Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Stoker: that was a very interesting series of experiments you ran on those Sun motors !

I had the chance years ago to participate (as a low level tech) on two Stirling projects. But I didn’t even get to see the engines , just the proposed heat sources.
One was a NASA project to use metal panels to conduit a gas or liquid to the Stirling engine for heat. The second project was for Sandia National Laboratory involving trying to keep the reflective surface “shiny” on the reflective array (dust was a nemesis ).

I guess those Sun motors could have benefited from a “tracking” type tripod as used in astronomical telescopes to keep the dish aligned with the “moving” sun. But that little device would be kinda expensive over-kill for a toy /demo.
Still those Sun motors are fun to watch in action, and are an excellent engine example of what the 1970’s was hoping would solve an Energy Crisis  (or provide power for disco balls)

Today the marketing for those Solar/Sun engines might name them the popular 2020 buzzwords —— Systemic Free Range Diversity Existential Engines (or Little Greta’s how-dare-you motors)

1978 magazine cover

Nice cutaway view. I don't have the owner's manual for mine.

There's an article in here on the Sun Motor. Says that the "Steam Age" store is the official UK distributor for it, but don't go looking for the store, because it closed in the 1980's.

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So is this engine marked JEMCO in any way?

Or is it just marked:

PHOENIX ARIZONA
SOLAR ENGINES

?

The only fliers I've seen from JEMCO, just offered some hobby tools and an assortment of Wilesco steam engines and accessories, and also a couple of the little L S Loc engines.

The only other reference I've seen to JEMCO is the small print on the back of some Solar #1 manuals, where its found as:

SOLAR ENGINES   (in large bold print)
A DIVISION OF JEMCO IMPORTERS, INC.

If you have other references available, I'd certainly love to see or hear about them!

I do suppose it fair to reference this era of SOLAR ENGINES as the JEMCO Solar #1, in the same way that SOLAR ENGINES is now a division of PM RESEARCH, and we often refer to the engines sold under their banner as the PMR Solar #1. However, in my mind it seems a little awkward, as in calling a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air a GMC Bel-Air just because Chevrolet was a division of GMC.

So is this engine marked JEMCO in any way?.............................
If you have other references available, I'd certainly love to see or hear about them!
I do suppose it fair to reference this era of SOLAR ENGINES as the JEMCO Solar #1, in the same way that SOLAR ENGINES is now a division of PM RESEARCH, and we often refer to the engines sold under their banner as the PMR Solar #1. However, in my mind it seems a little awkward, as in calling a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air a GMC Bel-Air just because Chevrolet was a division of GMC.

Stoker: There is no “JEMCO” marked on the engine. I simply used that “JEMCO” term in the context of this forum thread to give some point of difference between my 2 engines. The engine was accompanied with advertising stating “SOLAR ENGINES A DIVISION OF JEMCO IMPORTERS INC”, and it also came with the Andy Ross 2nd edition book that clearly references the same address for JEMCO as Solar Engines in the bibliography pg 120 , and on the back cover.
SO I called the engine a JEMCO purely because it was shorter than the long title with address... and I could verify three associated points of data to do so. I consider the JEMCO moniker simply as a name placeholder until a better name is found by consensus.

As I mentioned prior in this thread, that particular engine did have a REGISTERED TRADEMARK symbol. That trademark symbol denotes a very high level of identity because it would have been officially/legally issued by the United States Patent And Trademark Office. https://www.uspto.gov/trademark
I did try and search the TESS database etal to see who and when the Solar Engines Trademark (or any Patents) were issued to, but that search query proved massive and onerous. Solar Aviation of San Diego and Des Moines (since 1929) had a lot of “engines” but focused on turbines (they became part of International Harvester then Caterpillar). It is to Solar Engines Phoenix credit that Solar Aviations’ name holders did not fight the trademark name given to Solar in Phoenix !
To prove an entity such as a company existed or exist, one of the best ways is to produce a patent or trademark issued by the US Government or other equally reputable source. Note — It appears PM Research does still hold a registered trademark on Solar Engines and the little engine logo.

{Stoker —- regarding a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air ... well it is officially known as a “Chevrolet Division General Motors Corp Series C 2400 wb 115 Passenger Bel Air with codes for Style, Body , Trim , Paint , Top , ACC and Body By Fischer”. The detailed “numbers matching” craze in collectors makes this important because a nice 4 door 1955 Bel Air is worth about $25000, and a nice 1955 Bel Air Nomad is valued at about $100,000. 1955 GMC is another can of worms as it is “General Motors Truck manufactured  by GMC Truck and Coach Division etc etc etc “ —— antique car and truck collector’s can be overly obsessive about identity  !  ]

Ok , so this post is getting long, but wait .... I found that the real name of the 1977 Solar #1 isn’t that at all. It’s called “Stirling Cycle Engine 1817-1977 Model 1 “.
I’ll provide evidence in my next posting.

Back Base Plate On “JEMCO” engine —>

Letterhead accompanying “JEMCO”


Hero; Nice pics ! I will post pics of the Dec 1977 Owners Manual of my #61** Thermal Energy Engine in my next post. My Thermal EE has a ferrous metal power piston (attracts magnet) , does yours  ?

And as promised , here are the remaining page scans from the original circa 1977 Owners Manual.
Note that this is an early Owners Manual for the Model 1 and latter years had several major revisions.
Page 6 —->

Page 7—>

Page 8 —->

Page 9—>

Back Cover —->