NEWCOMERS to the fascinating field of Hot Air Engines should consider "An Introduction to Stirling Engines", or the video "An Introduction to Hot Air Engines" both of which give a very good introduction to the whole subject, and describe simply how hot air engines work. If you want to make models of hot air engines, then "Building Stirling 1", or "The Stirling Engine Manual" (Vols. 1 & 2) are recommended if you have a lathe and drilling machine; if you haven't, then Kjeld Højfeldt's book is the one you want.

An Introduction to Stirling Engines Senft • £ 8.90 • (G) By an expert on hot air engines, this books covers the physics of heat engines, how Stirling engines work, looks at old and new engines as well as unusual examples, the applications of Stirling engines and models. The best up to date book for the newcomer to the subject. Highly recommended. 80 well produced and illustrated pages. Paperback. Moriya Press Add to shopping basket

The Evolution of the Heat Engine Kolin • £ 18.05 • (A) This incredible book gives special emphasis to the Stirling engine because of its practical and theoretical significance in the subject of heat engines, but included here are all sorts of heat engines - steam, i.c., rockets, guns even the legendary Malone liquid engine. Throughout, the thermodynamic principles that underlie these devices are explained and illustrated by pressure-volume diagrams, charts and calculations. There is also a chapter on thermodynamic theory and one which classifies engines according to a variety of parameters. As well as being comprehensive in its coverage, this book is also a fascinating and enjoyable read to boot, and anyone with a technical interest in the development of heat engines should have a copy! 106 large format, landscape format pages, crammed with drawings and diagrams. Spiral bound and card covers. Moriya Press Add to shopping basket

Hot Air Caloric and Stirling Engines Vol. One Sier • £ 24.00 • (A) This highly informative book started out as a new edition of “A History of Hot Air and Caloric Engines” published in 1987, but the re-write seems to have got out of control, as this is a bigger book in every way, and is only Vol. 1. What you have here is a very detail history of machine powered by hot air, mostly Stirling cycle, but including hot air balloons, and smoke jacks etc. Bob Sier is an expert on the subject, and if you are after a comprehensive technical history of hot air engines, this is the book you need. 331 very well illustrated pages. Hardbound. L.A. Mair Add to shopping basket

Rev Robert Stirling D.D. Sier • £ 11.00 • (D) Three part book, the first being a "biography" of Robert Stirling and his brother James, the second part covering the development of the early air engines up to 1845, followed by various patents and historical papers. As the author says, very little detail is known of Robert Stirling's personal life, and much of the first section is drawn from University and Church of Scotland records. A lot of technical information for the hot air enthusiast in the second section. 189 illustrated and hardbound pages. L.A. Mair Add to shopping basket

Air Engines Finkelstein & Organ • £ 65.00 • (B) This is perhaps the most complete single book to appear to date on the ‘hot air’ engine, not surprising as it has been written by two of the most distinguished academics in the field. But this is a far from dry book despite grey matter stirring maths appearing every now and again. Starting with Ted Finklestein's famous articles of 1959 in “The Engineer” (slightly updated) the authors work their way right through the development of the Stirling engine in both historical and technical terms up to the present day, and look ahead to future possibilities. Benefiting from the latest research, this really is a fabulous book for anyone wanting to know exactly what makes Stirling engines so potentially exciting as power sources; it doesn’t contain models you can build, but you will certainly understand much more of what is happening in your models when you have built them. 261 very well produced pages full of photos, drawings, charts etc. Hardbound. Professional Engineering Publishing Add to shopping basket

An Introduction to Low Temperature Differential Stirling Engines Senft • £ 11.05 • (G) LTD engines are perhaps the most fascinating of all Stirling engines, running on very small temperature differences - the heat from a hand, or even less in advanced engines. In this excellent book Jim Senft take you through the Origin and Development of LTD engines, their Theory and Operation and then includes drawings for his N-92 engine and construction details. 88 pages, heavily illustrated with photos and drawings. Paperback. Moriya Press Add to shopping basket

Miniature Ringbom Engines Senft • £ 14.10 • (G) Ossian Ringbom patented his design of hot air engine in 1907, just as commercial interest in them waned, so his idea was largely lost until Jim Senft started looking at it in the 1980s. The advantage of Ringbom’s patent was that, in his engine, the displacer piston is “free” so his design has less moving parts than any other; the disadvantage, at least initially, was that as Ringbom envisaged gravity being responsible for one half of the displacer’s movement, the engine was likely to be slow. The author realised a way round this releasing the potential of the basic idea, which can be applied to any configuration of hot air engine. Here he briefly describes the idea in straightforward terms and then gives plans and construction details for 3 Ringbom engines, Tapper, a 2cc spirit fired power house, L-27, and LTD Ringbom and Thumper, a beta Ringbom for you to build. To end there is a fascinating chapter on “New Engine Ideas” to really stir up the grey matter. Guaranteed to keep you happy in the workshop! 114 page, well illustrated paperback. Moriya Press Add to shopping basket

