My collection of steam and electric engines and motors is quite small and old. Barely any newer models from this century, and only one Stirling (hot air) from PM Research. Since I recently sold an old 1951 Chevrolet engine, and was mildly flushed with extra cash, I got a wild hair to sift the interwebs for another Stirling.
Got somewhat of a mixed perspective. The internet array of Stirling engines were uber abundant but 99% came from a geographic local dominated by a dubious government regime hell-bent on world domination and total thought control.
On the sparse positive notes ; those "communal" engines were cheaply inexpensive, and they were certainly shiny and looked cool.
To the negative perspective, most of what I found came from a part of the world that openly steals intellectual property and then forces children and slaves to work in a horrid industrial nightmare to produce those stolen creations into cheap toys. Such is the passive aggressive human value of a "cheaper" toy engine.
Since the cheaper totalitarian engines often provide the added Karma of not working properly (or even working at all) when they finally arrive, I am avoiding that "suckers" route of paying for an engine and then having the burden of me laboring for days to get it working.
So, I looked at the Kontax Stirlings from Maidenhead, England. I took a chance and wrote to them to see if they were still truly Made In England. This is their July 2020 reply:
100% designed yes. 100% of all CNC machining is done in our factory.
Glass is made in England for us, to our spec. Assembly done by us in our factory.
Screws and bearings are purchased from suppliers in England but we don't know if they are made in England.
We recently applied and successful grant use of a "Made in Britain" logo that has strict requirements.
We calculated that at least 98.24% of the value of the product is from parts or assembly here in the Britain.
Regards,
I bought a Kontax Nano disc Manson, and ordered an LTD Stirling. Got the Nano and it's made very well and didn't need anything but fuel to get it started running exquisitely ! The LTD KS90 should arrive soon. Both were more expensive than the engines made in the cheaper repressive part of the world.
https://www.stirlingengine.co.uk/default.asp