Stirlingengineforum.com

StirlingWilcox3.png As the Stirling was patented in 1816, this engine of 1860 hoped to make some improvement on the established benefits of the Stirling. I found it to be interesting and perhaps worth discussion. There is no cooler, and it simply exhausts the used hot air through a regenerator to t...

I recall reading about a scientist that was exploring a remote cave, and discovered an un-listed animal that had six legs. By the rules of animal study, it was an insect, with the number of legs being the most important characteristic above all others. However, it "looked like" a spider. I...

In response to an earlier post in this discussion, I agree that the cold side is less important. The difference between ambient room temperature and a 1500F flame is very close to 1430F degrees. The difference between 70F ambient room Temps and ice water is may 50F? That being said, any inexpensive ...

The company website reported that the fastest they could get it to run well was 1500-RPM. I don't know how accurate that is, but even if its really 10% less, it's likely good enough for any device I might make. I apologize for the potato quality of the drawing. This is what I was thinking for the fi...

I made a few minor changes to the regenerator graphic above (compared to the original graphic in the youtube) to make it more easily understandable to those who are new to Stirlings. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Here is the company for anyone who may wish to research this more https://www.fluidmechanics.co.u...

I have been assured by people who seem to understand these things, that a heat pump is a wonderful thing, rather than using a conventional A/C unit to cool your home, and a gas flame to heat it. That being said... I won't replay the working principle of an Alpha-Stirling here (for the new readers), ...

Part of the 90-degree separation between the pistons is the lag-time for the gasses to absorb and shed heat. You "could" separate the pistons by 180-degrees, so all of the gasses are in the hot side or cold side, but then you'd need a third piston to use the gas temp change to spin the thi...

In the interests of keeping this forum as the "first best reference" for Stirling links, I'm parking a link here to an article I found. Although the author is known for writing sensationalist click-bait stories (and I've heard rumors that he drinks), this particular one was somewhat useful...

Recently, I came to the realization that large and heavy vertical pistons are not a compromise or concession, it is a feature. Pressure lifts both pistons at 90-degrees of separation to each other, but...when the pressure decreases, the falling pistons add two more power pulses to the flywheel at 90...

pic from the web
http://hotairengines.org/images/d/e/8/2 ... -fig-2.png

I've taken the liberty of making a copy of the patent drawing, and then removing a lot of the clutter 20. This is the cooler, a simple liquid-to-gas heat exchanger. The majority of the gas-cooling is performed here, rather than using only the classic annular water jacket around the "cold" ...

https://www.google.ch/patents/US5755100

This particular patent seems to have a great deal of information about the specific materials needed to dynamically-seal the moving pistons, and also to lubricate the bearings and other parts without any type of oil or grease.

Selected paragraphs from the intermediate “improved engine” Patent 220,309 from 1879 http://www.google.co.uk/patents?=QjlbAAAAEBAJ&dq=220,309 [Page 1, Column 2, para 2] …My invention further consists in an air-engine provided with a sectional fire-chamber, to allow the ready removal and replacem...

Rider early Hot-Air “simple” Engine 1875 Patent http://www.google.co.uk/patents?id=fp4CAAAAEBAJ A. K. RIDER. Air-Engine. Patent No. 167,568. Patented Sept. 7, 1875. To all whom it may concern: United States Patent Office, ALEXANDER K. RIDER, of WALDEN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR to RIDER, WOOSTER & CO.,...

Page 2 an end elevation of the engine from the cold (or compression) end, showing the air-supply pump in position thereon. (line 3) Fig-3 is an elevation (on a larger scale) of a portion of the compression (or cold) cylinder, and also showing a vertical section of the air-supply pump with the means ...