biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1790–1878)
|
| biography:
| Clergyman and inventor, born in Perth, Perth and Kinross, E Scotland, UK. He studied for the ministry at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, was ordained in the Church of Scotland (1816), and was minister of Galston, East Ayrshire (1837–78). In the same year he patented a hot-air engine operating on what became known as the Stirling cycle, in which the working fluid (air) is heated externally. His engines were built from 1818 to 1922, by which time they had been superseded by the internal-combustion engine. Interest in the engine has recently revived for its potential use in spacecraft and sensitive environments, because of its lack of exhaust fume emissions. |
|
|
