This Stirling Engine Ferris Wheel is an exercise in folly of course. How else to explain something that sits there powering itself round and round and yet going nowhere? Nevertheless it’s probably the sort of device your grandfather would love to build to full scale. Yours for a Stirling $1000.00.
Stirling engines are powered by the expansion and compression of air. Two alcohol burners heat the chambers on the Stirling engine, causing the air inside to expand and contract and push the pistons toward the chambers. This movement displaces some of the warm air, forces the vertical pistons upward, and turns the flywheels. The Stirling engine’s flywheels are connected by a rubber band to four flywheels on the Ferris wheel, powering its rotation. Made in Germany, the kit’s parts are made from machine tooled solid brass, stainless steel, and aluminum components on a walnut stained wood base.