoestring budget. I took two pay reductions because there wasn’t enough money to pay everyone. We used to have joke there that when the paychecks would arrive, everybody’d leave and get them cashed while they were still good!
Thermal conversion fluid, hmm.
And electrostatic cooling, also hmm. Or at least the Fan. No hard evidence yet the two are connected but...

Potentially developing something to do with very high temperatures?

But if the place is a very small, close-knit unit, doesn't seem like the sort of company where you could hide big secrets away from your workmates.

http://www.americanheritage.com/article ... 1_34.shtml
THE RETURN OF STEAM
For a brief time in the 1960s and 1970s, it appeared to be making a comeback

Even after the death of the Model E, a handful of inventors kept pursuing steam-car research, seeking the same advantages that attracted Abner Doble: silence, power, simplicity, fuel efficiency, and low emissions. Their efforts all foundered, not only because of auto-industry indifference but also because of the weight of steam engines and the water they require and drivers’ unwillingness to wait half a minute to get up a head of steam.

In 1968, though, a renaissance in steam-car technology suddenly began, amid newfound concern about the pollution caused by internal-combustion engines.

The U.S. government had recently imposed strict emissions limits on automobiles, and in May 1968 several federal agencies held hearings on alternative power plants. Among the first to speak out in favor of steam were Calvin E. and Charles J. Williams, twins from Ambler, Pennsylvania, who for years had been using profits from their family’s construction business to experiment with steam. They drove their steampowered convertible, on which they dubiously claimed to have spent $2 million, to Washington and invited Sen. Edwin Muskie, Sen. Warren Magnuson, and others to go for spins. Bureaucrats were impressed by the vehicle’s silence, acceleration, and supposed 30-mpg fuel efficiency (on kerosene). The Williamses maintained in committee hearings that steamers burn fuel more slowly and steadily, and thus more completely, than internalcombustion engines. Steam power, they said, is also more mechanically efficient.

That same year, Don E. Johnson, the 36-year-old president of Steam Dynamics, in Mesa, Arizona, argued that his 150-pound, 150-horsepower steam engine was much lighter than an equally powerful conventional one. He could make this assertion by ignoring all the ancillary parts of the engine, such as the boiler, burner, and tanks. Johnson had originally developed his engine for helicopters but believed it would work just as well in automobiles.

Ford and General Motors had already gotten into the act, albeit in lukewarm fashion. In March 1968 Ford had announced a joint steam development program with the Thermo Electron Corporation, of Waltham, Massachusetts—the home of Abner Doble’s first laboratory. GM, meanwhile, worked with another start-up steam company, Energy Systems, Inc., and offered to supply several steampowered sedans to the California Highway Patrol for in-service testing.

The man who made the most noise about steam, though, was the brash and overconfident William P. Lear of Learjet fame. At a decommissioned military base outside Reno, Nevada, Lear developed several types of steam and steamlike engines. One was what he called an “involute expander,” which used intermeshing helical screws. Another was a 12cylinder opposed-piston engine based on the British Napier Deltic diesel; the cylinders formed side-by-side triangles. A third was the Lear Vapor Turbine System, which involved a sealed turbine that used not steam but a revolutionary new fluid called Learium. Unfortunately, Learium was never developed.

In the end Lear did build a steampowered Chevrolet Monte Carlo and a steam-turbine bus. With his usual hyperbole, he announced plans for a steam-powered Indianapolis race car, and he even scraped out an oval track behind his warehouse, supposedly to test it. But because he had so many different projects going—plus horrific problems with his engineering staff—nothing ever came of any of his steam-powered visions.


In October 1973 the Arab oil embargo hit, forcing automakers to turn their attention away from steam to the more immediate challenges of downsizing and making the internal-combustion engine cleaner and more fuel-efficient. They succeeded well enough to put steam out of contention. Despite the progress some engineers believed they were making between 1968 and 1973, steam cars continue to pose seemingly insuperable challenges, principal among them being fuel economy. There’s no promise of future improvement, as there is with electric cars, in which batteries are being made smaller and smaller.

So steam cars have been left mostly to hobbyists, and they will likely never again emerge as a serious automotive alternative.

—Michael Lamm writes often for Invention & Technology.

Hmm. 'Horrific problems with his engineering staff'? I wonder what that means? Presumably Ken Wallis? Anything else?

But. Looking at the guts of the project, what I see is 1) sudden government money, 2) a fair bit of development around multiple types of steam-like engines 3) much vaporware around an actual car to put it in.

Is there a possibility the engine wasn't meant for a car?
Going on a journey, somewhere far out east
We'll find the time to show you, wonders never cease
natecull
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by natecull »

I'm getting a very Glomar Explorer kind of feeling from this project. So much manufactured publicity, an apparently interesting technical problem, nothing ultimately delivered for the alleged purpose, much bitterness in retrospect from people who felt they were used.

A 1969 Sports Illustrated article about the project:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ ... /index.htm
Let There Be Steam
So decrees Bill Lear of Lear Jet fame, who is building steam race cars—honest—for Indianapolis to glamorize steam passenger cars to be and also is carving out an Indy test track (above) in Nevada
Steam cars. Hoo boy. Here comes 1969, racing's fun year. Even if the thing never works, which is eminently possible, the steam-car project already has touched off an epidemic of jitters in the car-manufacturing and racing worlds. Indy is still suffering from a massive jet hangover—a condition brought on by the turbine racers of 1967 and 1968, cars that sailed along with whispery whooshing sounds instead of the honest clatter of good old-fashioned pistons and things. That uprising from the ranks was put down by a series of restrictions on the size of turbine engines. But hardly has the old calm and order been reestablished when along comes Lear.

Lear was weaned on controversy and he loves it. Loves it. Suddenly, here is the old fox of big biz, the man who took on the entire aircraft industry and beat it with the first successful business jet; here he is, back again, prowling restlessly around this rickety old surplus Nevada air base, most of which he owns, shamelessly pirating top engineers and draftsmen from his competitors and spending $300,000 a month. He is building a new plant, an elaborate machine shop. Bulldozers are pushing aside tumble-weeds and sand to make his own private racetrack. He has a special team of architects and planners laying out a model city to house all his new employees, and it will be built around a model lake for them to fish in. ("I think we might call it Lake Lear," one of his draftsmen said in the first big understatement of 1969.)

Things are popping again for Lear, even at the crap tables of Reno . Mrs. Lear, a serene, lovely matron, keeps his winnings (they were up to $6,000 the other day) in a special bank account; her husband always hands it over. He doesn't want to spend it, he just wants to win it. "You have heard of Mother's household account?" she says. "Well, this is Mother's craps account." She is continually delighted by everything Lear does, perhaps because she is a daughter of the late Ole Olsen, co-producer with Chic Johnson of an explosive stage show called Hellzapoppin, which was the Laugh-In of its day. And now the thing that pleases her most is that Lear, at 66, overweight, jowly, out of condition, is suddenly springy, dieting and living again. And building a steam car to save the world is as good a goal as any to start with.

