All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S22E02.Steam.Power.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Simply boil
water to see what it can do.

Provide locomotion,
generate electricity,

clean just about anything,
and power outlandish gizmos.

But if you don't
watch out, it can huff

and puff and blow
your house down.

- Are you ready to go balls out?

Are you ready to go
full steam ahead?

You'll find out where all these
terms come from coming up.

- [Narrator] Now, steam
power on "Modern Marvels".

[dramatic music]

[gears crunching]

-[Narrator] Steam cars.

In the early days
of the automobile,

they were more popular than
the internal combustion engine.

To learn about them
from an expert,

we went to Jay Leno's garage.

In two enormous buildings,
Jay has amassed a collection

of exceptional and
unusual motor vehicles,

including some classic steamers.

- What I'm gonna do
right now is fire up

a 1909 Stanley steam car.

The steam cars are quite popular

at the turn of the century
because, don't forget,

cars back in the early
days, you had to crank them,

and you had the magneto, and
you had to set the choke,

and a lot of times
they'd backfire

and people would
break their arms.

Where steam, well, steam
technology was 100 years old

by the time this car was built.

Steam technology was
easily understood.

If you heat up water,
it makes steam,

it pushes the
pistons, and you go.

Let's open up the hood.

Okay, not as pretty as
looking at a 289 Mustang

or a 327 Chevy, but
this is not your engine.

This is just your boiler.

- [Narrator] Getting
an old steamer

ready to run isn't simple.

It's a multi-step,
time-consuming process,

and firing up the boiler
can be an adventure.

- This is one of the
few cars you can get

burned to death and scalded
to death at the same time.

I mean, you're
carrying an open flame,

and you're made of wood.

- [Narrator] Adding
air pressure, easy.

Pilot light, no problem.

But then Jay's first attempt
to ignite the gas injectors

that provide the heat
for the boiler fails.

- Not good.

Okay, that's a bad sign.

[Jay blowing]

- [Narrator] Now he's not
sure how much vaporized gas

is floating around.

- Let's take a chance.

[gas igniting]
There you go.

Exactly what I'm talking about.

As you can see, it has burned.

See, when you go home, your
wife knows where you've been.

She can't accuse you of
being out or doing something

when your arm is on fire.

- [Narrator] Jay has better
luck the second time around,

and soon the boiler
is warming up.

The car lets out a loud moan.

[car moaning]

[Jay howling]

Next, Jay pushes the car outside

to fill up the car's
30 gallon water tank.

- I'm slowly building
steam pressure.

Let's see if we've got any.

I'll check my whistle.

[steam whistle blowing]

We're getting there.

See, the nice thing about
steam is a gasoline engine

might turn 3500
revolutions per minute.

This engine turns about
357 revolutions per mile.

It's just choo, choo, like that.

So when you pull
away, dead silence.

[steam whistle blowing]

There's no gears to shift,
there's no transmission,

there's no clutch.

Steam is so powerful,
you don't need gears.

- [Narrator] A steam
engine is known

as an external
combustion engine,

because unlike an internal
combustion engine,

the power is produced
outside of the engine

in a boiler, or steam generator.

[suspenseful music]

When water boils, it converts
from a liquid to a gas.

It expands in the
process, creating pressure

in a closed system.

That pressure can
be used to do work,

like running pistons in
Jay's Stanley steamer.

While inside a pressurized
system, steam is invisible.

It's when it vents into
cooler temperatures

that it condenses into
white clouds of water vapor.

- This is your
throttle right here,

and you open your
throttle and you go.

Let's see if we can
beat the camera car.

[steam whistle blowing]

- [Narrator] Jay has hit 70
miles per hour in this car.

Not bad.

But the Stanley steamer
land speed record

is 127 miles per
hour, set in 1906.

- When you drive a steam
car, you learn to shut off

your throttle as you
approach a stop sign,

so you get a build up of steam.

You don't have limitless steam.

You're actually using steam
faster than you're making it,

so you want to try to conserve
as much steam as you can.

- [Narrator] After taking
a spin in his Stanley,

Jay decides to roll out one
of his more elegant steamers,

a 1907 White steam car.

- This was a bit more
expensive, bit more prestigious

than the Stanley steam car.

This was a step up.

They built 10,000 of these.

This was the first
White House car.

Teddy Roosevelt rode
in a White steamer.

