Physically possible?

Well I got a half-satisfactory answer from an older post...

et ils sucent des cigares longs comme des fusils
-Jacques Brault

I know it's undoubtely some fictional invention and story, or we would otherwise had heard about that ball before. However, on what physical theory is this invention based? It is hinted in the very beginning that water is kept at high pressure and needs not to be renewed in order to provide huge amounts of steam. We know it's hot steam because of two characters being burned by it, so I guess theres a temendous lot of "compressed" water inside that a simple heating mechanism could quickly blow out at high pressure.

the steam-balls are pure fiction. 'needs not to be renewed' is equivalent to 'perpetual motion' or 'something from nothing'. water is not very compressible, anyway. the steam-ball looked to have a capacity of one or two gallons at most ... not nearly enough to power ANYTHING for very long, no matter how slowly it was released.

it might not be necessary for the ball to have a heating mechanism. if the compressed water was released under enough pressure, it would emerge as vapor, anyway ...

What is unclear too is whether the three spheres "feed" the other contraptions at a distance, like the tanks and flying devices, or if its energy can solely be used in the internal pipes for the Tower's floating and operating machinery.

i don't see how the steam-balls could 'feed' other contraptions at a distance, but perhaps they are used to 'charge' some sort small mobile engine that is considerably less efficient than the steam-ball itself.

We must assume that most of the inventions in this film resort on steam's energy (including the boats), but there is no hint that smaller balls could exist for individual machinery and tanks...so I'm puzzled.

i got the impression that there were EXACTLY three steam-balls, and apparently there was not even a way for dr eddie to make any spares of any size. a lot of the story hinged on how valuable the steam-balls were. no one, not even stevenson, had the technology to make one.

however, i was able to relax and enjoy the story, without worrying too much about the physics :)

The Steamballs are apparently just that: balls of ultra-pressurised steam. The idea is ridiculous for several reasons: in order to lift the entire Steam Castle with their released pressure alone for an extended period, they would have to each weigh somewhat more than it, so even if Ray's been necking Wheaties fifty times a day, there's no way he'd be able to pick one up. Secondly, there's the problem of the tiny valves being used [such as on Ray's improvised flying machine] to control a static pressure that would rival an atomic bomb if it were all released at once.

It seems from the tanks in Stephenson's lab that the Steamball is used to charge up much lower-pressure steam stores in individual machines, presumably rather like a power station charges a battery.

Perhaps the steamball was a metaphor for zero-point energy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_energy

It's not water, it was some other fluid they discovered in a deep, deep cavern somewhere. And no, there is no Zero-Point Energy science behind it either. The Steam Ball with the compressed liquid just contained a lot of power that's all. Like the splitting of the atom. Except non-radioactive.

For anyone whose taken a course on Thermodynamics, you would be familiar with the Ideal Gas Law: PV=nRT

Now, since we can assume that Volume, mol number n, and the gas constant R remains fixed, our two other variables can now come into play: Pressure and Temperature.

Pressure1 (P1) and Temperature1 (T1) will be the variables inside of the steam ball while P2 and T2, assumed at sea level atmospheric pressure and temperature, will be the variables outside of the steam ball:

P1, P2
T1, T2

Therefore our equation becomes:

(P1)/(T1) = (P2)/(T2)

and assume P2 = 1 atm (At sea level),

P1 = T1/T2

We know that T2 = 298 Kelvin at room temperature and P1 (The pressure inside of the Steam Ball) must be EXTREMELY high so we need P1 >> 1 atm, therefore:

T1 = T2*P1 = (298K)*(A number much greater than 1 atm)

This results in a temperature MUCH greater than T2, room temperature. This can be confirmed with boiling hot water: High pressure generally equals high temperature, and vice versa.

HOWEVER, the movie depicts the "gas" that was ejected to be a kind of liquid nitrogen, very cold, especially at the end of the film when Steam Castle/Tower came crashing down and instantly freezing all the water and water vapor around it. There are two assumptions that can be made from this observation: One, this is a substance with Latent Heat properties, similar to that of dry ice; an endothermic reaction occurs (It takes heat from its surrounding environment) as it transitions from solid to liquid to gas, or directly to gas. OR Two, the exact functions of the Steam Castle/Tower must employ some very low pressure vacuum pipes and tubes to run the entire machine therefore significantly lowering the temperature; this could make sense seeing that very high delivers of the fluid/gas, translated into mechanical power, could be possible to power the entire fortress.

So, is this technology physically possible? Maybe. Is it feasible for engineers to build? Not really. Hope that answers your question.

I would remind us all that it is not WATER, but water of 'exceptional purity'; in fact, part of the beginning was a quest to find said water....therefore, it must be that quality. I don't know if the idea was that the steam-balls were actually venting all of their water; the actual 'steam' is kept pressurized , and the heat is actually created by this pure water.
DISTILLED WATER will not boil in a MICROWAVE. This is because of the lack of impurities in that water. by maintaining high purity, the steamball is able to recycle 99% of this water and use the chemical reaction itself to generate heat, like a tractor that can create CORN then burn it as FUEL. (ethanol).

this is why it needs no 'boiler' or extra water...it does, however, eventually run down.

LOL don't you get it, the steam ball is just his brass valve in his imagination

The part from when the box arrives is his imagination

That's why we see their house again at the end, it's broken because the family was broken when the men left/died

I like the idea of steam ball as steampunk battery to store energy but it was just too much in this movie. How about something less than flying castles. What is it with japanese and going over the top.