Brief History

• The first practical working stirling engine was patented by Robert Stirling in 1816.
• It was designed to try and replace the noisy, dangerous steam engines of its day. It gave the steam engine a run for its money but the sterling engine petered out as it was limited to applications involving low power use.
• The stirling saw some renewed interest in the 1930's with a company that tried to produce stirling generators but the greatest interest in the stirling came in the 1970's with the energy crisis. Since then a lot of research has been done and major mile-markers reached but it has never yet really become widely available to the public yet.
  
• Use in vehicles
• NASA along with some auto companies actually developed good working models in the 1970’s that were efficient but they had drawbacks and when the energy crisis was over the projects got shelved or their funding got cut. Plus it is hard to overturn technologies that are well intrenched and in major use.
  
• The stirling has also been developed to work in a stirling solar combination.
  
• Excellent progress has been made in this area with various systems claiming the title as being the most efficient.
  

Stirling Engine in a vehicle http://blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/stirlingSpirit_resized.jpg

Stirling Solar Combination http://www.greenenergyreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Stirling-dish- Sterling-energy-systems.jpg