- [Narrator] Starting up
this car doesn't take as long

because of its more efficient
way of producing steam.

- With the Stanley heating
up 15 gallons of water,

you have a big fire,
like a giant kettle.

With this, you're
never heating more

than two quarts of
water at a time.

[ragtime music]

As you can see, the White was
a lot more relaxed version

of the Stanley.

Not quite as hectic,
big comfortable cars.

35 miles an hour was
a nice cruising speed.

This is what they
called a condensing car.

If you notice,
unlike the Stanley,

you don't see plumes of
steam coming out the back

because the steam is
used by the engine,

it goes back up
into the condenser,

which looks like a radiator,
but it's a condenser.

The cool air from the
fan cools the steam,

turns it into water, and you
use it over and over again.

I mean, eventually
it dissipates.

Whereas a Stanley
you might get only

a mile and a half on
a gallon of water,

on this you might get five
miles on a gallon of water.

- [Narrator] The ride may have
been quiet and comfortable,

but the lower sticker prices
on gasoline powered cars,

along with a quicker starting
internal combustion engine,

caused steamer sales to fizzle.

- Gasoline cars could do
it quicker, better, faster,

and that's really
the name of the game.

I love them, but if
your wife's pregnant

and you need to get
to the hospital,

you can't be out
there with a match,

and "I'll be about another
10 minutes, honey."

It's not gonna work.

- [Narrator] Decades
before steam cars,

and for decades
after their fall,

steam locomotives
ruled the rails.

In 1804, English inventor,
Richard Trevithick

unveiled a steam locomotive
capable of hauling 10 tons.

[steam whistle blowing]

They quickly grew
in size and power

and became important work horses

in the industrial revolution.

Throughout the 1800s,
the steam locomotive

played a major role in the
settlement of the American west.

A defining moment
occurred in 1869

when the completion of the
trans-continental railroad

linked the United States
from coast to coast.

In remote Ely, Nevada, the
Nevada Northern Railway

houses its historic
steam locomotives

in their original engine house.

- The locomotive we're
gonna take out today

is locomotive 93.

She was purchased by the
railroad in July of 1909.

Right now the fireman
is preparing the fire

to produce the steam.

[coal sizzling]

- What I'm doing now
is I'm shoveling coal

into the fire box.

We cover the grates
evenly with fire,

and we build the pressure up
for our operating pressure,

about 185 psi.

[shovel clanging]

This fire box is big.

It's about 12 feet deep
and about six feet wide.

This engine takes a lot
of coal to make it run.

- It's an incredibly
labor-intensive machine.

Right now we're lubing
it, getting it ready

to go out on the line.

- [Narrator] Once the boiler
builds up enough pressure,

steam generates electricity
for the train's lights,

and runs the air pumps on
the front of the locomotive

that produce compressed air for
braking and other functions.

Then up goes the
engine house door,

and locomotive 93
slowly chugs out.

[train bell ringing]

[steam hissing]

- We just received a high ball,
releasing the engine brake,

placing the power
reverse and forward,

and pull out on the throttle
and two blasts on the whistle.

[steam whistle tooting]

and off we go.

[locomotive chugging]

- [Narrator] This is
copper mining country,

and for nearly 50 years,
locomotive number 93's job

was to haul ore cars.

- This is a freight locomotive.

You can tell by
the smaller wheels.

It has a lot of tractive effort,

but very little horse power.

Tractive effort's
about 42,000 pounds,

but the horse power's only 905.

It's built for power
and not for speed.

It used to pull about
33 oar cars up the hill.

[steam hissing]

Since this is a
working locomotive,

you have to be careful
what you touch.

Everything's extremely hot.

[train bell ringing]

- [Narrator] Before
they return number 93

to the engine house,
the crew performs

a boiler cleaning procedure
that gives just a hint

of the amount of
pressurized steam inside.

- After each run, we do
what we call a blow down.

We do this because sediments
build up in the boiler

and we have to
clean the boiler out

and get those sediments
out of the boiler.

So here goes.

[steam blowing]

[bell ringing]

In the 19th century,
the steam engine

revolutionized how we live,
and ushered in the dawn

of a new age of transportation.

A trip from New
York to Philadelphia

that used to take two days,
now took only two hours.

Farmers could ship their
products to distant markets,

as the speed of railroads
meant crops wouldn't spoil

before being sold.

