Alan Dicey wrote:   
   > On 08/10/2010 16:09, Joseph DeMartino wrote:   
   >> On Oct 7, 11:26 pm, Jeffrey Kaplan  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> Plus, his talk about how this might be used by solar generators is    
   >>> babble.  That is exactly how power plants work using fossil or    
   >>> nuclear fuels:  Burn the fuel to create heat which boils water which    
   >>> creates steam which turns turbine blades that generate electricity.<   
   >>   
   >> Or the screws of a ship or submarine.  I've won many a bar bet against   
   >> guys who didn't believe that a modern supercarrier or balistic missle   
   >> submarine is propelled by a steam engine that differs little in its   
   >> basic design from the ones that powered 19th century locmotives or the   
   >> *Titanic*.   
   >    
   > Then you were stretching a point.  Modern steamships (nuclear powered)    
   > use steam turbines to turn the propellors.  The Titanic and all bar a    
   > handful of steam railway locomotives used reciprocating pistons, a very    
   > different type of engine.   
      
      Interesting. At first I thought you were wrong, but upon checking   
   discovered    
   that the Titanic did indeed use primarily piston engines, and the turbine was    
   secondary. Apparently, her builders were not yet quite adept at using   
   turbines,    
   unlike other builders at the time.   
      
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