The Manson cycle engine was designed back in 1952 by A.D. Manson and first published in Newnes Practical Mechanics March 1952 p193. Here a drawing form the original publication:
Michael Ruppel slightly modified Manson’s idea
and built this engine:
A nice drawing of Manson’s engine concept I found on Walter Haag’s web page, who built a replica of the Manson/Rupp engine.
We are always glad to get some help from friends testing new prototypes. Ok, sometimes we combine it with having some beer and it looks more like an Irish pub then a testing lab. But don’t be fooled: there are really results helping to improve the things …
Small preassembled solar parabolic concentrator. The concentrator mirror is made of 24 Aluminium strips with a high reflective coating. Diameter of the total mirror is 35cm, power in the focal plane with direct sun ~50 W. The unit comes with a small black coated pot. A demonstration unit of big solar cookers.
SUNVENTION presents the key components of its revolutionary solar technology invented by Jürgen Kleinwächter and his team. The images show the SolarVillage testfield in Tamera, Portugal.
These technologies are excellently suited for all sun-rich parts of the earth and they make it possible for regional development to be independent of globalisation.
In the SolarVillage, of which the first prototype is to be created in Tamera, two basic models of future existence have been brought together: a social and a technological model.
The Flap Turbine (FT) is a novel type of vertical axis turbine (VAT) where the blades are made of movable flaps. These movable flaps, when combined together, act as a sail or blade for the VAT. This type of turbine is also known as a check valve turbine because of the check valve like behavior of the moving flaps. When the sail is moving in the downwind direction, the flaps are closed and will not allow air (water if the turbine operates in the water) to pass through the sail. However, when the sail is moving in the upwind direction the flaps will be in the open position and allow air (or water) pass through the sail.
The most crucial point to build a Minto wheel – see post Iske Wheel alias Minto Wheel is the working fluid. Adequate fluids that have a boiling point at atmospheric pressure below room temperature are toxic, flammable and not easy to handle. For this reason we started experiments with a ready made device that has a kind of structure like a Minto wheel’s spoke:
The famous “Drinking Bird”
We tried to use the birds as spokes for the wheel. By the way: you can order the bird in exergia’s new energy shop.
The construction
The prototype
Until now we did not achieve a proper working wheel … experiments will be continiued. We would love to get some feedback.
May be you are interested in a kit for own experiments. Don’t hesitate to contact us.
The basic idee of the so called Minto wheel is to build a simple motor, that is driven by a temperature differential between a hot water reservoir and the surrounding cooling air. The spokes of a wheel like structure are made from tubes with a liquid inside, that exist both in a gaseous and a liquid phase in the desired temperature range. The are connected to bulb like reservoirs at both ends in a way, that the ends of the tubes protude into each reservoir a little bit. During operation the warmer gas inside the lower vessel has a higher pressure than the cooled gas in the upper vessel. This pressure pushes the liquid inside the tube and with it the center of mass of the wheel up. This results in a net torque that drives the wheel, brings the next spoke in contact with the hot water and the whole process continues. A cruical thing is to choose the right working fluid. Fluids like Methylen Chloride, Methanol, Butan, Propan, Hexane may work …
The original idea of Anthony and Albert Iske from 1881 has been reinvented or rediscovered – who knows – in the late 1940s by Wally Minto.
