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

I like that Scott , it has more power than I would have thought. I don't believe I have seen that type of ferris wheel before  😊

Howdy Scott, and a Happy New Year to you and yours!

Great video you posted and it definitely looks like you got yourself a really nice DC Stirling there. Wish mine had been even operable when I got it. It is actually rather nice generally, but the main frame was a total wreck as received, which you'll see if you follow some links I'll post for you here.

First though, you should know, that as near as I can make out, these little engines are perhaps the very first hobby style Stirling Cycle Engines produced after WWII.

Back at the turn of the prior century Stirling engines were quite common from most of the main makers of steam engines, especially in Germany, but WWI seems to have put a stop to that. Between the wars, several of the original makers did come back, usually in slightly different form, but Stirling Cycle Engines didn't seem to be on their interest list at that time. WWII seems to have totally killed off any interest, until the gas model airplane engine manufacturer Davies Charlton Ltd. came out with the engine that you are showing in this thread, sometime in the mid-1950's. They were produced at least into the 1960's, or perhaps early 1970's when its rights and tooling was sold into the USA, and a redesigned follow on was then produced by at least two companies here, and is still produced today!

In the late 1970's until the mid-1990's Solar Engines of Phoenix Arizona produced this modified version, along with several other Hot Air Engine designs, and they were pretty much alone in the field through those years. Sometime near the turn of the 21st Century, a renewed interest in the Stirling Cycle and other Hot Air Engine designs swept the hobbyists and home machinists, and then German and Chinese makers started flooding the market, to where we are today, with vast assortments of both simple and exotic designs.

But what you have there is perhaps and example of the vanguard of that resurgence!

Here is a history of the Davies Charlton Ltd. company:

http://modelenginenews.org/people/dc_ltd.html


Then here is thread I started on a history (yet to be completed) of the basic engine through the years since then, until today:

https://www.officeofsteamforum.com/general-discussion/solar-1-stirling-engine-and-its-various-iterations/


And finally, here is a thread from the "Old Forum's STWWW" where some of this same material is covered:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/modelsteam/stoker-s-completely-full-of-hot-air-table-t111971.html


Hopefully you'll find some interesting information and enjoy reading up on what is a rather significant "Milestone" engine in the hobby.