Stirlingengineforum.com

I wrote a long ( a couple paragraphs) response to a post, clicked "save draft" and clicked "preview" When I went to post I got a "too few characters" error and my post was gone. I went into my control panel and went to draft manager the file was there but it was BLANK everything gone.

I tried to use load draft for the message the complete response I wrote was there for about half a second and then VANISHED, again I got a too few characters error when I tried to post, even when I tried to preview.

I had a lot to say to someone who probably achieved a world record by a large margin but probably doesn't realize it yet. He got a P_max/P_min of over 2/1 in an air filled engine with a relatively poor burner and with a pressure gauge that imparts a large dead volume.

I have calculated him as getting over 2.7 watts per cc per atmosphere and wanted to give him the good news.

Early on....I had to set my settings to automatically log me in everytime I visit in order to keep my posts from timing out. I never got the "too few characters" response, but it helped dramatically.
I eagerly await details of this engine design you speak of.

The engine in question has already been posted about on this very forum by its builder and has mostly been ignored.

The engine is an air filled, pressurized 90 degree Vee twin alpha of 14.5 cc displacement. It is very like the old rider engines in concept having a cold cap just like the hot cap, but forced water cooled.It differs from the old riders (besides obviously in size and speed) in having very thin walled stainless steel hot and cold caps and a gap between the piston crown and the cylinder as small as that used by good displacer type engines employing an annular gap regenerator. This gives it unusually good heat transfer with tiny dead volume.

It can be seen on youtube running on a small blowtorch without the cooling water pump in place and attached to a pressure gauge.
The needle jiggles between 50 psi and 100 psi. The gauge is large and on a rubber hose, adding a lot of dead volume. When it is removed there is an instant and obvious increase in power. Andy Ross used added dead space for throttling.
What this means is the engine is producing these huge pressure variations AT IDLE.

the hot cap isn't even red hot during the test described above:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... xpgubUbAzE[/youtube]

When I first read this I was thinking the motor was an atmospheric pressure type,but as the maximum pressure in one of thes engines will be 30lb, it's a pressurised one, how is it charged, and does it have its own pump. To reduce dead space, fairly fine,ie., small bore metal tube, of as short a length as can be used is best, or the gauge screwed directly into the engine. Ian S C