Page 169 - How It Works - Book Of Amazing Answers To Curious Questions, Volume 05-15

History

How did stirling

engines work? Heat source

Another dimension
Heat is added to the
right-hand cylinder,
expanding the gas
How does this 200-year-old design and pushing the
work piston.
convert heat into mechanical energy?

Scottish clergyman named Robert Hot air
Stirling invented the Stirling engine in compression
Work piston
A 816. He hoped to create an engine that The right cylinder All Stirling engines
1
was safer and more efficient than its steam- compresses, forcing have two pistons;
powered rivals, which had already existed for the heated air into the the work piston
roughly a century. The release of the Stirling cold chamber, which runs the motor by
cools it down.
engine was met with much enthusiasm, but the turning the cranks
that move the
rise of internal combustion engines saw it flywheel.
sidelined by many companies.
Stirling engines work by repeatedly cooling Regeneration of hot air
and heating the same volume of gas, using its Now that the air is cooler it is
expansion and compression to move two pistons easier to compress, forcing it into Heat exchanger
the heated section where it gets
This optimises the
and drive an engine. This mechanism is hotter and builds pressure, engine’s efficiency by
experiencing somewhat of a revival, as it is starting the cycle again. holding some of the
perfect for use in solar plants where it can heat when the gas is
cooled, and then
produce continuous power as the Sun warms the Displacer piston adding this back when
The displacer pistons
solar panels. They can also run backwards to move gas between the it’s heated again.
create super coolers for use in superconductivity heated chamber and © SPL
and electronics research. the cool chamber.
What was the Caspian Sea Monster?

Why this monstrous Russian aircraft worried the West for so many years

ubbed the “Caspian Sea Monster” by poorly suited for traditional sea to air flight. armoured vehicles across the water in secret.
US Intelligence, this 92-metre (301-foot) The Sea Monster’s actual function was to fly The only model of the Caspian Sea Monster
Dlong Russian ekranoplan (a mixture of very close to the water or ground, producing a was unfortunately crashed in 1980 after a pilot
airplane and hovercraft) was spotted during cushion of air that increased its lift and made it error, and was much too heavy to recover from
the height of the Cold War in 1966 by an more efficient than a traditional aeroplane. its watery grave. Plans were made to deploy
American spy satellite while it scanned the This phenomenon is known as ‘ground-effect’ over 100 similar planes during the 1990s, but
Caspian Sea. and could have allowed the vehicle to fly low the end of the Cold War also put an end to these
Initially it baffled the West due to its odd enough to be undetectable by enemy radar at developments, leaving only a handful of
shape and intimidating size, which made it the time, ferrying hundreds of troops and ekranoplans in existence.

This gigantic aircraft
was capable of reaching
speeds of 500 kilometres
(311 miles) per hour

How It Works 169