Ringbom Stirling Engines Senft • £ 36.95 • (C) This is Jim Senft’s original book on Ringbom Stirling engines, now available at a slightly more reasonable price. After a look at Stirling engines in general, the author places the Ringbom engine in this development, and then shows how it can be turned into a high speed engine. If you just want to build a model of one of these machines, the book above is better, but if you want to design your own Ringbom engine you will need all the maths, equations and theory given here. 189 illustrated pages. Hardbound. OUP Add to shopping basket

Building Stirling Engines without a lathe Hoejfeldt • £ 6.75 • (F) If you have always wanted to build a working model from scratch, or are fascinated by Stirling engines and want to experiment further, but have been frustrated by lack of any machine tools, then this is the book you have been waiting for; quite simply it is brilliant.Like many others, Kjeld was fascinated by the Stirling or hot air engine, wanted to build his own examples but couldn’t to any published designs, as he has no machine tools in his hobby room, and no space for them. Browsing on the internet he came across an idea for a Stirling engine which could be built without tools, developed the idea and built a running engine, followed by five other increasingly sophisticated machines which demonstrate the main types of Stirling engine, all built using only ordinary hand tools, an electric soldering iron and a gas blow-torch, from tin cans, wire coat hangers, old gloves, parts from scrap computers, gramaphones, video players etc. The basic idea isn’t completely new, but this is the first time such ideas have been available in book form. Here Kjeld describes how to build his first engine in some detail, and then how to construct the subsequent five engines, which largely develop from each other, in slightly less detail, but still plenty enough for you to build them. You won’t find any drawings in this book, as the measurements of your engines will depend on the dimensions of the scrap you use, notably the tin-can for the cylinder, but the derived dimensions are covered in the text, and there are numerous photographs of set-ups, parts and so on to guide you. Additionally there is a brief overview of the history of the Stirling engine, a fascinating look at some present commercial applications, and an Appendix of recommended reading, films and useful websites. 40 A4 format pages. 45 B & W photos and illustrations. Softcover. Camden Add to shopping basket

So even if you just have normal hand tools, now you really can build your own working model. But even if you have a fully equipped workshop, you will still find Kjeld's ideas fascinating and stimulating - perhaps most importantly, you can use them to encourage children to build something for themselves, with just a little guidance from you; in this day and age it is vital we encourage children to abandon their computer games, the TV etc., and teach them how to use their hands to produce something worthwhile - this book does just that.

Building Stirling 1 Warbrooke • £ 6.20 • (G) In this best selling book, New Zealander Ted Warbrooke describes how to build a unique form of Stirling Engine which does not have a displacer. The theoretical possibility of such an engine has been long considered, but as far as we are aware, Ted’s is the first design that actually works. Because the only moving parts are the piston, crankshaft, crank and flywheel this is a very simple engine to build, and an ideal project for the beginner. Equally it will have considerable appeal to Stirling Engine enthusiasts as the possibilities for experimentation with this design are considerable. This book contains full drawings for this engine, plus hints and tips on building it, assembly photos etc. Stirling 1 requires no castings, and can largely be made from bits in the scrap box. Simple but accurate turning, some hand work and some soldering are all that is required to build this fascinating engine. High quality 32 page A4 paperback. Camden. Add to shopping basket

Stirling & Hot Air Engines Darlington & Strong • £ 29.95 • (A) Anyone who has visited The Stirling Society's stand at an exhibition will almost certainly have seen the indefatigable figure of Roy Darlington demonstrating his models and generally "spreading the Gospel according to the Reverend Stirling", as he puts it. Here, helped by the CAD skills of Keith Strong, Roy describes how to design, build and optimise Stirling engines, and a broad selection of his engines is also described. Plus there is a considerable amount of information on the manufacturing and machining techniques Roy has used during many years of designing, developing and building hot air engines. A major addition to books on the subject of hot air engines and superbly produced. 240 pages. 400 colour photographs. Hardbound. The Crowood Press. Add to shopping basket

How I Built a 5-HP Stirling Engine Lockwood • £23.95 • (E) In 1981 the author headed an aid project in Bangladesh to develop a Stirling engine to power small rice huller, which could be fuelled by the rice husks produced by this process. Building a low-tech Stirling Engine that will develop 5 hp (3.7 kw) is no mean feat in itself, and whilst the author and his team succeeded in this, the project itself was stopped after 5 years, and the expenditure of nearly a million US dollars, for a variety of reasons, which are described here. This book MUST be read by anyone thinking of saving the world using Stirling engines, both as a caution, but also because, whilst it is not quite a full set of plans, or building instructions, there is enough here that an experienced engineer, who knows his Stirling engines, should be able to build this engine. And commercialisation and development of this technology is approved and encouraged (but not underwater explosive metal forming which the author used)! 129 pages, inc. 25 of metric drawings. 183 photos. Paperback. American Stirling Company Add to shopping basket