Lear sits at his desk in a leaky wartime barracks in a ratty old red pullover sweater he fancies, his hands folded calmly, with the racket of construction going on all around him and the chill of the Nevada winter seeping in, and tells his story in the voice of a hoarse bear. In 1967 Minneapolis Publisher T.S. Denison & Co., Inc. produced a book called William P. Lear, Creative Designer and Inventor as part of its Men of Achievement series (other titles are J. Edgar Hoover , Modern Knight Errant; J. C. Penney , Merchant Prince; and Lyndon B. Johnson , Man of Reason). Lear's story takes up where his stupefyingly dull biography leaves off.

"I was technically dead," he says. "This was last January. For a minute or so my heart stopped; there was no pulsebeat or blood pressure. Nothing. I had a broken artery near my brain which they were repairing. My nose wouldn't stop bleeding; that's why they were operating.

"To make matters worse, before that I had broken my damned leg getting out of my limousine and this whole thing knocked hell out of me for about three months. When I came out of it all, I wanted something new to sink my teeth into. Something big—maybe even to compete with my old company, Lear Jet." Lear tried a couple of projects, but they turned out to be $5 or $6 million a year things, and "still too insignificant to warrant my total effort." He put some money into Montana oil for something to do and, first thing, six high-paying wells came in—which ought to give Indy an idea of what kind of year this could be. Still, Lear claims to be unimpressed with wealth. "I've never even felt wealthy," he says. "What counts is altering a way of life for the better. For instance, I can't play any musical instrument. Hell, I can't even carry a tune in a handbag. But I showed my love for music by developing the first really fine radio set, the Majestic. It was my first successful business of 1928; stock went from $10 to $1,600 a share. Then I pioneered car radios, and you will note that Motorola has not exactly been a failure. But my love of aviation exceeded all other loves, so I left Motorola to start Lear Aviation, which became Lear Inc., which I ultimately sold for many millions of dollars."
If Lear has not made a mark on history just yet, after 4� months of wheeling, his project has etched one on Nevada and sent shock waves out into racing and the auto industry. Reno , whose housing style is Early Trailer Camp, is already full of engineers looking for expensive homes. More personnel arrives daily. Not long after Lear announced the steam-car project, a delegation of executives arrived from American Motors and stalked around his new plant, looking over the plans and nodding wisely. Lear offered them the exclusive sales rights to the new steam car in exchange for, as he puts it, "certain stock options." Lear was clearly pleased with their reaction. "They were flabbergasted," he says. "They admitted it would take Detroit two, three years to get to the point where we are now in Nevada . To say the least, they were shook."
Hardly had the word steamer come out of Reno than Speedway Superintendent Clarence Cagle and Henry Banks , who is director of competition for the United States Auto Club, got on a plane and flew to Nevada to look things over. Banks seemed enormously pleased to find that, in fact, there was no steam race car. He looked all around the old surplus barracks to make sure. "All I saw was drawings on the drawing board and no hardware," he said, "no bits and pieces of a racing car. But I do think they have a sincere desire and will attempt to build a car."
Well, then. Did Lear understand that with no specifications on a steam race car, the USAC could not sanction it?

Did he ever. Lear was way ahead of them. He had already run the whole play around the auto club and gone directly to Tony Hulman , the gentleman who owns the Speedway., Not many people realize the 500 is Hulman's race and the USAC only sanctions and runs it for him. And if Owner Hulman decides a steam car will brighten up the proceedings, it seems safe to bet a steam car will be allowed to try for the lineup on Memorial Day. In fact, the Speedway's official entry blank says propulsion systems not covered by USAG are encouraged. Thus, if it met the basic requirements on size and shape, a steam race car could be accepted under a special waiver for one year. "We would welcome a steam-car entry under these terms," Hulman said. And a year is all that Lear wants. He came away from his chat with Hulman elated.

Lear also dropped in to see Ralph Nader , the Unsafe at Any Speed man. The prospect of a nonpollutant car intrigued Nader right away. Having its marvelous potential paraded at the Indy 500 intrigued him also—more even than the recent electric-car revival talk.

"He told me," says Lear, "to keep him posted on the project—and if it looked like the Speedway might turn down the steam race car, to let him know before they did it." The implication is clear that Nader might bring unusual national opinion pressures to bear if he thought someone were holding back American motoring progress and safety while continuing to dirty up the air with those old piston engines.
Chief designer of Lear's steam cars is a wandering British carbuilder named Ken Wallis, who is either a mastermind or the Peck's Bad Boy of racing. Wallis meandered into Indy a few years ago, helped STP Impresario Andy Granatelli produce the sensational turbine car in 1967, and the next year built a pair of turbocars for Carroll Shelby . The Shelby-Wallis race cars were mysteriously withdrawn just before final inspection, and Indy promptly exploded with charge and countercharge as to whether the cars were "cheaters," that is, illegal under the specifications. Wallis left Indy under a sort of mechanical cloud, and even now Banks is not sure that USAC would let Wallis come back to the Speedway "until certain allegations have been cleared up."

No matter. Wallis does not plan to go back to Indy anyway. "I'll be too busy working on the passenger cars at the time," he says. What he does plan to do is to build two steam race cars and send them to Indy with a team of drivers and mechanics.

The fact that he has Wallis to rub into the racing Establishment touches a well of ironic humor in Lear. "I know all about Wallis' background," he says. "I have heard all about the cars that did not make the race and I have heard that all of it is still under a cloud. But I also know he is a great engineer and race car designer. He has a following second to none among machinists and engineers, and he already has attracted a group to Reno that I feel can meet this challenge."

It had not started that way. Wallis walked in one day last August and asked Lear to lend him $39,000 to buy a 12-meter yacht. "He said he had put $2,000 down on the yacht," Lear says, "and figured if he could borrow the rest, he could get a government contract to do some research. Well, I liked him so much I bought him the yacht and made him my chief engineer as well."

With the yacht tied up at San Francisco and Wallis aboard at Reno , the steam race car project began to take shape. And Reno began to brace itself for what can only be a wild adventure.
Without getting technical, it may be said that the Lear-Wallis steam engine will be a rather dainty thing. Its boiler will not be much bigger around than, say, Raquel Welch , and the engine, Wallis assures one, will be a small, efficient-looking affair to be called a Delta. The old steam cars had large boilers full of water that took forever to get hot enough. The Reno Steamer will use yards of coiled tubing instead of a simple boiler and a special chemical preparation rather than water. This fluid will be superheated to vapor by burners fed by kerosene or heating oil. It is on the "clean" burning of the fuel that Lear rests his pollution salvation case. The boiler will be hooked up to the six-cylinder reciprocating Delta—or, possibly, a turbine engine—and the power will be delivered to all four wheels. In either case some steam will be diverted to a small turbine to run the auxiliary electrical and hydraulic systems. Ultimately the steam is condensed back into fluid and reused indefinitely—the music goes round and round.

