For the 2011 Alumni + Student RISD sale, I fabricated a limited run of 9 desk toys that demonstrate the main principles behind a diesel engine. This hand powered toy illustrates why the diesel engine is the most diverse and most efficient internal combustion to date. Every product comes with a piston assembly, hand typed instruction sheet with custom illustration on rag paper, a red shop rag and a aluminum tube to house it together.
Rapid compression of gas (known as adiabatic compression) increases its pressure and its temperature at the same time. This piston has a compression ratio of about 25:1 and combusts anything that has a flash point below 500 degrees fahrenheit.
