3 ms·

I'm pretty shocked by the grandparent, but on reflection, I think this is the future. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck writes about the travails of a family's

I'm pretty shocked by the grandparent, but on reflection, I think this is the future. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck writes about the travails of a family's trip to California in search of work during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Tom Joad, the father, fixes the compression in his blown engine by wrapping a copper wire around the cylinder, then running the motor until it melts and recreates the seal. It's such an ingenious hack, and reflects such deep knowledge of how an engine works, that it's stuck with me for decades. Today, I bet fewer than 5% of vehicle owners even know how to check their tire pressure. But it's not like fewer people are driving, or cars are more likely to be found by the side of the road with a blown engine—it's just far less necessary to know these things. I think programming will go this way, too.

galangalalgol 3y ago
Copper melts at over 1000C that seems questionable.
- ericbarrett 3y ago
  Might have been bronze or tin—I read the book a long time ago! That said, burning gasoline or kerosine can be over 2000°C[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiabatic_flame_temperature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiabatic_flame_temperature
  - pas 3y ago
    steel melts around 1600, the engine would blow up waaay before. the problem with that story is that if the "seal" is made from a simple material that melts by the engine heat, then it will not seal for long. (or at all.) but likely it's not what Steinbeck wrote.
    - jodrellblank 3y ago
      At what temperature does copper soften enough to squish into a seal shape? I seem to remember my dad shimming a cylinder that had lost compression with a copper ring; I was a kid so I don't remember any details except it wasn't intended to melt, and whatever it was intended to do worked and we saw the car still being driven around town fifteen or twenty years after he sold it.
      - pas 3y ago
        it's possible that the car got a replacement part eventually :) copper becomes ductile between 300-600 C ( https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/docs/documents/1353/temperature-strength-metals-SI.png https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/docs/documents/1353/tempe... ) piston ring seals are usually made of cast iron or steel. copper would probably work too for a while, it's good at conducting heat, there's ample cooling in engines, so it wouldn't melt, just wear out very quickly ... and then the engine performance degrades as the sealing gets worse and worse (and it starts to eat oil, soot gets everywhere, exhaust becomes visible), mpg goes down, but ... the car would probably run. (loss of 1 out of 4 pistons is not a catastrophic failure)
tmtvl 3y ago
While it's a nice story, unfortunately it would appear as though Steinbeck didn't do enough research and thought the 1925 Dodge was built much like a Model T: <https://forums.aaca.org/topic/134313-the-grapes-of-wrath/ https://forums.aaca.org/topic/134313-the-grapes-of-wrath/>
- ericbarrett 3y ago
  Hah, this is great. Guess I'm going to have to update my analogy bank.

galangalalgol 3y ago

Copper melts at over 1000C that seems questionable.

ericbarrett 3y ago
Might have been bronze or tin—I read the book a long time ago! That said, burning gasoline or kerosine can be over 2000°C[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiabatic_flame_temperature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiabatic_flame_temperature
- pas 3y ago
  steel melts around 1600, the engine would blow up waaay before. the problem with that story is that if the "seal" is made from a simple material that melts by the engine heat, then it will not seal for long. (or at all.) but likely it's not what Steinbeck wrote.
  - jodrellblank 3y ago
    At what temperature does copper soften enough to squish into a seal shape? I seem to remember my dad shimming a cylinder that had lost compression with a copper ring; I was a kid so I don't remember any details except it wasn't intended to melt, and whatever it was intended to do worked and we saw the car still being driven around town fifteen or twenty years after he sold it.
    - pas 3y ago
      it's possible that the car got a replacement part eventually :) copper becomes ductile between 300-600 C ( https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/docs/documents/1353/temperature-strength-metals-SI.png https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/docs/documents/1353/tempe... ) piston ring seals are usually made of cast iron or steel. copper would probably work too for a while, it's good at conducting heat, there's ample cooling in engines, so it wouldn't melt, just wear out very quickly ... and then the engine performance degrades as the sealing gets worse and worse (and it starts to eat oil, soot gets everywhere, exhaust becomes visible), mpg goes down, but ... the car would probably run. (loss of 1 out of 4 pistons is not a catastrophic failure)

tmtvl 3y ago

While it's a nice story, unfortunately it would appear as though Steinbeck didn't do enough research and thought the 1925 Dodge was built much like a Model T: <https://forums.aaca.org/topic/134313-the-grapes-of-wrath/ https://forums.aaca.org/topic/134313-the-grapes-of-wrath/>

ericbarrett 3y ago
Hah, this is great. Guess I'm going to have to update my analogy bank.