The physical race car, Wallis said, doesn't matter much; anyone can build a chassis once the power problem is solved. The drawings for the Reno Steamer look an awful lot like the new wedge-shaped turbine racers built for Granatelli last year—and the next howl you hear will be from England 's Colin Chapman , who designed them. Plans are to plunk the boiler up there beside the driver, put the engine just over the rear wheels and go racing.
"The principal difference between our engines and conventional piston engines," says a Lear engineer, "is that a steam engine can operate in two basic modes, a power mode and an economy mode. In the economy mode one puts a little bit of steam into the engine and expands it. In the power mode we can keep the steam inlet valve open a little bit longer and furnish tremendous, sudden power. It means we could design a steam engine for, say, 250 hp, and if it needed instant acceleration we could supply up to a thousand horsepower for 20 seconds or so—thus giving the car any dragging speed it needed. It would be limited only by the wheelspin on the track. Another advantage is that a steam engine generates total power at 0 rpm just sitting there. We can store the power in the boiler and dump it out all at once if we need to."

But what of that wonderful moment when the race is about to start and all those gentlemen are called upon to start up? Surely they can't be expected to wait for a boiler to get up to pressure. "No," says the engineer. "This happens in 15 seconds. And not only that, to refill it one just adds fluid—tap water will do—perhaps twice a year."
Saving the world does not keep Lear pinned to Reno . A couple of weeks ago he flew his personal Lear Jet east to New York to attend a dinner for Richard Nixon . The next morning he tossed his coat on a seat of the jet, warmed up the engines lightly and kicked it more or less straight upstairs to 43,000 feet before giving the controls to his copilot. Lear likes to fly up or down; just piddling along in a straight line does not interest him. He dropped in at Chicago for a business lunch and at Wichita , Kans. for a fast tour of the Lear Jet factory before flying on to Reno . The next day, just to give some visitors a little feel of his as-yet-unpaved Indy track, he led a madcap automotive procession in his limousine over the ruts and gouges of the course at A. J. Foyt speeds.

The romance of the adventure has caught up both Lear and Wallis. Lear has become a well-known figure about town, a nightly celebrity at the Round Table at the casino in the Holiday Inn , which is where everyone important gathers for a few drinks after work. The table is not really round, it is a couple of square tables pushed together off to one side right next to the ladies room. But the men who run Reno are always seen there. Wallis, meanwhile, has been so busy that he has not had a haircut in months. He appears all over town in a long curling pageboy vaguely reminiscent of June Allyson when she was playing those ing�nue roles.
"I know Ford would pay me $25 million for this operation right now," Lear says. "And then they would tell me to go off and take a long, long vacation."

The biggest gambler of them all gets up heavily from the Round Table and strolls over to the crap tables to try his luck. "Talk about odds," he says. "Listen. The other night I was standing at the crap tables over at Harrah's Club when it came my turn to shoot. The croupier pushed some dice over to me and—just for fun—I scooped up three of them and rolled them out on the table. The guy didn't blink an eye. He simply picked them up. Then he palmed one of them and handed me back two. And he said, 'All right, mister, your point is 15.' "
Going on a journey, somewhere far out east
We'll find the time to show you, wonders never cease
natecull
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by natecull »

More from the SteamAutomobile.com guys who seem to really know their stuff.

http://www.steamautomobile.com/ForuM/re ... 293,page=4
Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Bud Fraze (IP Logged)
Date: June 9, 2004 10:56AM

From 1969-1970 I was a young designer for Bill Lear in Reno on the Indy race car, the steam car and steam bus. The steam car was a Dodge Polara (for the CHP) and the steam bus was a modified "Flxible" for the LA metro transit. Both ran and considering the incredibly short time that we spent on their design and fabrication they did quite well. The problem with steam was not just physical (losses from energy system conversion) but also political.

We did a complete rebuild on the bus prior to it being delivered to LA. A technician replaced an "open face" bearing with a "shielded" bearing (quite by accident) in the transmission and the lubricating oil could not reach the bearings to lubricate and cool them. In spite of this the bus ran over Donner summit to LA and around the city for some miles before a transmission failure (bearing). The LA metro withdrew from the project because of political reasons too involved to go into here, the same with the CHP car.

There were three engines developed:
1. A Plymouth slant six which was modified and over $1.5M put into the project. What a waste.
2. A "Double Delta" twelve piston" Napier design engine that ran and produced 500HP. There were problems with the rotary valve that channeled the steam (1000F@1000psi) into the cylinders from the center of the block.
3. A turbine that was built by Barber-Nichols in Denver that had two different nozzle configurations depending if it was used in the car or bus.

To the best of my knowledge only one bus and one car were built, besides the Indy race car. I have pictures and sketches of both the Polara and Indy car. Another car may have been built but I don't know about it

It was a wonderful time in my life and I will never forget the genius of Bill Lear or the kindness of his wife, Moya. They were both inspiring and kind to a young designer struggling along with a wife and three kids trying to establish himself in the world.

People like Howard Huges, Glenn Curtiss, Jack Northrup and Bill Lear are giants of the past and I feel very fortunate that I worked for one of them.

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Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Arnold Walker (IP Logged)
Date: June 10, 2004 05:15AM

Do you have any pictures/drawings of the turbine powerplant...that you can poston the forum

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Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Bud Fraze (IP Logged)
Date: June 17, 2004 05:20PM

They are in a box packed in storage. The only illustration I have of a turbine was one designed by Dr. Vavra which was an axial flow (like a jet engine) which was never built (too expensive). The small radial flow turbine drawings and illustrations were lost along the way. I had forgotton about most of these when quite by accident a few years back I discovered a piture in a box along with a snapshot taken of the day we rolled out the Indy car.

When I can get to it I will try to find the box and see what else is in there.
Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Bruce Green (IP Logged)
Date: August 18, 2004 05:03PM

I am interested in the steam turbine for use in aircraft. One was displayed in about 1990 at the Oshkosh air show by a California company called Rotary Dynamics. It was expensive, but claimed decent specific fuel consumption, and ran on anything that burned. I can't find hide nor hair of this company or their turbine, which I now assume to be a "Lear" turbine. I believe they said their working fluid was Dalcon 50, whatever that is.
The turbine would seem ideal for an aircraft engine, as we run at set power settings for hours on end.
The ability to use other fuels would be very valuable in boondocks operation. I am building a Custer Channelwing, (.com if you are interested) and would appreciate anything you could tell me about the engine, or others that are interested.

Bruce Green
custerchannelwing.com
Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Jim Crank (IP Logged)
Date: November 6, 2004 11:51AM

Jim,
If you wish to read all about Lear's supposed alternate working fluids, get a copy of the latest "Automobile Quarterly", Vol 44, #3. Karl Ludvigsen wrote an accurate and true account of the whole business, including the imaginary fluid.
This is the only real account I have ever read that tells the truth.
Lear Motors did some really advanced steam generator and pre mix vaporizing burner designs that were very good, and are well worth using again, so credit sure must be given for that.

