CDZ Civil War Alternative History Some Technical Questions

[william the wie]

I am making one counter-factual assumption: that Birmingham AL was developed in 1850 instead of the actual 1870. My questions are:

In logistics classes back in college I was told that it takes at least 8 times as much coal as Iron ore to make useful iron does anyone know the minimum amount of limestone needed? ( I am wondering if the ratios of coal and limestone were different enough 150 years ago to seriously impact my story)

East Asian manned kites go back hundreds of years prior to the Civil War and were known about from coolies in the western mining territories

European gliders more than 10 years

balloons and by extension failed dirigibles also predate the Civil War

So suggestions about the above are welcome but not high priority. The power plant life expectancy is giving me fits. An Iron strapped wooden turbine based on the Archimedes screw would work to rotate propellers and was understood at the time but working life would be short but I lack the knowledge to compute how short, any guesses.

 

[Stasha_Sz]

In logistics classes back in college I was told that it takes at least 8 times as much coal as Iron ore to make useful iron does anyone know the minimum amount of limestone needed? ( I am wondering if the ratios of coal and limestone were different enough 150 years ago to seriously impact my story)

According to The World Steel Organization, in a blast furnace, (BF), the ratio is iron ore: 1400kg; coal: 800kg; limestone: 300kg; and recycled steel: 120kg; to make 1000kg of crude steel. Presume the difference would be counted as slag.

The blast furnace type of smelting was the original Bessemer method of creating steel.

So suggestions about the above are welcome but not high priority. The power plant life expectancy is giving me fits. An Iron strapped wooden turbine based on the Archimedes screw would work to rotate propellers and was understood at the time but working life would be short but I lack the knowledge to compute how short, any guesses.

While the technology for boiler fired steam propulsion was well known during the War Between the States period, to get reliability of components, they were by definition massive. Further, turbine propulsion did not come about until Ian Whitehead's Turbinia of 1894. By that point in time, metallurgy had advanced to the point of lighter, stronger alloys which made high speed turbine operation possible. To haul this sort of weight around would require a rigid airship. Since the electrolysis method of aluminum extraction did not come about until 1889, your framework would have been made of steel.

Finally, there has never been a successful steam powered dirigible constructed ever, even with modern technology. For an 1860's era steam airship, one would have to have an envelope containing enough lifting gas, (probably hydrogen, since it was the only LTA gas known at the time), that could lift the boiler, propulsion unit(s), framework, fuel, ballast and payload. Payload is the key, to get sufficient payload, one needs enough lift. Every time additional payload is required, the weight to contain the extra lift causes more weight to lift...

Sorry to have rained on your parade, William, but the life expectancy of the turbines would be irrelevant. The contraption would never get off the ground.

 

[william the wie]

There were also problems with the propellers until 1920. That's why I used a ramp launched low powered plane whose accordion dirigible acted as the turbine radiator although I did not know all the specific problems you mentioned and thank you.

 

[Stasha_Sz]

No worries, William, airships and LTA transportation have been something of a hobby of mine since I grew up across the highway from Goodyear's Airship Dock and woke on many a summer morning to the drone of one of their blimps overhead.

 

[william the wie]

The Coffee-grinder an automatic weapon, that was superceded by the gatling gun was a game changer in the Civil War. So I thought even the most marginal of, high maintenance, aircraft that could do recon, drop gliders with blocking forces along enemy lines of communication and perform low intensity bombing and bring extremely light cannon fire to supply lines would be terrifying. I've got an air force chief also advising me on this idea.

The story is based on James Grant's analysis of how the closure and reopening of the Bosphorus in the Crimean War and again in the Russo-Turkish War caused massive problems. The outcome of the Civil War did and does not address this problem.