Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I would make two observations regarding this:

First is that the Baker fan with its flat paddles offers significant resistance, far more so than a propeller that cuts through the air.

Secondly, Bruce's engine is not hitting on every stroke by far, so there is still a lot of potential energy that engine is not yet applying, thus it hasn't nearly reached its max power threshold yet.

Yes, I agree that a Baker fan does give a lot of resistance, but they do not have a ton of power when placing your finger on the flywheel... still more than a lot of our steam toys.