Tesla Turbine
From BNE
Power for Africa
Let's build a Tesla turbine and power it with steam from a pressure cooker.
If the project's successful, we can offer it to Africa as a new engine for electricity generation, water pumping, and locomotion.
A Tesla turbine is one of the worlds most simple motors, a whole lot of closely packed radial discs on a single spindle. The idea is that a fluid under pressure (in our case steam) is forced tangentially into the outer edge of the spinning discs, thus giving them power and the exhaust gases are collected at the centre spindle via central cutouts in the discs. The exhaust come through one of the outer walls of the machine close to (around) the spindle.
Wouldn't it be great to build one of these systems to see how well it works, and if it's a success, deliver the design to Africa.