A look inside the Stirling engine

摘要

I first came across these intriguing engines many years ago at a model engineering exhibition. On a stand, a row of these motors were whizzing round, and surprisingly they were powered by a diminutive flame. I remarked to a bystander, "Seems a basic engine, should be simple enough to build." He then looked at me with an expression which seemed to say, "What sort of idiot would make a statement like that?"