The Stirling Engine

Find out how a Stirling Engine works!

With this cardboard kit you can actually build a working Stirling Engine. Just place the engine on a cup with hot water (tea / coffee) and it will run quietly for up to an hour!

Heavenly help?

The revolutionary concept of this engine was devised by the Scottish priest Robert Stirling. The enthusiastic fusspot lived during the most vibrant time of the industrial revolution, whose hunger for energy was fed by the steam engines invented by James Watt in 1776.  His compassion for victims of boiler explosions led him to envision an engine that would work without the high pressure of ordinary steam engines.

This is how it works:

A sealed cylinder is heated at one end and cooled at the other. A piston moves the enclosed air back and forth between the ends. Each time the air expands and contracts, the resulting pressure change is transmitted to a working piston that turns a crank shaft. The engine can use any any energy source that produces a temperature difference between the two ends of the cylinder: open fire, solar energy,  otherwise unused heat or cold, etc.

Tip:

Instead of putting the engine on top of a cup of tea, place it on a frozen cold pack and start the flywheel the other way round.

The kit comes complete with all necessary parts such as laser-cut aluminium plates, low-friction PVC bearings, steel crank, and vinyl seal. The instruction booklet also contains information about the historical background and tuning tips for longer running time.