🚀 go-pugleaf

Solar Engines of Phoenix, AZ makes a number of small hot-air
engines for hobbyists. They sell a couple of Stirling engine kits
and several assembled engines. These are all hobbyist scale. Some use
the sun as heat source and some use small tablets or any source of heat.
They sell a bunch of West German accessories for those little steam engines
you find in hobby shops too.

Solar Engines
PO Box 15625
Phoenix, AZ 85060

I've been looking for early examples of hot-air engines. There used to be
several companies that made fans based on this principle around the turn
of the century. Lake Breeze was one of them.


There are also heat engines based on NitiNol wire. This is a nickel-titanium
alloy also refered to a "shape-memory" alloy. Scientific-American of Nov
1979 had an article and more recently a Sci-Am amateur scientist column
on engines made from this. It's been used in actuators, robot hands,
emboli filters in hearts (animals), experiments in large space based 
antenna, etc etc. Anyway Innovative Technology International of Beltsville
MD makes a thermobile which is a small two-wheeled device with Nitinol wrapped
around the two wheels. When one end is immersed in hot water it spins!
I found a hair dryer is pretty effective too. They also make a toy boat
powered by an ice cube based on the same principle . They make another
device called an ice-mobile which looks like the Thermobile. Anyway, $19ea
Innovative Technology International
10747-3 Tucker Street
Beltsville, MD 20705
(301) 937-3688

Mondo-tronics in Cupertino,CA makes a flapping butterfly thay uses Nitinol too.
Pretty neat. It doesn't really fly but sits on something and flaps slowly 
(6 time/min) They also make a small robot arm based on Nitinol with joystick or
serial line control.

Oh well, I've always been fascinated by heat engines.

Aka :	Kevin Dowling		Bell:	(412) 268-8830
Arpa:	nivek@rover.ri.cmu.edu	Mail:	Robotics Institute
				Carnegie Mellon University
				Pgh, PA 15213-3890