Octopus

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The Ominous Octopus

Sunday, March 23, 2014

"New Jet Engine" Mew 601













This was the "new jet engine" you used to see advertised in some of the comic books. This particular ad is from UNKNOWN WORLDS #1, but I came across it in various different titles in the 1960's. I have never seen one in real life, and didn't know anything about it until I looked it up on the internet.




 

The engine and the box it came in.

 
 This engine looks as if it was built with a CO2 cylinder, but actually has a steel cylinder which was filled with gasoline, which was placed over a heat source in the steel tray below. The heat source caused the gasoline to vaporize and spray back into the tube at the rear, where combustion took place. Although the device worked, it didn't produce a lot of power and also doesn't really seem to be the something that kids should have played with, since it was not only a potential fire hazard, but possibly could explode.
 
 
 
Instructions for using the engine, with a sketch it's parts and another sketch showing how it could be suspended from something to turn in a circle as it ran. 

 
 
 
 
 
Plans for the device's construction. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This states that this engine is ideally suited for multi-engine jet planes. I don't know if they thought anyone was using these engines in flying models. You would have to make the model fireproof to do that, and since the engine didn't have a lot of power to begin with, that might be difficult to do.
 
 
 
 
 
An M E W 601 Newsletter.

 
It's true that an internal combustion engine runs more smoothly with more cylinders, rather than just one, but I don't know what that has to do with these dinky little things. I guess they were just trying to sell as many of them as they could. The same manufacturer actually made a larger size of jet engine ( of a more usual variety ) which was used on flying model planes.







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2 comments:

  1. I had some of those as a kid. They would never seem to work right but that could be partly my fault. I had a hard time getting the fiberglass in the tank so I left it out. it would just squirt a burning stream of gasoline through the tube and it would burn without first vaporizing. But one time it did vaporize and that little engine shot off like a bottle rocket. I always played with it in the creek where there was nothing but dirt, rocks, and water around so no fires would start. The spider would get loose on the nozzle after several uses and then it would sort of fall apart. But it was fun to try to get it to work. I always wondered if any were left.

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  2. I just bought one in the original packaging @ a auction.At the the time I had no clue to what it was.The engine was used but the package and instructions were in great condition

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