But it's not just
locomotives that demonstrate

the awesome power of steam.

At the Nevada Northern
Railway Museum,

this 100 ton steam crane
is called the big hook.

Built in 1907, its main purpose
was to clear train wrecks

and place derailed cars
back on the tracks.

- This steam-powered crane is
similar to a steam locomotive

except that we're not running
wheels on steel rails.

What we're running
here are large gears

that pick up the boom, and also
the two hooks in the front.

- [Narrator] Before it can
pick up a derailed car,

the crane's outriggers
much be extended.

Then the crew places wood
blocks underneath each

to stabilize the crane.

Now the heavy lifting can begin.

[steam hissing]

- Next, we're gonna swing
the crane over to the load

we're gonna pick
up, and to do that,

I have to engage the swing hook

and then I have to
put a direction on it,

and then I will apply
steam, which is power,

by these levers.

Here we go.

[dramatic music]

Next, we're gonna lower the
hook to pick up the load,

which would mean first I engage
this one here, this clutch.

[steam hissing]

It's engaged.

Now we're gonna let her down.

- [Narrator] The big
hook may look huge,

and it's brawny enough
to lift up this ore car,

but it's nothing in
size compared to some

of the largest steam-powered
machines ever constructed,

the great ocean liners of
the 19th and 20th centuries,

which changed travel and
transportation forever.

The Titanic was the largest,

when it sank on its
maiden voyage in 1912.

But the RMS Queen
Elizabeth, launched in 1938,

was the biggest steam
ship ever built.

We know the smaller vessels
designed to navigate

rivers and lakes as steamboats.

It was in New York in 1807
that Robert Fulton's Clermont

offered the first
successful commercial

steam boat service in the world.

Today there are only a few
working steam boats in America.

In New Orleans, the
Natchez provides a reminder

of the golden age of steam
boating on the Mississippi.

While the boat is a
re-creation, built in 1975,

the enormous steam
engines are hand me downs

from a bygone era.

- These engines that you see
right here were built in 1925.

They were built for the
steam boat Clairton,

which was a push boat for
the U.S. Steel Company

in Pennsylvania.

- It wasn't unusual for
steam boats to get machinery

from the previous vessel.

The wooden boats only
lasted a short time,

and the machinery would
quite often be moved

from one older vessel
onto the new one.

- [Narrator] Both
engines work in tandem

to move the huge arms
that turn the 26 ton

oak and steel paddle wheel.

The total maximum output
of the two engines

is equivalent to about
1600 horse power.

The boilers that supply the
steam aren't vintage equipment,

because of safety, economic
and environmental reasons.

- The old boats used coal.

Unlike us, we're
using diesel fuel.

There are two boilers.

We only use one at a time.

- [Narrator] Not all
the steam produced

heads right to the engines.

One small pipe goes up
to the top of the boat.

[steam whistle blowing]

- The few boats that
are in service now

have a very distinctive whistle.

Most steam boat people can
automatically hear them

and know what exact
boat they're from.

- [Narrator] A whistle
isn't the only way

to get people's
attention on this boat.

Another pipe runs
across the top deck

to supply steam to the calliope.

- The first thing you have to
do is clear the condensation

that's built up in the whistles.

We have 32 keys on our keyboard.

Each key corresponds
to a steam whistle.

The steam organ was patented
by Joshua C. Stoddard

of Worcester,
Massachusetts in 1856.

His brother was a
river boat captain.

He gave it to his brother,
who put it on the boat,

and it became a principal
means of advertising

and welcoming passengers
aboard steamboats

by the late 1850s.

It was later named calliope
for the Greek muse of voice.

[steam organ playing]

I'm gonna close this
act with a theme

you should all recognize.

[steam organ playing]

- [Narrator] Trains,
boats and steam cars

created a more mobile world.

But just as important
was steam's role

in the factories of the
industrial revolution.

Jay Leno decided to
go back 150 years

and see what some old, but
proven technology had to offer.

He acquired a Wright
stationary steam engine,

built in the 1860s,
and installed it

in his huge automotive garage.

- Abraham Lincoln was president

when this thing was designed.

It weighs 11 tons.

This flywheel here
is three tons.

It's built in two pieces,
but the rest of it

is all one casting.

- [Narrator] Of course, if you
decide to buy a steam engine,

you also need a source of steam.