After wasting a huge amount of time and money, they, like everyone else, landed on a fully fluorinated hydrocarbons, benzine, toluene, etc..
Yet nothing would survive the temperatures that were needed to get even a respectable efficiency, let alone last, be non inflammable and non toxic.
Thermal decomposition products of some of the fluids were really awful to even think about. Really nasty stuff.

There are many reports that various government funded studies came up with, like the DOE, all detailing alternate working fluids for Rankine cycle systems.
Hexa and Pentafluorobenzine had promise; but the $300.00 a quart stopped that right away. No one made it then, except in lab quantities.

Sunstrand used toluene and made several systems that used it. One right in this area used the heat from catalytic burners that used toluene and ran a turbine to make electricity. I saw it running several times and it was very successful.

Taking all aspects of any alternate fluid in a system that is expected to deliver good cycle effiency, you still come down to plain old water.
At low temperatures, like a passive solar system, there are things that work and have been used for decades. But; when you talk about 700°F-850°F working temperature, nothing is usable, in spite of all the prattling.

JC

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Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: D K Nergaard (IP Logged)
Date: November 7, 2004 07:31AM

I remember that the chloro-organic compound used by Thermoelectron in their Rankine cycle experiments (1968-1972) produced auto catalytic products if exposed to thermal breakbown. That is if ANY of the fluid broke down due to momentary over heating, it made catalysts that caused ALL the rest of the fluid to break down at lower, and normal operating, temperatures. And, as mentioned above, the breakdown products were very nasty in other ways as well.

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Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Jim Crank (IP Logged)
Date: November 8, 2004 10:31AM

David,
So do I recall their work, and we really went into this at Lockheed. Even the ones that produced poisonous, distructive, flamable and corrosive byproducts.
In the end, and after all the competing fluids were well examined, it came out that Sunstrand was right all along. The only modest temperature fluid, 500°F, that would survive and was usable was toluene.

It's really too bad there is not some fluid that will not kill the operator, if the thing springs a leak.
Turbines just love the heavy molecular weight fluids and their speed comes down drastically and the efficiency goes way up. But; there just is nothing suitable.
We tried so hard; but it just didn't work out.
JC

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Re: Vapor-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Ben in Maine (IP Logged)
Date: November 8, 2004 01:36PM

Jim,,,Just to get a workmans perspective,on this,,,How would you describe the time/money to do all this research,,,and about how many people did it envolve ??? It's these failed experiments that need to be documented so the mistake wont be ongoing. I have learned more from broken engines than the ''good'' ones. Thanks again for posting these jewels of toil and trial,,, Cheers Ben

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Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Jim Crank (IP Logged)
Date: November 9, 2004 09:37AM

Hi Ben,
I would guess that Lear Motors existed for perhaps ten years or so. The very start of the Calif Steam Bus project to the end of that silly Clean Air Car stuff.
He kept it going for a few more years playing around with helicopter mufflers and that Lear Fan airplane, although that was a separate company.
LMC had perhaps 40-60 people there all together. I am not sure though, as I never saw the staff all at one time.

When I bought all the remaining hardware from LMC Corp. the successor to Lear Motors when they went bankrupt, we cleaned out every room and closet. Three Dodge Maxi vans with six big trailers, full of stuff.
The only things I didn't get were the phony race car and the bus, nor the Buick experimental constant variable transmission, that I really wanted.
It had gone back to G.M..


When the auction was held of the office furniture, I knew where the drawing file cabinet was, and a friend went to bid for me. He called in a panic the morning of the auction, because all the drawings were now missing. They were there two days before. Some attorney connected with the auction in some manner from Florida stole them, we found out later. Several years later he had some clown phone me trying to sell me the drawings. I refused, because most of the Lear technology was not usable or even practical. What was good I had already committed to memory.
I knew his burner and steam generator designs, because they were really good and worth using again. Actually nothing secret; but good thermo designing and great packaging.

I paid $500.00 for everything. When we had all the turbines, pumps and such, the usable hardware, spread all over the floor of a friend's two car garage, Bill Jr. stopped by to see it. His eyes bugged out when I told him what I paid for all of it. He said: "That is seventeen million dollars of my father's money."
JC
Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Allison Seale (IP Logged)
Date: January 18, 2005 06:13PM

Dear Mr. Fraze,

I am doing some research on some of the folks who were engaged in the development of steam engines back in the late 60s. I'd love to talk to you about your work with Lear and to find out if you (or anyone else reading this) knows anything about Wallace Minto's work. Like Lear's team, Minto, in partnership with LTV out of Dallas, was working to provide steam buses for the City of Dallas. A friend of mine's father worked for LTV on that project. I've researched the political end of this extensively and know precisely why steam disappeared (after many interviews with legislators during the times). What I discovered was certainly a surprise. Anyway, I'm very curious in talking with you about the political reasons steam failed in LA. It is my understanding that the San Francisco tests of steam with buses were very successful, in the general sense. I was told that citizens let the diesel buses go by to take the steam ones. However, as often occurs between conceptualization of a good idea and implementation of it, the machinists union got angry because they were not trained on how to repair the steam buses and were irked when other crews were needed to be brought in. Just today I received a stack of documents related to the AB 356 with many notes on these projects.

I hope to hear from you. The more information I get, the better.

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Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo
Posted by: Jim Crank (IP Logged)
Date: January 18, 2005 07:12PM

Read the current issue of Automobile Quarterly.

Wallace Minto was the same kind of a fraud that Ken Wallis was.
A VW bus with a Stanley engine in it that could only be run in an air conditioned warehouse. Take it outside and the Freon would boil away at ambient temperature.
Minto took LTV and Datsun for many tens of thousands and nothing came of it because his car system was seriously flawed, in fact, lousy.

Yes, the Lear and Broebeck busses ran quite well. People did like them and rode in them just for the novelty of saying they did so.

The machinists had nothing to do with it. Lear and Broebeck provided their own service people right from the start. Turning such clods loose with those busses would have been suicide.

The whole steam bus and "Clean Air" steam car project, that the State of California/DOE funded, ended because it was never intended to go further than those five vehicles. There was no market, and no one had the private funds to do the massive development that was needed, and the State didn't either.
The whole thing was a politically driven lollypop for the bunny huggers.
JC
Okay, I could again call it either way. An honest project that didn't pan out, just padded with pride and puffery? It can't have been secret if an engineer could buy the whole plans for $500.

But I keep wondering. Mostly because of Mr Twigsnapper's comments, of course.

I was briefly thinking there that for military / space applications, it wouldn't necessarily matter that you had an extremely toxic working fluid, if it's in the sort of environment you might be used to working with stuff like hydrazine.

Feels somehow like 'the fan' all over again. 'All that effort gone to waste'. Did it really?

