What is the first thing you would reach for if you were building an engine? We can bet that whatever it is, it will not be paper. However, Aliaksei Zholner, a YouTuber went straight for paper and created a small V8 engine from paper and a bit of scotch tape. The video uploaded shows the inner working of this amazing engine that runs on compressed air.
It is small enough to fit in your hand and features a piston stroke of only 6mm. It is manually powered using a pair of fingers and is engineering at its best. The cylinders are 5.5mm in diameter and scotch tape was used for reducing the friction on the valves. The whole device is only 32mm long, 24mm wide and almost 27mm in length.
Every part was hand-crafted so that the required shape and size could be achieved. Zholner was able to recreate all of the mechanisms sported by a normal engine using paper; the crankshaft, camshafts, connecting rods, pistons, valves and spark plugs. Each line and fold has been perfectly done to achieve this feat.
The conventional internal combustion engine that is found in most of the vehicles makes use of fuels and pistons to begin movement and is usually constructed from steel, aluminum and cast iron. Zholner’s engine, however, started revving by merely squeezing air through the end of the balloon and controlled by a paper throttle. Check out the video below!
Can you improve this design? Let us know in the comments section below.