- We've got a modern
Clayton steam generator.

It's a little complicated.

Bernard has the cheat sheet.

Get the cheat sheet, Bernard.

We always want to make
sure we fire this thing

right up properly, because
it's a lot of vales to open

and things you have to do.

- First step, we've
got to check the water

in the header tank up there.

- [Jay] The header
tank looks good.

We've got water in
the header tank.

- [Bernard] We've
got it on, okay.

- [Narrator] Next, Jay and
Bernard open a series of valves

to get the water flowing
through the system.

- [Bernard] So that's starting
to look pretty good there.

Let's push the till
run button over there,

and we'll get some fire going.

- Aye, captain.

- Now we're waiting
for steam to come out

of that pipe up on top.

- There she blows, captain.

Now that we've got steam,
let's go back inside.

- Luckily this thing
operates on natural gas

so I don't have to
shovel coal all day.

That wouldn't do it.

- As you can see, we've
got almost 140 pounds

of steam pressure, much more

than this would have
run on in its time.

So let's open our valve
here and see what happens.

And everything starts moving.

I still get a kick out of
this each time it starts.

It's always amazing to me.

You know, we're so used to, rrr,

and machines starting machines.

The fact that this
runs so quietly.

- [Narrator] One reason
this 11 ton single piston

Wright steam engine
does run so quietly

is that Jay
installed a seven ton

perfectly level cement base
for the engine to rest on.

- If you're a little off, your
piston will eat into the bore

and wear your cylinder out.

So that's the real trick,
making sure everything is level

and smooth and moves freely.

- [Narrator] So
far, Jay hasn't put

his steam engine to work.

Back in the steam age,
the rotating flywheel

would run a big belt
to transfer its power

to saws and other mill
or factory machinery.

- This is what the
Luddites were afraid of.

You've all heard the
expression Luddites,

people who don't
like technology.

But you realize a
machine like this

would probably replace
100 men working.

It was 125 horse power, which
doesn't seem like much now.

We have engines this big
to make 125 horse power.

But back in the
day, this was almost

like space shuttle technology.

- [Narrator] What makes old
steam engines fascinating

in this age of electronics,
are the rhythmic sounds

and the enormous moving parts,

a potential hazard in
19th century factories.

- There was no OSHA
back in the day.

There was no health
and safety standards.

A guy would go,
"Hey, I'll fix it."

Pshow, and that was
pretty much the end of it.

- [Narrator] Next, Jay
starts up his even older

1832 steam engine.

- Give it a little bit of a
push here to get it going,

to get it over center,
and there she goes.

[levers clicking]

As you can see, there's kind of

a quiet elegance
to these things.

This is what they
call a walking beam

because it's a beam and it
looks like it's walking.

It's pretty self-explanatory.

This ran a color and
dye factory in England

back in the early
1800s, and I'm told

this engine ran for almost
100 years continuously,

just like this,
chug, chug, chug.

That's what it did.

- [Narrator] The engine
isn't entirely original,

but there's a good reason
the oilers were added later

to make lubrication easier.

- This is 1832.

How did they lubricate them?

What you'd do is
you'd bring a pig in,

they'd slaughter a pig,
they'd rub the greasy parts

all over the metal,
run it for a while.

"Hey, we need another pig."

Bring another pig in, they'd
slaughter another pig,

rub the greasy parts all over,

and probably ate a
lot of pork chops.

That's probably what they did.

Luckily, we don't
do that anymore.

- [Narrator]
Centripetal force causes

these circulating
balls to flare outward.

They're the engine's
main safety feature.

- The faster you go,
the higher this rises,

which moves that lever,
which controls your throttle.

If you hear the
expression balls out,

it doesn't mean what
you think, okay?

What it means is your balls
are running all the way out,

your engine is
running at full speed,

and to keep them
from over-revving it

and breaking your motor,
it essentially works

as a governor, it
limits how much throttle

you can put into it.

- [Narrator] Jay's
engines may be antiques,

but steam is still a
vital source of power.

- All your nuclear
subs run on steam.

Steam turbines run a
lot of power plants.

Steam is still a force
to be reckoned with.

- [Narrator] Coal, natural
gas and nuclear energy

all create steam,
but there's a more

environmentally-friendly
way to turn the turbines

that generate electricity.