If we had any questions about anything happening 'out of sight' at Reno, this guy would seem to be the one to ask. Any questions we could get from Michael R. that might be of use in jogging potentially loose memories?
Going on a journey, somewhere far out east
We'll find the time to show you, wonders never cease
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by htmagic »

Sunstrand used toluene and made several systems that used it. One right in this area used the heat from catalytic burners that used toluene and ran a turbine to make electricity. I saw it running several times and it was very successful.

Taking all aspects of any alternate fluid in a system that is expected to deliver good cycle effiency, you still come down to plain old water.

At low temperatures, like a passive solar system, there are things that work and have been used for decades. But; when you talk about 700°F-850°F working temperature, nothing is usable, in spite of all the prattling.
JC
Nate,

That is quite a bit of information you provided. The steam auto uses the same technology used in steam locomotives. And we have an expert in our midst. I'd like to hear Mikado's thoughts on this. Building a steam boiler the size of Rachel Welch to put out 250 HP seems like the 'comic books' news that one of your articles was talking about.

The Dalcon 50 sounds like a heat transfer fluid. Typically, they are hydrocarbon based and can handle higher temperatures in hot oil situations but they also have a bad tendency to coke up if burned. It's like the old frying pan. Once burned food gets on a spot, it can carbonize other areas. So if this boiler or turbine had small channels in them, they could clog with coke and it is a very expensive process to clean them which is almost impossible. If it is like in a radiator, you might as well throw it away. Refrigerants are also hydrocarbon based and combustion temperatures would be typically too hot for them to work well. Water has the best bet but there are corrosion problems to worry about. Not to mention the fact that you have superheated steam in a boiler right next to you. If the water level drops and the boiler overheats, I would not want the boiler to let loose while I am sitting nearby. And that engineer (JC) knew that. No wonder the steam car died!

During the oil embargo, we were looking at alternate energy projects using Sunstrand turbines and toluene for low grade heat to energy conversion stations. Oil was cheap then and they still had a pretty good payoff (<2 years). They would really pay now and could reduce the global warming problem.

MagicBill
Speeding through the Universe, thinking is the best way to travel ...
natecull
Keeper of the Flame
Posts: 437
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by natecull »

I'm just trying to make sense of the claims we've seen with regard to Michael R.:
These enhanced weapons gained their power from polarizing the molecules in the gas cloud by modification of the electric field, a technology developed from exploring Thomas Townsend Brown's suppressed work, a knowledge which Riconosciuto claims he gained from working at LEAR in Reno, Nevada.
and from Twigsnapper:
Before you all get sidetracked with this exceptionally interesting and valuable group of information maybe I should comment on why we went back to the " Octopus" regarding Townsend Brown.

Mining. A special method of mining. Work done in Reno under William Lears control. There have been faint whiffs and I do not blame you for being sidetracked. A mine that is not actually "pinched out" but diverted.
Lear's move to Reno happened in 1968 with the inauguration of the Vapordyne Steam Car project. It seems to have fallen apart by 1970 after $17 million of Lear's own money, but Lear Motors continued on for a while - ten years? I need to go back and check when the airport passed back to the city.

Edit: As of 1973, LMC was operating in Reno and working on the somewhat dubious 'steam bus'.
http://mostlyflying.blogspot.com/2008/0 ... -cars.html
http://lear.bigplan.net/sdbp/portfolio/ ... 0001-2.pdf



Hints of scandal and/or fraud and/or incompetence over the project, but no hint of anything linked to mining.

Floyd Odlum's 'pinched out' uranium mine:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=547&p=16485&hilit= ... out#p16485
On July 6, 1952, Steen struck the biggest deposit of high-grade uranium ore in the country. Within the first six months his Mi Vida ("My Life") Mine, southeast of Moab in the Lisbon Valley, shipped a million dollars worth of ore that was so pure it assayed up to 87 percent uranium.
Shortly after announcement of the Mi Vida find, Vernon Pick, a middle-aged electrician from Minnesota, discovered the Delta Mine northwest of Hanksville. After blocking out approximately 300,000 tons of ore with an in-place value of forty dollars per ton, the Delta's monthly production averaged 1,500 tons. Two years later Pick sold his mine to international financier Floyd Odlum for $9 million and a custom-converted PBY airplane. Odlum renamed the mine the Hidden Splendor, but soon after his purchase the highly touted vein pinched out. Local wags then dubbed the mine "Odlum's Hidden Blunder."
So Odlum's uranium mine was 1954 near Hanksville, Utah.
Lear came to Reno, Nevada in 1968.
Both Lear and Odlum know TT Brown.

Can't see any actual connection though.

http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/u/URANIUMMINING.html
Vernon Pick claimed the Delta Mine northwest of Hanksville, later selling it to international financier Floyd Odlum for nine million dollars and an airplane. Pratt Seegmiller staked the lucrative Freedom and Prospector claims near Marysvale. Joe Cooper and Fletcher Bronson discovered uranium in their played-out Happy Jack copper mine near Monticello and netted over $25 million. Between 1946 and 1959, 309,380 claims were filed in four Utah counties. A center of activity, the once sleepy farming town of Moab became known as "The Uranium Capitol of the World."

By 1955 there were approximately 800 mines producing high-trade ore on the Colorado Plateau. Utah alone had produced approximately nine million tons of ore valued at $25 million by the end of 1962. But then the industry almost came to a standstill. The AEC, now holding ample reserves, announced an eight-year limited program, and finally completely stopped buying uranium in 1970. Private industry triggered a brief second boom when nuclear power plants came on line in the mid-70s, but foreign competition, federal regulations and nuclear fears virtually put an end to domestic uranium mining.

During the uranium heyday, the federal government built several buying stations and a number of milling and reduction centers on the Colorado Plateau. Utah's AEC milling facilities were in Salt lake City, Monticello, LaSal, Blanding, and Mexican Hat. In 1957 Steen opened the Uranium Reduction Company, the nation's first large independent uranium mill, in Moab. Sold to Floyd Odlum's Atlas Corporation in 1962, the facility shut down in 1984. The federal mills were sold to private industry and finally disbanded.
Utah's fabled uranium boom was not without tragedy. From the Manhattan Project days, health scientists warned that radiation in the mines was a danger to miners. Medical literature dating as early as the sixteenth century documented cancer deaths claiming a high percentage of radium miners in the Erz Mountains of Germany and Czechoslovakia. But neither the AEC, state governments, nor the mining companies would take responsibility to regulate ventilation and safety practices. It was not until hundreds of uranium miners in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and new Mexico had succumbed to lung cancer that safe levels of radiation were finally imposed. And not until 1989, after years of furtive court battles, that the United States Congress passed legislation to financially compensate radiation victims.

