Скачать или смотреть Tireless mechanic builds steam-powered bike

(4 May 2017) LEADIN:
It drove industrial revolutions and shaped the modern world, but nowadays steam is an increasingly forgotten power source.
In the UK, steam power is enjoying something of a resurgence among a small group of tireless mechanics frustrated by the complexity of modern technology.
STORYLINE:
It begins with the elements of life. First some water and then add fire.
Put them together and you have a source of energy.
A pressurised mix of petrol and kerosene powers the furnace.
Add a dose of engineering skill and you end up with this: The Hudspith steam-powered bicycle.
"I've had a motorcycle that would do 115 miles an hour (approx. 185 kilometres per hour) and all this, that's all very fine, but you think; 'Well, what now?'" says its creator, 62-year-old Geoff Hudspith.
"And I really just thought; 'Well, how about making a steam-powered bicycle, a steam motorbike? That would be an interesting thing to do.'"
The steam powers a double action single cylinder, this turns a flywheel, which powers a chain on the front wheel.
The bike has a range of around ten miles (approx. 16 kilometres) on one tank of water.
It can go up to 20 miles per hour (approx. 32 kilometres per hour) and even has its own whistle.
It's not too hard to ride too, claims Hudspith.
"When it's underway it's surprisingly well-balanced because the weight of the boiler is balanced by the weight of the water tank on the other side at the back," he says.
"And the weight of the flywheel also helps, so it's more or less on an even keel."
It took the engineer around twenty years to build the bike from scratch.
His partner, Liz Tomkins, watched its development every step of the way.
"He's always been completely absorbed by steam, engineering, it's in his blood, in his DNA. And I think he probably thinks about it most of the time as well, yeah," she says.
But it's not just Hudspith experimenting with steam power.
A new generation of steam enthusiasts are taking on the hobby.
This White Steam Car was designed and built by the American White sewing company in the early 1900s.
It's now a restoration project for 18-year-old George Hounslow. He also helps run Europe's largest steam car club.
According to Hounslow, this is one of only two white-bodied Model F steam cars, left in the world. US presidents William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt once rode them.
Hounslow says steam is definitely a labour of love, but that's part of the attraction.
"I mean, they say steam car is nine hours spannering to one hours driving, so you've got to be ... it takes up a lot of your life," he says.
"I mean, I've taken a gap year to do my car."
He says in today's digitised world, it's hard to fix anything yourself because the technology is so complex. That's not the case with steam.
"Modern cars you can't work on very easy, you lift the bonnet it's just a sheet of plastic, you have to take it into a garage you have to plug a computer in to find out what's wrong with it," says Hounslow.
"With steam you can get hands on, take things apart, make them."
And it's something with worldwide appeal.
"You know, there's people in New Zealand, Australia, there's a few in Thailand, Italy, well all over Europe, America," says Hounslow.
"We got some friends who came over and took some measurements of one of our cars from Sweden, they were restoring a car. So no, really, all over the world."
Hudspith has even taken his enthusiasm for steam power indoors, on the record deck.
The engineer built this steam-powered gramophone. He says the idea came to him when he bought an old wind-up gramophone.

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