Yellowstone National Park's
spurting and gushing geysers

are examples of the volatile
subterranean interaction

of heat and water.

Another is the biggest steam
explosion in U.S. history,

the cataclysmic eruption
of Mount St. Helens

in Washington state,
on May 18th, 1980.

Inside the volcano, water
hit superheated rock

and flashed into steam
with the explosive force

of about 20 million tons of TNT.

The blast devastated
150 square miles

of forest in six minutes.

That's the power of
steam uncontrolled.

Elsewhere, that natural
power is being harnessed

to produce electricity.

The first geothermal
power plants in the U.S.

were built in 1962, at the
Geysers dry steam field,

located in northern California.

It's still the largest
producing geothermal field

in the world, using high
temperature dry steam

as the resource to
generate electricity.

In dry steam power plants,
the steam shoots up

from the wells and is
used to turn turbines,

while most other geothermal
plants, called flash plants,

use naturally occurring
superheated water

as a source of steam.

In southern California's
Imperial Valley,

along the shore
of the Salton Sea,

the CalEnergy company
currently has 10 flash plants,

all situated over a hot
bed of geothermal activity.

- On those 10 plants, we're
generating 340 megawatts

of power, which equates
to about 333,000 homes

that it powers.

We sell, on long-term
power contracts,

to utilities throughout
southern California and Arizona.

- [Narrator] Just like
the Salton Sea above,

the water below the
ground is very salty.

It's referred to as brine.

Geothermal production
wells, similar to oil wells,

drill down thousands
of feet to tap into

the more than 360 degree
Fahrenheit reservoirs of brine

trapped in the bedrock.

Tremendous pressure causes
the superheated brine

to rush to the surface.

- This is Vonderahe
One production well.

Vonderahe One was recognized

by the World Geothermal
Resources Council

as being the most prolific
geothermal well in the world.

Don't let all that
noise scare you.

These yellow bars are
actually restraints,

because the well head
was moving so much,

and it was a little
too prolific.

- [Narrator] The hot
brine from the wells

flows through pipes into
large cylindrical tanks.

This part of the
process is why this type

of geothermal plant is
called a flash plant.

- As the pressure is
lowered inside the vessel,

steam is flashed, similar
to what you would see

in a pressure
cooker in your home.

As the steam is
flashed, it's routed

from the top of the vessel.

The brine water that
remains is exiting

on the bottom half so that
there's no contamination

between the two.

- [Narrator] The steam
without salts is then routed

to turn the blades
inside the turbines

that generate electricity.

While the steam is used
to turn the turbines,

the remaining liquid that
didn't flash into steam

is pumped away from the
plants to injection wells

that recycle it back into
the underground reservoirs.

- We re-inject 80%
of all the fluid

that we pull out in
the production system,

so we're self sustaining
the reservoir.

- [Narrator] Geologists
estimate there's approximately

2000 megawatts of power
still untapped in the area,

enough energy to supply
about two million more homes.

They're the heavy
lifters and big movers,

but they get gunky and grimy
and need to be cleaned.

What can you do?

The Sioux Corporation of
South Dakota has the answer.

Roll out one of its
steam cleaning units,

attach a water supply, fire
up the boiler, and blast away.

[steam hissing]

- Steam is just a fantastic
way to remove grease and dirt

from heavy equipment.

- [Narrator] This
steam cleaning unit

has a diesel tank that
supplies fuel to the burner.

The upper portion is
called a water tube boiler.

Hot air produced by
the burners below

circulates around two coils
of water-filled steel pipe,

up through the center,
down between the coils,

the up the outside,
before exhausting out

the top of the unit.

- To build one of these coils,
we take 200 feet of pipe

and wind it on a
drum into a cylinder,

and then we wind a smaller
one for the inner cylinder

of another 100 feet,
for a total of 300 feet

of pipe that's all wound
together and welded together

to have one continuous
pass of 300 feet.

When the water passes through
this 300 feet of pipe,

it starts out at 60
degrees Fahrenheit,

and ends up at 325
degrees Fahrenheit.

- [Narrator] The hot
pressurized water

flows out of the boiler
through the hose,

and discharges from
the steam nozzle.

These machines are designed
so that only 15% of the water

flashes into steam as
it exits the nozzle.

The 85% water, 15% steam ratio

provides the best
cleaning power.

