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Project: Robert Stirling

Great Lives from History: Inventors and Inventions, 2010 Encyclopedia of Energy, 2013 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Definitely want to add content about the Stirling engine and in depth info on his studies in thermodynamics.

Missing material/suggestions for improvement.

The timeline for Stirling's hot air engine is scattered around several portions of the article (under both Hot air engine and Patents heading). Would be better to combine the timelines under one heading and include additional details about the engine, and provide some more detail on the changes to the engine detailed in the corresponding patents.

The section titled Optical instruments is lacking in both references and further detail. A more detailed explanation of the optical instruments invented by Stirling and the corresponding references would be significantly beneficial.

The section titled Bessemer Process could be better incorporated into the article by including the details regarding Stirling's management of a steel mill, the use of his hot air engine at the Steel mill and most importantly the problems with the durability of the hot air engines caused by the weaknesses of the steel compositions available at the time.

Background and Christian ministry[edit]
Robert Stirling was born at Cloag Farm near Methven, Perthshire, the third of Patrick and Agnes Stirling’s eight children. He was also the grandson of Michael Stirling, the inventor of a rotary threshing machine.[1][2] Growing up, Stirling inherited his father's interest in engineering. From 1805 to 1808, Stirling studied classical subjects at the Universities of Edinburgh. Stirling transferred to Glasgow University in 1809 to study Divinity until 1814. Upon completing his studies in divinity, Stirling was licensed to preach in the Church of Scotland in 1816 by the Presbytery of Dumbarton.[1] Later that year he became a minister on appointment as second charge of the Laigh Kirk of Kilmarnock. On 12 February 1824, Stirling was appointed as the minister of nearby Galston Parish Church from 1824 until 1878, when he retired from his ministry there. In 1840 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Divinity by the University of St Andrews.[2][3]

Hot air engine[edit]
Robert Stirling’s best known invention is the heat engine now referred to as the Stirling Engine. In 1816 Robert Stirling and his younger brother, James Stirling, applied for a patent in both Scotland and England for a device they invented, a Heat Economiser. The function of this invention was to store and release heat as air circulated through its mechanisms. This differed from most heat engines which used steam as their method of storing and releasing energy (p. 58).

While in Kilmarnock, he collaborated with another inventor, Thomas Morton, who provided workshop facilities for Stirling’s research (p. 16). By 1818 Stirling had incorporated this Heat Economiser into a piston engine that created a closed cycle heat engine, which was powered by air, a contrast to the steam engines that were predominant at the time. This updated version of the heat engine was used to pump water from a quarry (p. 73). Stirling’s heat engine was able to run well but was limited by the weaker metals available at the time. Due to the flimsiness of the materials used, the air vessels were eventually crushed by the high pressure of the heated air (2).

In 1824 Stirling sought to improve the efficiency of the heat engine by attempting to separate the air present in the economizer. This was done by making the plungers in the air engine from thin plates of metal. This was to improve airflow and offer better heating and cooling of the engine (p. 79). Although this idea received a patent, it was ultimately unsuccessful in improving the heat engine’s overall efficiency (3).

In 1840 Stirling received another patent for the heat engine after altering the design in a new attempt to increase durability. The improvements added by Stirling included the addition of rods or plates in the passage through which hot air travelled to the cold section of the engine. By having these surfaces, the air was able to be cooled to a lower temperature when travelling from the hot section of the engine to the cold section of the engine. Additionally, Stirling added cupped leather collars around the piston rods to seal gaps and minimize the leakage of air from the engine (p. 83). After developing these improvements, Stirling built two of these heat engines to use at an iron foundry he managed in Dundee (3). One of these air engines was started in March of 1843 where it ran until December of 1845 when an air vessel failed. The air vessel failure could be attributed to the metals being unable to withstand the high temperatures at which the engine was running. After replacing the air vessel a couple times, the air engine was dismantled in 1847 after Stirling left the Dundee iron foundry (p. 93).

In 1876 Robert Stirling wrote a letter acknowledging the importance of Henry Bessemer’s new invention, the Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel. Sterling was optimistic that the new steel would improve the performance of the air engines (7).

