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Photo #1: Without a doubt, the hit of the day! This is Jim Tangeman's incredible scratch-built Stirling powered tractor. Powerplant is a twin cylinder Beta-type Stirling which is equipped with Jim's own linkage for reversing the engine. He says he doesn't use this feature much though, as it makes all of the pumps run backwards! Instead he uses a more common linkage that is incorporated in the traditional small-tractor rear end. |
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Photo #2: Rear view; note wood storage under driver's seat. Considering all that is needed to make this thing go, it is remarkably well thought out and very compact. |
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Photo #3: Jim on the left explains the inner workings of the tractor's power plant to a first-timer. |
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Photo #4: Starting at the bottom of the photo note the radiator, the flywheel to port, some of th incredible linkages on the centerline, which were whirring madly when the photo was taken. Low and to starboard a jackshaft which drives the water pump is itself connected via what I would describe as a "smoke grinder" eccentric which is linked to the shorter upper arm. Cylinders are behind these linkages, at the top of the image. |
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Photo #5: This is one of two totally passive magnetic levitation demonstrators brought by Mike Kan. Unlike similar store-bought devices, this one does not rely on any external power sources or electronic circuitry to make it happen. An arrangement of two magnets, one large and distant and a second stonger one, closer to the object being levitated does the trick. Mike says that even only two years ago this feat was considered impossible. |
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Photo #6: Close-up of the business end of his invention. Hard to believe, ain't it?? |