The tremendous
expansion of the steam

accelerates the water droplets

so that they bombard the
surface to be cleaned.

Pressure washers that
just use hot water

aren't as effective when
dealing with grease and grime,

and 100% steam would
melt the grease,

but not wash it away.

- In addition to cleaning
heavy equipment like this,

there are other uses
for steam cleaners,

such as blasting
away snow and ice.

It'll clean gum, sticky
substances off of sidewalks.

It can be used to clean
just about anything.

- [Narrator] The
Sioux corporation

manufactures both steam cleaning

and steam generating machines.

The heart of each machine
is a reliable boiler.

Workers make so-called
fire tube boilers

to go inside the company's
steam generators.

Unlike their water tube
boiler, in a fire tube boiler,

the heat from the burners
travels through the tubes

and boils the water
inside the tank.

- And you have it filled
with water to this level,

about approximately
here, and the water boils

just like in a tea kettle,

and the steam comes out
the exhaust right here.

- We're testing our
SF20 boiler right now.

You'll see the steam
start pouring out.

This machine will put
out about 700 pounds

per hour of steam.

It's running at a
temperature of about

240 degrees right now.

[steam hissing]

This is the discharge
of our steam generator,

and when it boils inside
the steam generator,

it expands at a
rate of 1500 times.

So if we start off with
one cubic foot of water,

we're gonna have 1500 cubic
feet of steam at the discharge.

- [Narrator] Low
pressure steam generators

can be used to accelerate
concrete curing,

and even sterilize soil.

But what if you've got
dirty clothes and wrinkles?

Steam again.

There are about 30,000 dry
cleaners in the United States,

including Perfect
Cleaners in Los Angeles,

and they all rely on steam.

- Here at this large 3500
square foot dry cleaning plant,

we process over
5000 pieces a week,

and every single one of them
comes into contact with steam

in one form or another.

[water spraying]

- [Narrator] The maze of
white pipes carries steam

to the various devices
throughout the plant

that spew it out.

All the steam comes from
the boiler in the back.

- Here we are in
the boiler room,

the heart of the
dry cleaning plant.

As you can see, I've taken
the cover off my boiler here,

and you see the
natural gas flaming

and heating these water tubes,
creating steam and pressure,

carrying pressure up to
110 pounds per square inch.

- [Narrator] Some of the
washers and dryers use steam.

When it comes to
getting out wrinkles,

steam's heat and
humidity have no equal

in getting the
kinks out of cloth.

- This is a steam
air form finisher,

otherwise known as a Suzie
in the dry cleaning business.

I'm gonna put this wrinkled
polo shirt on here,

push the button, we're
gonna have hot steam

come out of there, and
then hot air to dry it.

This is the first step in the
dry cleaning pressing process

before it goes over
to a utility press.

- [Narrator] Utility
presses emit steam

from both the top and
bottom inner surfaces.

Workers also have
steam irons available

to target specific areas.

- This is our largest press,
also known as a hot head press.

This large metal surface
is filled with steam,

gets up to a temperature
of 300 plus degrees.

It is dry, though.

When she brings the press down,

she'll press this wet sheet
here with some bottom steam,

and it'll give the sheet
a nice crisp finish

without using any starch.

- [Narrator] Wrinkles aren't
the only laundry problem

that steam can obliterate.

- We use here steam
to remove stains,

and this is how we do it.

I put it on the spotting board,

take my spotting gun, which
shoots steam through it,

and I can use a
variety of distance,

depending on the garment,
so I don't damage the fabric

or the color on the garment.

[steam spraying]

The steam is allowing me to
remove the stain as I go.

- [Narrator] While one small
boiler can supply the steam

for this cleaning
business, in New York,

enormous boilers send steam
surging under the city streets

and into some of the world's
most famous skyscrapers.

Unless things go wrong.

What do the Empire
State Building,

the Chrysler Building,
the United Nations,

along with hospitals
and hundreds of other

Manhattan businesses
have in common?

Instead of having big
boilers in their basements,

they receive steam from one of
Consolidated Edison Company's

six steam generation stations,

the largest steam
system in the world.

- Over the course of a
year, they're putting

30 billion pounds of steam
into the Con Ed steam system.

It's sent out into 105
miles of underground pipe

throughout Manhattan, going
from the tip of Manhattan

up to 96th Street.

