Posted 11 years ago
hotairfan
(388 items)
This hot air engine is the smallest engine Louis Heinrichi made. It was used in Victorian households for a fountain water pump and other domestic applications, as well as the purpose that this particular hot air was used for. My friend purchased this engine from a local dentist about 30 years ago. The dentist was long retired and used it to run his dental drill at the beginning of his career. Upon his passing, my friend's widow said that he would like it if I had it now to display at local shows. It runs great with only a small alcohol burner. Through research, I found out that it is from the third quarter of the 19th century (about 1885). thanks for looking....... hotairfan.
That is about the coolest thing ever!
cool beans ....love it
Love it!
What is the purpose of the connecting rod & canister on the left side flywheel?
wonder if it to pump air into the fire ...?
or the pump for the water...lol
To answer walksoftly's question, The way it works is the burner heats the air in the larger cylinder and expands the air which forces the piston up. In pushing the piston up, the hot air is forces into the small cylinder via a small opening. this hot air rapidly cools which creates a slight vacuum causing the small power piston to draw down. This process occurs with every revolution causing vac.-pressure, vac.-pressure repeatedly. The air never leaves the chambers and is not ever replenished. As long as there is heat, the engine will continue running. There are several internet sites that give a pictorial discription of this process. The engine is called a stirling engine after the inventer. It is more often called a hot air engine. Thanks for your interest......... hotairfan
so this it could be considered a two cylinder Eng..
Thanks for the reply.
Hi roycroftbooksfromme, to answer your question, The larger cylinder is known as the displacer cylinder. The internal piston does not fit snugly against the cylinder walls, but rather , there is space around which the air can be moved from the hot side to the cold side of this displacer piston. The other cylinder is the power piston and is the part of the engine that hot air pressure pushes or the cooler vacuum draws the piston back and forth. They make little or no noise when operating, but , they do get hot when run for any considerble time. They make a great little engine to run indoors because by using alcohol as a fuel, they don't stink like a gas engine and have no polutants, Thanks for your interest,,,,,,,,,, hotairfan
I sent your posting to a collector friend. He sent the following link of another similar design showing how it works. Thanks for the posting, it is a really interesting device.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Arv4HsuGKU
Hi IAMASapp, I linked up to the U-Tube site that your friend sent. I built a Ryder Ericsson pumping engine scale model like the one in the article. They work great. I'll send a posting of my pumping engine soon to collector weekly ... hotairfan
My friend is a second generation steam engine collector. He only has one hot air engine and says it draws a crowd at shows. It seems they are hard to come by and many folks have never seen one. Even though I am not a collector, this is really a facinating device in its simplicity.
Very cool:)
You don't need a machine like this to produce hot air....just find a politican from any party and hey presto Hot Air! Great to see working antiques.