Robert Stirling's development of the hot air engine was in part motivated by safety. His engine was designed to fail far less catastrophically than the steam engines of the time while obtaining greater efficiency.[6] Though the Stirling engine is rarely used today, its seemingly perpetual motion capability continues to draw the interest of research institutions like Los Alamos National Laboratory and NASA.[6]

Personal life and death[edit]
On 10 July 1819, Stirling married Jean Rankine at Kilmarnock. They had seven children:[1][3]


 * Patrick Stirling, born 29 Jun 1820, became a locomotive engineer
 * Jane Stirling, born 25 Sep 1821, fed ideas to her brothers[ citation needed]
 * William Stirling born 14 Nov 1822, became a civil engineer and railway engineer in South America
 * Robert Stirling, born 16 Dec 1824, became a railway engineer in Peru.
 * David Stirling, born 12 Oct 1828, became the Minister of Craigie, Ayrshire
 * James Stirling, born 2 Oct 1835, became a locomotive engineer
 * Agnes Stirling, born 22 Jul 1838, became an artist

Rev. Robert Stirling died in Galston, East Ayrshire on 6 June 1878. He is buried in Galston Cemetery where a new gravestone was erected in December 2014 by public subscription replacing the original stone which was in a ruined state. It was rededicated on Sunday 3 May 2015.[3]

Impact
Despite Robert Stirling's hot air engine not receiving widespread use, there are modern day applications of his invention that are used today. Some common present-day applications include: head pumps, the NASA MOD I and II engines, and fans in wood burning stoves and biomass engines used in developing countries (5).

In recognition of his accomplishments, Robert Stirling was inducted into the Scottish engineering hall of fame on October 3, 2014 (5).

Sources for use :

(1) Great lives from History Inventors and Inventions ISBN 1-58765-522-5

(2) Encyclopedia of Energy ISBN 1-58765-854-2

(3) Oxford Dictionary of national Biography https://doi-org.libproxy.mst.edu/10.1093/ref:odnb/26534

(4) Rev Robert Stirling D.D. : A biography of the inventor of the heat economiser & Stirling Cycle Engine. ISBN 9780952641704

(5) http://www.engineeringhalloffame.org/profile-stirling.html

(6) Rev Robert Stirling D.D. : A biography of the inventor of the heat economiser & Stirling Cycle Engine. p. 58 ISBN 9780952641704

(7) Rev Robert Stirling D.D. : A biography of the inventor of the heat economiser & Stirling Cycle Engine. Chapter 7 ISBN 9780952641704

(8) Rev Robert Stirling D.D. : A biography of the inventor of the heat economiser & Stirling Cycle Engine. Chapter 8 ISBN 9780952641704

(9) Rev Robert Stirling D.D. : A biography of the inventor of the heat economiser & Stirling Cycle Engine. Chapter 9 ISBN 9780952641704

Peer Review by Brodyriemann
Brodyriemann (talk) 18:00, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The proposed edits in the Hot Air Engine section do a great job of expanding on the history behind the Stirling Engine, which is undoubtedly Stirling's most widely known achievement, and should be one of the longer sections in the Wikipedia article.
 * The new content on the Hot Air Engine seems to be all from one source, I would suggest looking for more sources on this topic to build the depth of the contribution here since this invention is so important for this article.
 * If there isn't any more information you can find relating to the Bessemer Process, maybe remove this section and add that content to the Hot Air Engine section. For example, you mention how the reliability of the Stirling Engine was limited by the strength of the metal used for its construction. You could follow that by saying that Stirling was optimistic about the Bessemer Process leading to stronger steels, instead of talking about the Bessemer Process in its own unique section.
 * Honestly, I would suggest deleting the Optical Instruments section. You mentioned that you were having trouble finding sources on this topic. The article only includes two sentences in this section, and the information is not cited. Stirling is a big name in thermodynamics, but if the information is not available for his work in optics, then maybe there shouldn't be an Optical Instruments section.
 * May want to briefly mention advantages and disadvantages of the Stirling Engine compared to engines based on other cycles (otto, diesel, etc.)
 * For example, Stirling Engine is able to take some of the rejected heat and use it for the heat addition step, which increases the thermal efficiency. In contrast, the Stirling Engine cannot deliver as much power as other types of engines.