As I've mentioned elsewhere Iâ€™ve always been fascinated with mechanical devices. Unique engines especially antique engines peek my curiosity. Many many years ago I discovered Stirling Engines. A Stirling Engine is an engine that converts heat (thermal energy) to motion. The concept of such engines were developed many years ago, but the first practical versions were invented by Robert Stirling in 1816 as a replacement for the steam engine. Mr. Stirling invented these engines because in the early 1800s many steam engines would explode, seriously wounding and even killing many people. The Stirling Engine operates at a much lower temperature than the steam engine thus making it much safer. The basically the Stirling Engine is an external combustion engine where by heat from some external source is used to cause a temperature difference between 2 sides of the engine thus causing parts of the engine to move from one side to the other.

My First Stirling Engine

I spent a considerable amount of time researching these engines and even began to build one of the many tin can Stirling Engines one can find on the internet. However, I decided I wanted an "Executive" type model. You know, one that looks cool sitting on top of your desk at work. Of course, I wanted to build it myself and didn't want to spend a fortune on it. I finally settled on the Test Tube Type Stirling Engine. This engine utilizes a few glass marbles, a glass test tube, some steel wool, a hinge, a balloon, and a few other odds and ends. I bought most of my supplied from a science supply company on the internet. Working from several idea I found on the internet I began to construct my very simple engine. To my surprise it worked first time right from the start.
My Test Tube Stirling Engine

My Second Stirling Engine

While the Test Tube Stirling Engine was nice, it was not exactly a good model for use as an "Executive" style Stirling Engine. So, after a year or so I started thinking about building a second engine. All along I had been hearing a lot about the American Stirling Company. They make many stirling engine kits. The one I was most interested in was the coffee cup stirling engine. This was what I was looking for. It was small enough to keep on my desk at work and a very good conversation piece. As an added benefit, the heat from a normal cup of coffee would operate it making it really safe since there wouldn't be the need for an flame. There was also info stating it could be run on ice. Ok, so how much is it? Well, as luck would have it the darn thing was expensive. So, I kept looking. Finally, in late 2007 I discovered that Think Geek began to offer a similar kit at a much cheaper price. The kit was from a German company. The instructions were very difficult to follow because they were just a word for word translation but after a few hours the little gem was running.
Fully Assembled Coffee Cup Stirling Engine.

Fully Assembled Coffee Cup Stirling Engine.

Ice Run of Coffee Cup Stirling Engine

The Coffee Cup Stirling Engine Kit from Think Geek performed very well on a cup of hot water. Any hot liquid would work as long as it wasn't excessively hot. Actually, you don't even need liquid and for that matter you don't even need heat. This engine, like the American Stirling Company engine, runs on a heat difference. Therefore, one could run it on ice.
Coffee Cup Stirling Engine running on ICE.

Coffee Cup Stirling Engine running on ICE.

Of course, it would be nice to see some videos so check out the ice run on YouTube.

Additional Videos

Check out a very, very short video of the first run of my Test Tube Stirling Engine first run of my Test Tube Stirling Engine on YouTube. Here is a video of both Stirling Engines running together.

Created on 05/27/2010 09:41 AM by admin
Updated on 04/26/2012 01:11 PM by admin