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

Well Jan, trust me it isn't the fact that English is a second language for you that is the problem. I've read it a couple of times now and can't really make sense of it either.

What I think they are after in Paragraph 4 is to operate the engine/boiler combo with the normal flame (say two Esbit tablets or a standard Meths burner) that is supposed to be used to fire that specific boiler, without any operating safety valve in the system or other pressure relief like gasket leaks or etc. So the only place you have for steam to escape is through the running engine.

The part I do not understand is that they seem to want to have the exhaust plugged off too, which of course would prevent the engine from running, and so there would be no way for steam to escape anywhere. I actually think that part of the description is in error, and not intended as it seems to be written.