We service nearly
1800 customers.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] The 74th Street
Con Ed steam generating plant

alone puts out about 2 million
pounds of steam per hour.

- [Charles] We have three
high pressure boilers

here at 74th Street,
and we create a fireball

inside the boiler, which
heats up 60 thousand gallons

per hour of water, which
goes up to the drum,

that flashes into steam.

- Each of our three
high pressure boilers

has two steam drums.

They produce approximately
450 thousand pounds of steam

per hour, at a temperature
of 800 degrees.

Each drum extends
back 25 to 30 feet,

so you're only seeing the
face of it right here.

- [Narrator] In a
central control room,

workers carefully monitor both
the steam production process

and the delivery system.

- We produce steam at 800 psi,

and a high temperature
of 840 degrees.

For the safety of the
steam system unit,

we reduce that pressure to
200 psi and 410 degrees,

which we send out in
the underground pipes.

- This is our
steam mimic system.

This system monitors
over 105 miles of piping

in the steam system.

It monitors the pressure
in the steam system,

so if there is a problem
anywhere in the system

throughout Manhattan,
we'll know immediately

where that problem is, and
we can dispatch crews there

to correct the problem.

- [Narrator] Con Edison has been

in the steam
business since 1930.

The underground pipe
responsible for this explosion

was laid in 1923.

It was part of the
pre-existing steam system

Con Edison purchased that
first began supplying steam

to Manhattan customers in 1882.

Does that mean
steam is outdated?

Not a chance.

The Hearst Tower,
considered technologically

and environmentally
state of the art,

is one of Con
Edison's customers,

- We're in the basement
of the Hearst Tower,

where the steam from
the Con Edison plant

comes in through the
street, in this pipe,

at 175 pounds per square inch.

It then gets reduced through
the control panel here

to 60 pounds, ultimately
getting reduced to 15 pounds,

and it then supplies
all the heat

and hot water to the building.

- [Narrator] Inside the
building's 10 story high atrium,

there are no old-fashioned
radiators or hot air vents.

Instead, the heat
derived from the steam

flows in tubes under
the tile flooring,

creating a comfortable
ambient temperature

in the huge space.

- The steam that we
use is calculated

in these meters here that
Con Edison comes to read.

We're using far less steam
than was originally projected

due to the efficiency
of our heating systems.

- [Narrator] While Con Ed boils
water to provide steam heat,

the goal of other
companies is to turn steam

back into water.

This facility
processes and packages

a variety of water products,
including distilled water.

Distillation involves
boiling water

and vaporizing it into steam.

Boiling sterilizes the
water, and when the steam

lifts out of it, salts and
other solids are left behind.

Then the steam is cooled,
and when it condenses back

into liquid form, it's as
close to pure H2O as possible.

While distillation can
produce clean water

from a very contaminated source,

this process begins with
the municipal water supply.

- It arrives in the pipe above,

fairly directly from the
Sierras, as it turns out,

but we treat it
before processing

through the distilled.

First, we run it through
some sand filters

to take out particulate matter.

We run it through carbon
filters to take out chlorine

that might be present, and then
we run it through softeners

to take out the hardness.

All this is done to
provide very clean water

before we even enter the
distillation process.

- [Narrator] To eliminate
any contaminants

picked up in the system,
the distilled water

runs through sub-micron
filters, and then into a tank

where ozone gas
bubbles up through it

to treat any
remaining impurities.

Now it's ready for bottling.

- This is about as pure
as you can get for water.

It's half a part of so per
million of dissolved solids.

- [Narrator] The water
in the gallon containers

is an all purpose product
that's recommended

for use in steam irons, but
compared to regular water,

distilled water is
relatively tasteless.

So to bottle drinking
water, these tanks add back

brand-specific
electrolytes and minerals.

These actually make the
water healthier to drink

and give it a more
appealing taste.

[fun electronic music]

While this plodding
mechanized oddity

may look like it just
walked off the pages

of a Jules Verne novel, it's
actually part of a trend

known as steam punk.

The term has been around
since the late 1980s

to label contemporary
drawings and objects

designed with a
pseudo Victorian bent.

In his garage in a quiet
central California neighborhood,

I-Wei Huang began turning
his steam punk art

into a steam-powered reality.

- I've drawn steam punk
kind of inspired art

pretty much all my life,
drawing old robots and stuff

that uses old
Victorian technology.