The Stirling Engine Manual Rizzo • £ 27.95 • (A) In fact, this is arguably the 5th reprint for this book, parts of which first appeared in the 1980s as “Modelling Stirling and Hot Air Engines”. If you want a reasonable history of hot air engines, a comprehensive and intelligible description of how they work, and drawings and construction details of models of all the major configurations of hot air engine, all of which can be built without castings, then this is absolutely the book for you - as simple as that! You will need to have access to a lathe to build most of the engines featured, but a couple can be built without such sophisticated equipment. Nearly 200 pages, including a 4 page colour section. Hardbound. Camden. Add to shopping basket

The Stirling Engine Manual Vol. 2 Rizzo • £ 26.30 • (B) In this second volume James Rizzo has brought together 13 more engines for you to build - 2 based on historic prototypes, 4 ‘demonstration’ engines, one of which converts ball bearings and a test tube to rotary motion, 2 engines which demonstrate the use of diaphragms rather than pistons, and a series of 5 engines showing how to increase power by pressurisation. And there is a brief resume of the history of Stirling engines, and a look at recent commercial developments. Great book for the model engineer who wants to develop his hot air engines beyond the “miniature” stage and is looking for ways to go forward. 156 pages full of drawings and photos. 8 page colour section. Hardbound. Camden. Add to shopping basket

"Have received Vol. 2 - am delighted with it; a first class production of which you can rightly be proud. The colour pages are superb. A splendid piece of work - well done!" Mr. A.B. Suffolk

Build a Two Cylinder Stirling Cycle Engine Gingery • £ 10.60 • (E) From the inimitable Dave Gingery comes his first model design - a small two cylinder Stirling engine. He shows how to make the patterns, cast them if you want and then shows how to build the engine - we know the book is good as we built an engine here! In practice, if you don’t want to make your own castings you could fabricate. Great project - you will learn a lot! 76 pages with full working drawings.Large format paperback. Dave Gingery. Add to shopping basket

Steam and Stirling - engines you can build ed. Fitt • £ 31.50 • (A) Taken from “Live Steam” magazine, this book contains drawings and building instructions for 9 steam engines, 2 hot air engines, a steam turbine and a miniature boiler works, plus ancillary articles. Only one model (a “Rider-Ericsson” Hot Air Pumping Engine) requires castings - see end of this section. 160 very well produced pages. Loads of drawings and photos. Hardbound. Wildwood Add to shopping basket

Steam & Stirling engines you can build - Book 2 £ 31.50 • (A) Now available! Great book with over two dozen popular engine projects from "Live Steam", including the "Tesla Turbine". 200 pages. Hardbound. Wildwood Add to shopping basket

Rider-Ericsson Hot Air Pumping Engine Catalogue 1906 • £ 3.35 • (H) High quality reprint of the 1906 catalogue issued by the “Rider-Ericsson Engine Co.” covering their improved Rider and Ericsson Hot Air Pumping Engines for domestic water supply - IE covers two distinct types of engine. Lots of fascinating information, and if you thought hot air engines couldn’t develop power, read this. 36 pages. 14 pages of illustrations. Softbound. Camden. Add to shopping basket

A Practical Treatise on Hot Air Engines Westbury • £ 9.95 • (G) This is a reprint of Edgar Westbury's hot air book and includes historical notes and diagrams, plus plans & construction details of several engines. Smaller format softcover. TEE Publishing Add to shopping basket

John Fox Jennens Malone The Liquid Stirling Engine Sier • £12.00 • (E) One of the great "What ifs" of British 20th Century invention, the Malone Heat Engine was a form of Stirling engine, but used liquids operating at the critical point, rather than air. Malone's aim was to build a fuel-efficient marine engine which occupied less space than a conventional steam engine or turbine and boiler, so increasing cargo capacity. The experimental engines built were largely successful, despite the high temperatures and pressures involved requiring ground-breaking solutions - and then the marine diesel became readily available. But has the Malone engine's day now come? 76 well illustrated pages. Paperback. L.A. Mair Add to shopping basket

** CLUB! **

"The Stirling Society" was founded in January 1997, and membership applications are invited from anyone with a serious interest in hot air engines whether they live in Britain or overseas. Members receive an excellent approximately quarterly news-letter Stirling News. Interested? Ask us to send details with your order!

CASTINGS

3" scale Rider-Ericsson Hot Air Pumping Engine

The drawings and a very good construction article for this model are to be found in Vol. 1 of the book Steam and Stirling - engines you can build, featured in this section

We can supply a full set of castings for this model, the larger castings being in LM4 aluminium, gunmetal and lost-wax cast bronze for the smaller castings.

This model is intended for gas firing, and can be made on an ML7 or similar size lathe. if you are interested in hot air engines, or just looking for a different project, consider this carefully. Apart from anything else, it seems to be the only engine model which generally finds favour with the household authorities!

Contact us, or see the "Drawings and Castings" Section