Although uranium mining in Utah and other western states has ceased, experts indicate that there is still substantial ore deep underground. Should demand for nuclear power revive and the market become viable, the Colorado Plateau may once again teem with the mines and mills of the atomic years.
The Hidden Splendor Mine doesn't seem to be particularly secret today. Seems to be a favourite spot for trampers.

http://www.millenicom.com/~davec/Jeep/M ... /Swell.htm
The Hidden Splendor Mine was one of the major producers of pitchblende that is refined to produce uranium. We were quite surprised to find that the opening and shaft were only about four feet tall and three feet wide. Either the miners were a lot smaller in the fifties or they spent all day working bent over. No wonder most of them died young. The drive back was interesting with the sun going down and an incredible amount of dust, not to mention cold. It turned into a long chilly drive to camp.
http://www.ancientlosttreasures.com/topic/2997
http://www.americansouthwest.net/slot_c ... dor_l.html

http://www.bluerockresources.com/s/News ... ium-Mine-U...
April 10, 2007
Bluerock Resources Signs Option Agreement On Hidden Splendor Uranium Mine, Utah
Vancouver, B.C., April 10, 2007 -- Bluerock Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:BRD) (the "Company") announces an option agreement, has been signed on the Hidden Splendor Mine located in the Delta Mining District, Emery County, Utah.

The Hidden Splendor Mine has been intermittently mined since discovery in 1952. Randy Mecham, the current owner, was involved in mining the deposit in the 1970's until market conditions caused a cessation of operations. Historical production at the Hidden Splendor Mine graded 0.20% U3O8 (4.4 lb per ton of yellow cake). Data obtained by the Company indicates a historical resource* of 180,000 lb U3O8 in 37,000 tons with an average grade of 0.25% U3O8. Mineralization is open on strike of the deposit and is the primary exploration target.

* Estimates of uranium resources are historical in nature, predate and are noncompliant with NI 43-101. Bluerock is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or reserves. Bluerock has not undertaken any independent investigation of the resource estimates nor has independently analyzed the results of the previous exploration work in order to verify the resources, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource. However, Bluerock believes that these historical estimates provide a conceptual indication of the potential of the occurrences and are relevant to ongoing exploration. Paul D. Gray P.Geo. is the Qualified Person with respect to the Hidden Splendor Mine Project.

Prior to the mine closure in the late 1970's a lower lens of mineralization was identified in the course of normal production activities. 10,000 tons of ore was produced from this zone at a grade of 0.30 % U3O8. This lens remains untested and represents a second target for the Company's exploration.

Under the terms of the option agreement which is subject to due diligence and exchange approval, Bluerock Resources Ltd. will earn 100% interest by paying US$40,000 in cash payments and US$150,000 in advanced royalties, and spending US$400,000 on exploration over three years. The Project is also subject to a 5% Royalty in favour of the vendors of the Project.

Bluerock President Michael Collins commented: "The Hidden Splendor Mine builds the Company's activities at the PSC Project and the corporate goal of developing a nucleus of significant resources in south central Utah.

Bluerock Resources Ltd. is a uranium exploration company focused on discovering tomorrow's energy today through the acquisition and development of conventional uranium resources.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Michael Collins
CEO, President and Director

For further information, please contact:
Cary Martin, Manager of Investor Relations
Bluerock Resources Ltd.
350-580 Hornby St,
Vancouver BC, V6C 3B6
Telephone: (604) 687-2471
Facsimile: (604) 687-2472
Website: http://www.bluerockresources.com
Email: [email protected]
Edit: Randy Mechen doesn't get many hits at all. From Blue Rock:

http://www.alacrastore.com/storecontent ... 1857405020
Publication Date: Apr 10, 2007
Abstract: US - Bluerock Resources Ltd was granted an option to acquire the Hidden Splendor Uranium Mine, located in the Delta Mining District, Emery County, Utah, for $0.59 mil. The consideration was to consist of $0.44 mil and $0.15 mil in royalties. The transaction was subject to due diligence completion and regulatory approval.
http://www.alacrastore.com/storecontent ... 1920108020
Publication Date: Oct 30, 2007
Abstract: US - Bluerock Resources Ltd (BR) was granted an option to acquire the five uranium projects of Mr. Randy Mecham and Blue Bird Partners, a uranium mining company, for $3.718 mil. The consideration was to consist of $2.821 and 1.311 mil BR common shares, valued at $0.887 mil. The shares were valued based on BR's closing stock price of $0.677 on October 29, the last full trading day prior to the announcement. The transaction was subject to regulatory approvals. The transaction was to include Sinbad Head, On Strike, Herbie, Big Fish and Little Fish projects.
Bluerock have been busy boys in the last two years:
http://www.alacrastore.com/company-snap ... td-2533974

http://biz.yahoo.com/ccn/071030/2007103 ... .html?.v=1
Bluerock Resources Signs Five Agreements to Purchase 100% of Utah Uranium Projects
Tuesday October 30, 2007 9:30 am ET

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Oct. 30, 2007) - Bluerock Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:BRD - News; the Company) announces it has signed option agreements with Blue Bird Partners (BBP) and Randy Mecham (Mecham) to earn 100% interests in five uranium projects in the San Rafael Swell and Temple Mountain Uranium Districts, Utah, USA. The acquisition of these mineral claims in the historically important San Rafael Swell and Temple Mountain Uranium Districts gives Bluerock a solid base from which to develop uranium resources in south central Utah.

ADVERTISEMENT
The Sinbad Head, On Strike, Herbie, Big Fish and Little Fish Projects are comprised of both Bureau of Land Management claims and state leases, encompassing a total of 5,778 acres of uranium exploration ground. The projects have seen historical development ranging from uranium mining to grass roots conceptual exploration.
No other apparent Google hits for Randy Mecham or Blue Bird Partners that don't derive from the Blue Rock press release. I wonder where this sort of information is filed?
Going on a journey, somewhere far out east
We'll find the time to show you, wonders never cease
natecull
Keeper of the Flame
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by natecull »

Some more tidbits on the Vapordyne steam engine, just in case it's relevant:

http://stanleysteamers.com/phorum-5.1/read.php?1,1239
Re: opposed piston engine
Posted by: Jim Crank (---.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net)
Date: August 29, 2002 10:14AM

Peter,
The Napier Deltic and the Lear engine were the same.

Lear's was three crankshafts arranged in a triangle with two cylinders per side, so six cylinders and twelve pistons. Unaflow exhaust and one rotary inlet valve in the middle of it.
Wallace was a total fraud as you well know, not one original idea and let me tell you it was a real effort to have to sit there and listen to him B..S... Bill Lear with some of the most rediculous nonsense I ever heard. He was a master con artist. Although that first gas turbine car for Granatelli for Indy was a brilliant concept. Steam was another matter.