And I put a lot of thought
into how, in my work

and the technology behind it,

so much so that I decided
that it might actually work.

- [Narrator] I-Wei,
who makes a living

working for a video game
company, doesn't build

his own parts, and the
miniature steam engines he uses

come from hobby stores.

It's the unusual ways he
cobbles everything together

that grabs people's attention.

[steam whistle blowing]

- This one actually won the
best of show in RoboGames.

It's in the shape
of a trilobite,

which is a prehistoric animal.

[steam whistle blowing]

Steam is very intriguing because
you get to play with fire,

and you get to
play with something

that's a little bit dangerous,
a little bit unusual.

It's all visual.

You can see it,
you can smell it.

So this is the steam rover.

It's basically a steam engine
powered, it's six wheel drive,

four wheels steering,
low steam machine.

It's one of the more
powerful ones I have,

and it's just a blast
to drive around.

- [Narrator] Most
of I-Wei's engines

sound like tiny
locomotives, but this one

makes a distinctly
different sound.

[turbine spinning]

- I decided to do a turbine
since I've done so many

piston-driven steam machines.

So it was a challenge
finding a turbine

that actually works well.

It uses us a lot of
steam very, very fast,

and has super high RPM, but
not a whole lot of torque,

so a lot of gearing
down is required.

The forward reverse
is done by a clutch

because the turbine
only turns one way.

This is the steam centipede.

It's one of my most complex
machines that I've built.

It has 32 legs.

In old science fiction movies,

there's a lot of steam
walking machines,

but there's a reason why
it's really hard to pull off.

It's just not as
efficient as wheels.

- [Narrator] I-Wei has
managed to get even his most

complex designs up and
running on a small scale.

But what about a
full-sized version?

- I would love to see one of
these huge steam machines,

something like this, that
can carry people around,

but this already scares me
that the boilers could fail.

On a big scale,
that's not something

that I want to think about.

- [Narrator] But in nearby
Oakland, a group of artisans

operating under the
Kinetic Steam Works banner,

take on the challenge of
dealing with fire and water

on a much bigger scale, with
sometimes startling results.

[flame flaring]

- Here at Kinetic Steam Works,
we have a complete reverence

for the vintage equipment
and the stylings

of the way things
used to be done.

We really like to take
the vintage equipment

and then use it for
contemporary art pieces.

[steam hissing]

- [Narrator] Like their 1920
traction engine named Hortense,

that provided the steam
power for a belt drive

that turned a carousel.

- There were actually steam
carousels back in the day.

This was a little bit more
on an industrial scale,

and it really was a
massive belt movement

and gear motion,
reciprocating motion

that was as much of a
pleasure to ride the carousel

as it was to watch
the entire operation.

[steam hissing]

- [Narrator] At the
Kinetic Steam Works'

6000 square foot shop, the
group fires up a small boiler

to supply steam to some
of their smaller projects.

- The boiler is called
the Blister by some,

and Little Baby Steamy
Pants by some others.

We have a fire box, and
right now we're burning

liquid fuel and wood.

Here comes some steam.

[motor running]

- This is a mock up of
what might have been used

in a factory at the
turn of the century,

the last century,
not this closest one,

where you've got steam coming
to a small engine like this

and there's a PTO, a
power take off here

that the sewing machine
operator can tension this belt

or de-tension it.

It just basically
takes steam power,

turns it into centripetal force,

and makes the flywheel on
the sewing machine work.

- Not everything we
do here is practical

at Kinetic Steam Works.

However, art can
be a lot of fun.

This is a sculpture
that I put together

out of old musical instruments.

One of the things that
we as an organization did

was restore a steam
boat, a paddle wheel

stern wheel steam boat, and
it was a beautiful experience.

The artist that we
collaborated with, Swoon,

she decorated our vessel,
and despite the fact

that it didn't necessarily
look like a steam boat

of the 1800s, it ran like one.

- [Narrator] The steam
boat now sits quietly

in the back of the shop,
while the Steam Works gang

is dreaming up
their next project.

In the meantime, let's just
blow off a little steam.

[steam hissing]

[steam whistle blowing]

[piston moving]

[water wheel turning]

[engine pumping]

[steam hissing]

[steam whistle blowing]

[car squeaking]

[steam organ playing]

[steam hissing]

[steam whistle blowing]

[train whistle blowing]

[engine chugging]