Pop-pop or put-put steamboat made easy for children

Step 2 Water and Fire

Of course, for live steam you need water and fire (or heat at least).

The water heated in steam is taken from the water the boat sails in. So you need clean water to sail in. You only need about 2 to 3 cm depth. As these boats are very light you can only use them outside when there is no wind. Avoid borders or anything else hanging low over the water surface, because they might be exposed to the flame. As long as they are not leaning over towards the water, I never had any trouble with fragile border materials, like a vinyl inflatable pool, but do not blame me.

The heat comes from a flame. I do not use candles, for several reasons. One is that with the coil engines a simple candle seems to miss somewhat on heat (or rather heat transfer), resulting in the pop-pop cycle to stop after a while. Putting a double wick in the candle helps quite a lot but not completely. Another reason is the smoke the candle gives and the sooth deposited on the coil, both with one wick or two wicks. This is not only messy, but also diminishes the heat transfer to the coil.

Instead I use Esbit fuel tablets. These are sold as fuel for camping cookers, but also used to be popular for steam toys and models. You can get these Esbit tablet at camping shops and also at OPITEC (artikel number 439.161). These tablets burn very clean. These tablets faintly smell like petroleum , so I guess that is what they are based uppon. The odor is quite faint, the package is not even air tight (apparantly there is no need to).

The packaging of the Esbit fuel tablets mentions inhalation and contact with the skin should be avoided, but I never had any reaction although I am quite sensitive to such things. You will find similar warnings on lamp oil. Any way, it is good practice to fuel charge your boat with pliers or tweezers, also avoiding burning your fingers when hot charging.

One tablet burns about 10 minutes. Half a tablet gives a little more than 5 minutes. Two tablets is a waste in this kind of boats, not giving a proportionally longer burning time. To my experience, the influence of the amount of fuel on the speed of the boat is negligable.