by John Tracey

Many years ago I found myself wandering around a paddock in North Queensland with an old farmer. He was showing me some of his rusty old machinery lying around the farm., “One day” he was going to restore it all. A small but heavy cast iron machine caught my attention. It was a water pump that was powered by dumping it on the top of a fire - any fire, anywhere. The farmer told me how it worked, but I forgot straight away and spent decades trying to find out again what it was and how it worked. Well now I know.

In 1816 Robert Stirling patented a new type of “air engine”. It was not as powerful as the popular steam engine of the time but it did not explode and kill it’s operators as was the case with steam engines. It became popular until the more powerful internal combustion and electric motors were invented, from which it faded from common use.
The recent realisations about oil reserves and global warming, as well as the search for appropriate, modern technology for poverty striken nations has seen the rise of the stirling engine again.
I won’t try and explain how it works, the links following explain that. Basically all it needs is a source of heat and a cooling system. This source of heat could be anything, from solar power to excess heat from industrial machines.
There is information everywhere on solar panels, windmills and hydro-generators. This old piece of technology, I believe, is one of the new technologies that will also rise - as a generator for electric motors (as well as pumps, like the old days) to replace the internal combustion engine that raced ahead of it in the twentieth century.

How it works from the American Stirling Company website

Here is the links page from the same site.

Check out Solar Village to see how (and why) a stirling engine is relevant to remote communities. This one is designed for an African village.

Posted by kurityityin in HOME - current news, Sustainability