The Napier Deltic was the same arrangement and being British, insanely complicated. I think up to 32 cylinders in the biggest marine and sationary engines, although I could be mistaken on this, it might have been 24.
The Los Angeles Fire Department had a huge one in a trailer hooked to some gargantuan water pump. I heard it once at the harbor and went to investigate the strange sound. According to the Battalion Chief, when it worked it was a demon pumper; but was so labor intensive to maintain that they finally scrapped it.
Re: opposed piston engine
Posted by: Mike Clark (---.server.ntl.com)
Date: August 29, 2002 04:31PM

There is a sectional perspective drawing of the Napier Deltic at www.lexcie.zetnet.co.uk/delticengine together with some history. The eighteen cylinder 36 piston Deltic was used in pairs in the English Electric Co's very successful Deltic diesel electric locomotive for British Rail in the 1960's. It was a two stroke supercharged engine so had no valves or camshaft. One is displayed at the National Railway Museum in York - it is complicated but by all accounts was a very compact engine for the power developed. There were an awful lot of gears connecting everything together.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Deltic
The Deltic story began in 1943 when the British Admiralty set up a committee to develop a high-power, lightweight diesel engine for Motor Torpedo Boat[1]. Hitherto in the Royal Navy, such boats had been driven by petrol engines but this fuel is highly flammable, making them vulnerable to fire, and at a disadvantage compared to the German diesel-powered E-boats.
Development began in 1947 and the first Deltic unit was produced in 1950. By January 1952 six engines were available, enough for full development and endurance trials. An ex-German E-Boat, powered by three Mercedes-Benz diesel engines, was selected for these trials, since its power units were of approximately equal power to the new 18 cylinder Deltic engines. Two of the three Mercedes-Benz engines were replaced with Napier Deltics, the compactness of the Deltic being graphically illustrated: they were half the size of the original engines. The Deltic weighed one fifth of its contemporaries of equivalent power[1].

Proving successful, Deltic diesel engines became a common powerplant in small and fast naval craft. The Royal Navy used them first in the Dark-class fast attack craft. Subsequently they were used in a number of other smaller attack craft. The low magnetic signature lent itself to use in mine countermeasure vessels and the Deltic was selected to power the Ton-class minesweeper. The Deltic engine is still in service in the Hunt-class. These versions are de-rated to reduce engine stress.

Deltic diesels served in MTBs and PT Boats built for other navies. Particularly notable Was the Norwegian Tjeld or Nasty class, which were also sold to Germany, Greece, and the United States Navy. Nasty-class boats served in the Vietnam War, largely for covert operations.

While the Deltic engine was successful and very powerful for its size and weight, it was a high-strung unit, requiring much maintenance. This led to a policy of unit replacement rather than repair in place. Deltic engines were easily removed upon breakdown, generally being sent back to the manufacturer for repair.

A turbo-compound variant of the Deltic was planned[1]. This would have inserted the turbine stage from a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet into the centre of the delta. The engine acted as the gas generator, driving the turbine with the exhaust gases, recycling some energy that would otherwise have been lost. Such an engine was hoped to produce 6,000 horsepower.

Intriguing.

So, we have Lear, an American radio and jet guy, grabbing a British engineer with a somewhat dodgy past who is looking for a 'government contract'. They work together on adapting (as one of three possibilities) a piston engine design which comes from the British Navy and is used in US covert operations. He's trying to make it small and light and doesn't much care what kind of vehicle it goes into. He says it's for a steam car, but outside observers are cynical since steam cars have suddenly become hip and there's government money available. And he's friendly with Brown, another Navy guy.

He later fires the British engineer (or he resigns under a cloud). The steam car project goes nowhere. The hugely publicised partnership with California turns out to have just been a publicity front, only five buses built, no plans for more. When the operation folds, the engine designs and prototypes are apparently abandoned, though an unnamed attorney steals the blueprints.

I suppose military designs would be the logical place to work from. But it's the Navy/covert link that pops up and says 'hi'.
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natecull
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by natecull »

Huh. I don't suppose Bill Lear's British Ken Wallis is THIS British Ken Wallis?

http://www.gyroplanepassion.com/Ken_Wallis.html

He would be alive at the right time, about Lear's age, have experience building aircraft engines... but not a word about any involvement with the ignominious Vapordyne.

I guess he must be a different person. In 1967 Wing Commander Kenneth Wallis was building and flying autogyros for "You Only Live Twice", not cars.

http://www.hotrod.com/whereitbegan/hrdp ... index.html
The Granatelli brothers (Andy, Joseph, and Vincent) and engineer Ken Wallis turned the Speedway on its ear in 1967 by building a car powered by this 260-pound, 550hp aircraft turbine driving all four wheels. Needless to say, the race car got a lot of attention, including a cover story in the May '67 issue of HOT ROD. This photo was taken in the Indy garages days before the race and shows the turbine and the fabricated gearbox.
http://www.autopuzzles.com/Indy1967.htm
http://forums.autosport.com/showthread. ... id=2316451
http://visualrian.com/images/item/53942

Lear's Ken Wallis:
Image

It is confusing since the autogyro Ken Wallis also built race cars before WW2 and invented slot car racing during the war.
http://uk.geocities.com/historicslot/wallis1942.html

Website of Richard Moser, the ex-head of engine design for the Steam Car project:
http://awholenewthing.com/

An article about Moser's involvement:
http://awholenewthing.com/CarandDriver.jpg
"We had an engine that ran, but the boiler guys had a boiler about as big as a Mack truck. And even then it wouldn't put out enough steam to hurt the engine. I don't remember the best power we ever saw. It wasn't much over 100 HP. But we were learning a lot, when Lear did one of his strange things.

"One of the problems was piston clearance. We had to have stainless-steel pistons to handle the temperatures. They ran in cast-iron bores. I had no idea what the expansion rates would be, so that was one of the first tests.

"We were working seven days a week then, and I was trying to qualify for the SCCA run-offs. So I told the technicians exactly how to run the test, and I took the weekend off to go racing. On Sunday the engine seized. It just happened when Lear came in that day. He wanted to know what the problem was, and of course, they didn't know. So he got all panicked, and decided that if these guys didn't know what they were doing, we'd just quit.

"When I came back on Monday morning, my department was gone. Well, it was still there, but now it was a turbine-design department. And since I wasn't a turbine expert, I didn't have much to do. So I quit shortly after that."
Hmm. Maybe it was just a really badly-run project that failed.
Going on a journey, somewhere far out east
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Linda Brown
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by Linda Brown »

Nate,

Bells ringing hereand calling vibrating threads but I am not sure which one to follow. Of course Mr. Twigsnapper would know ......

but when I read your words here bells started going off in my head regarding what our Mr. Twigsnapper might have been involved in, himself personally.( not that he will tell us directly)

"Development began in 1947 and the first Deltic unit was produced in 1950. By January 1952 six engines were available, enough for full development and endurance trials. An ex-German E-Boat, powered by three Mercedes-Benz diesel engines, was selected for these trials, since its power units were of approximately equal power to the new 18 cylinder Deltic engines. Two of the three Mercedes-Benz engines were replaced with Napier Deltics, the compactness of the Deltic being graphically illustrated: they were half the size of the original engines. The Deltic weighed one fifth of its contemporaries of equivalent power[1].

