Pretty much house bound because of the terrible weather today. In a bid to keep myself busy I dug out my little Mamod steam engine and fired it up. It worked absolutely fine but I was certain I had it going faster in the past. Fast enough to generate electricity perhaps?

Going on the assumption that with a motor you put electricity in and get motion out but reversing the process e.g. putting motion in, should generate electricity, I rigged up something involving a motor and a lightbulb. I connected up the motor to the Mamod using a 1:1 gear ratio, gave it a full tank of water and unleashed the fires of hell beneath. I made a video of the experiment just incase I never lived to tell the tale. You can download it (by right clicking and save as) here.