Hello everyone. My review is dedicated to those who are fed up with modern, sophisticated radio-controlled toys with a bunch of electronics inside. Meet: a wonderful boat, with steam engine powered by the heat of a candle. This is exactly the toy, the principle of which you can easily explain to your child :)
Actually, I have wanted such a boat for a long time. There was even an idea to solder it myself, from a tin can, but recently I came across a ready-made one and I purchased it. The seller turned out to be a little crooked, and sent it without a track, although the page states that it is sent by normal mail. However, everything arrived quickly enough. The boat is completely metal, comes in a box, includes two candles, an iron tray and a plastic straw. Apparently, to fill the pipes of the boat with water. 
The build quality of the boat leaves much to be desired, so it was decided to disassemble it and do everything as normal. Inside the boat there is a "steam boiler", which is a small chamber with a flexible brass membrane on top. At the bottom, 2 tubes are attached to the chamber, which are led out of the ship. There was no need to disassemble the boat to pull out the boiler, everything comes out like that. 
The overboard tubes were glued with some kind of super glue and were loose. So I soldered them. Surprisingly, the paint did not peel off from heating.
The principle of operation is very simple: when the chamber, pre-filled with water, begins to warm up with the fire of a candle, the liquid boils, the pressure rises, and the steam, pushing the water through the tubes, propels the boat forward. The steam is then condensed, a vacuum is created, and the water is sucked back into the boiler. The cycle repeats itself.
All this is accompanied by cool sounds that the bending membrane makes. Like a small motor running. That is why the boat is called the PopPop boat, because of the sounds it makes.
More details can be found in the bourgeois Wikipedia on request PopPop Boat
The article is interesting, but in English. The toy was popular in the 50s of the last century, and was invented even earlier.
And of course, video work. The main thing is not to forget to fill the tubes with water before starting. Otherwise, nothing will work.
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In Soviet times, children did not have a Barbie, Playstation, and radio-controlled helicopters. But so many interesting things could be found at the nearest factory, at a construction site or, sorry, at a landfill. Saltpeter, carbide, metal shavings, finally, the same copper tubes and brass plates. According to an ancient Soviet recipe, the water jet engine was built like this: the shell was removed from a large D-type battery, the central electrode and all the contents were removed. The ship modeler was interested in a zinc cup. The upper two-thirds of the glass were cut off with a hacksaw, the edges were leveled with scissors, and two holes were drilled in the resulting "saucepan" for copper pipes. The tubes were soldered with ordinary tin. A round lid was cut out of a brass plate and also soldered to the "saucepan". Then the lid was pressed slightly to obtain a movable membrane. Blowing into the tubes could make the membrane click. It is better to make the boiler as small as possible: the smaller the volume of water inside the engine, the faster it will start.
It makes sense to place the pipelines on the ship so that a significant part of the pipes is below the waterline. In this case, water plays the role of a cooler. The faster the steam is cooled in the pipes, the more reliably the engine works. When designing a ship's hull, remember that steel tubes from the G8 weigh a lot. The volume and displacement of the boat must correspond to the solid mass of the engine and spark plug.
Before starting, the engine should be completely filled with water using a syringe. The design has exactly two tubes, and not one, to facilitate "refueling": while water is poured into one nozzle, air comes out of the other. The ship is built so that both tubes are constantly submerged in the water. When a candle is placed under the boiler, the water in it heats up and begins to boil. The resulting vapors push the water out of the boiler. Passing through the pipes, the water cools down, the pressure in the boiler drops, and the engine sucks the water back. Thus, a constant reciprocating movement of the water column occurs in the pipes.
The simplest steam water cannon can be made without a boiler at all. It is enough to bend the pipe in several turns directly above the candle in the manner of a boiler. The cauldron is made for special effects: the bending membrane makes a loud rattling sound. Despite the fact that the water column moves in both directions with equal amplitude, the engine pushes the boat forward. This is due to the fact that all the water is pushed out of the tubes in one direction, and is sucked in from all sides.
Attempts to find a replacement for the rare nowadays copper tubes and brass plates led us to the following decision: the brake line from the VAZ 2108 car became an excellent tube. It fits perfectly in diameter, is well soldered and, most importantly, is sold in any auto shop.
The membrane is a delicate matter, in every sense of the word. With such a small diameter of the cover, its material must be very soft and pliable. After several unsuccessful attempts, we made an aluminum cup membrane from the cheapest tealight. It is very thin, soft, and sounds good. The only negative is that aluminum is not soldered. Instead of soldering, we applied a 10 minute two-part epoxy adhesive. Concerns about its durability in harsh temperature conditions did not materialize. If the engine is working properly, the cup does not get too hot - this is the thermodynamic cycle of the jet.
Engine performance is impressive. Its power is sufficient to propel the ship forward, creating streams of water visible to the naked eye behind. To be honest, we did not manage to get a really bright sound from the car, as in the old days. So it looks like the membrane material is still worth experimenting with. We wish you the best of luck with your brass records!
It's summer outside and you can go with the kids for a walk by the river, enjoy the fresh air, and at the same time put a boat into the water, which we propose to make right now.
We need:
- 5-volt motor from CD drive;
- three finger-type batteries;
- insulating tape;
- Styrofoam;
- plastic bottle cap;
- two pieces of plastic;
- two washers.
The first step is to make a screw. To do this, we make slots in the lid in places where there is no thread. These places are located symmetrically, therefore, the screws will also be located symmetrically. We will make the cuts with an ordinary clerical knife.
Now you need to insert pieces of plastic into the slots, fixing them with hot glue, getting the blades.
Glue the resulting screw to the motor.
Let's move on to the boat's hull, which will be made from a piece of Styrofoam. On the piece of foam, you need to mark the places that will be cut. This will be the front triangular part, the recess for the battery compartment, and also the place for the blades with the motor.
Cut out all unnecessary parts.
1.5V AA batteries can be connected in series. By connecting three batteries, you can get 4.5 volts. Connect the batteries as shown in the figure below. Please note that the washers should create contacts between the outer and middle batteries.
We wrap the batteries with electrical tape, not forgetting to bring out two wires - negative and positive.
It remains to put everything together with a glue gun.