^ Answer too obvious ("most significant nybble"). I want to get off that track anyhow.
Yeah, that section of coding is from this pic of a double-acting piston-valve engine I threw together from scrap parts. (I
think it was this particular pic --I've lost track now and I have several shots of it.) The cylinder is a brake cylinder from an MG automobile, the rim of the flywheel is a section of 3" pipe. The base is just a hunk of sheet metal from somewhere. Exhaust is simply out the ends of the piston valve housing.
Built
circa 1977, 1978.
It's been pretty banged up (I didn't bother to prime the base, so a lot of paint got knocked off when someone pushed it off my desk.) Other parts were turned on my lathe.
Like I say, I just threw it together (20 hours?) when I found the brake cylinder. When it was tuned up, you could make it turn at about one RPM from breath pressure alone. But knocking it off my desk bent the base slightly so the parts got misaligned and you need at least 5 PSI to make it run (badly) at all. Poor engineering on my part, there. I should have foreseen the possibility of it being dropped three feet.
Bad engineer! No steam for you!
It's a lousy pic. If I'm not mistaken, I just threw it upside down on the scanner.
So. No Lady Gaga. Steam engine. Not gurl. Steam engine. So don't get all hornified and bonerized over it.
Terry, 230RN