Proving successful, Deltic diesel engines became a common powerplant in small and fast naval craft. The Royal Navy used them first in the Dark-class fast attack craft. Subsequently they were used in a number of other smaller attack craft. The low magnetic signature lent itself to use in mine countermeasure vessels and the Deltic was selected to power the Ton-class minesweeper"

But Read Pauls chapters again (56 All Flags Flying) and the one that introduces Mr. O'Riley ( Chapter 42)

His own words to Paul though ... he did say " "Its all pretty much history" O'Riley recalled. "Peter Wright ( a future intelligence officer who devised a degaussing mechanism for the XCraft) was extremely proud OF THE GUYS WHO STAYED WITH THE PROGRAM AFTERWARD. HE REFERRED TO US AS HIS 'BOATMEN")

DING, DING, DING DING. On so many levels I can't even count.

Good work Nate, Linda
Linda Brown
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by Linda Brown »

Nate,

And this

"He later fires the British engineer (or he resigns under a cloud). The steam car project goes nowhere. The hugely publicised partnership with California turns out to have just been a publicity front, only five buses built, no plans for more. When the operation folds, the engine designs and prototypes are apparently abandoned, though an unnamed attorney steals the blueprints.

Is almost the classic fingerprint of a "dark project" shifting somewhere else. It reminds me much of the summer of 66 and the large loudspeaker.Even down to the "mop up, over the wall " situation later! And that "un named attorney was from Florida I understand. That strike anybody as being odd? Maybe its just me..

And of course I wonder why it was that Bill Lear was escorting Generals into the Townsend Brown Foundation offices in Los Angeles when he KNEW it was going to result in a panicked call from one of them to other interested sources .... all of it of course dutifully recorded by the FBI. " A man named "Lehr" remember. sorry, jumping threads.

Your overviews are very helpful Nate. More of the same? Linda
natecull
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Re: PEOPLE & PLACES & DATES

Post by natecull »

Linda Brown wrote: Is almost the classic fingerprint of a "dark project" shifting somewhere else. It reminds me much of the summer of 66 and the large loudspeaker.Even down to the "mop up, over the wall " situation later! And that "un named attorney was from Florida I understand. That strike anybody as being odd? Maybe its just me..
Yes, those bits strike me as odd and parallelling the 'fan/loudspeaker' scenario in exactly the same way, which is why I highlighted them. (Though I missed the Florida connection - what's that link?) But I'm also wondering if I'm reading too much into what I expect/hope to find.

What gets me is that there are still several people from that project alive and well and posting on the Net fairly recently. Jim Crank, for one, who has all the materials is a passionate steam car hacker on stanleysteamers.com and writes critically but not completely dismissively of the Lear project. So it's not like all the guys were black ops and covering their tracks by any means, almost the opposite.

I'm tempted to email Jim him and ask if he thinks it's remotely plausible that there was any kind of secondary 'out the back' operation happening during his time there.

Richard Moser who worked on the (presumably) Deltic-derived piston engine has a website, might be contactable too. I'd like to ask him too.

I notice Moser has some interesting very off-mainstream ideas about alternate physics and cosmology which might fall into our neck of the woods:

http://www.mecpublishing.com
http://www.theexamineduniverse.org/
Simply stated, the universe we live in is not expanding at all but is a closed space, possibly elliptical or egg-shaped cavity, possibly a cave with an opening with a reflective surface. We live in a very large mirrored room. We are about one million light-years from the nearest wall and around eight million light-years from the far wall which is in the general direction of the Virgo Cluster. There could be fewer than a hundred real galaxies, all the rest are reflected images of those real ones.

Andromeda (M31) is the first reflection of our own Milky Way Galaxy as it looked several million years ago, actually closer to 2.5 million years ago which is the apparent distance between us and our reflection.

Andromeda is often referred to by astronomers as the "twin" of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Now we can see it actually is us. Until recently there were no 3D databases, such as the Tully 3D map of galaxies which allow us to make a more sophisticated analysis.
The four forces that started all this were (1) the nuclear strong force, (2) the nuclear weak force, (3) the electromagnetic force and (4) gravity.
The obvious question is what about people? They can produce forces that are neither predicted nor explained by the short list of four. There must be more forces previously unaccounted for. I had it up to ten and then reduced it back to nine including the very real and powerful forces that human beings can generate from only a thought.
Robert Barber, who Jim names on stanleysteamers as the chief turbine engineer, I guess the counterpart of Moser, seems to have had a more mainstream career:
http://engr.oregonstate.edu/oregonstate ... php?id=241
Robert E. Barber
BSME 1957 - MIME

Robert Barber received his bachelor's in mechanical engineering in 1957. In 1966 he co-founded Barber-Nichols Engineering Company, which provides consulting engineering for customers that include Sundstrand, Lear Motors Company, and Fairchild-Hiller. Barber-Nichols Engineering built its early reputation by providing design engineering and analysis in difficult applications. In 1970, the National Institute of Standards and Technology contracted Barber-Nichols to design and manufacture a cryogenic liquid helium pump for a laboratory experiment. Since that time, the company's reputation as a manufacturer of custom cryogenic turbomachinery has flourished. Barber retired from the company and is now a full time nature photographer. He is a member of the OSU President's Club and also serves as a board member on the Red Rocks (Colorado) Community College Foundation.
Seems like he kept in touch with Jim Crank too and kept up the flame for steam racers.
http://www.oiccam.com/reno/car_museum/r ... emon.shtml
The 1977 turbine-powered Steamin' Demon displayed here was built by Jim Crank, a steam car buff, who purchased the engine from Lear Motors and built the body with help from Fiber Fab and Volkswgen of America. He attempted to break the Land Speed Record for steam-powered cars set in 1906 by Stanley Steamer's "Stanley Rocket" at 127.656 mph. Crank was unable to reach 100 mph and sold the car in 1982 to Barber-Nichols Engineering Company in Colorado. They rebuilt the car and tried for the record at El Mirage, California, reaching 111 mph. The company tried again in 1984 at Bonneville Salt Flats reaching 110 mph. Success came on August 19, 1985, when Robert Barber drove the Barber-Nichols Steamin' Demon at Bonneville to a new record of 145.607 mph. This remains the current world record. Barber said that when he reached 140 mph, the door jiggled loose and blew off and, at the end of the run, the engine compartment was on fire. The 250 hp Steaming' Demon weighs 5,000 pounds, 1,000 pounds of which represents the stainless steel steam boiler. The boiler holds 60 gallons of water. When floorboarded, the steam reaches 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit at a pressure 900 pounds per square inch. The super heated, high pressure steam then feeds into a 60,000 rpm turbine.
Ken Wallis seems to be a bit of a dodgy character, and I'd love to know more about him. Can't find any traces. Presumably he was involved with both the turbine and Deltic attempts at an engine. He seems to be the fall guy that everyone involved loves to hate. If there was any weird stuff going on, maybe it centred on him?

Dunno, these guys might think it insulting/painful to go over, what do you think? They all seem like nice and smart people who really did care about the Vapordyne project and have been trying to get there on their own time ever since. I'm a bit out on a limb here, and maybe the "work done in Reno" that Twigsnapper alludes to is something completely different?
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