Whats the Silliest Engine You have made

[Foozer]

Magnets, always liked magnets, you know those little dogs that pushed and pulled each other as a kid. Still something about that force not realized yet, wont be me

But one day after the Room Temperature Superconductor hit the news and just enough reading about it to not know anything, I figured you know if the magnet pins to the center of the disk, you set it near the edge and it moves to center, then perhaps . . . Should Work, ya right

Made a pendulum with a little superconductor disk on one end and a counter balance disk on the other, counter balance just a tad lighter than the disk. Mounted one of those high power magnets near the base. Like sketch illustrates the idea was the superconductor sits in the nitrogen till it reaches operating temperature then is attracted to the magnet pulling it from its bath. As the superconductor temp rises it looses the property and falls back into the bath to repeat the cycle.

At least i had fun freezing everything in sight. Note, Liquid Nitrogen is cold stuff, dangerously cold, not really to be played with . . . much

 

[GailInNM]

Foozer,
I am reminded of a Curie point engine, the plans for which was published in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics, I think, in the late 50's or early 60's. For those not familiar with the Curie Point, it is the temperature where a magnetic material loses it's magnetic properties. This "engine" used a Canadian Nickel, which depending on the year it was made, actually contained nickel. Nickel has a fairly low Curie point, being in the range of 625 degrees F. The nickel was suspended by a rod with a magnet to the side so the nickel would swing toward the magnet, but not touch it. When in this position it was in a flame. When the temperature reached the Curie point it would swing away from the magnet and out of the flame. When it cooled it became magnetic again and was pulled into the flame and the process repeated.

As I had built one of these a LONG time ago, I scrounged the the junk box tonight after reading your post. Came up with a Weller PTA8 soldering iron tip. These tips controlled the temperature of the soldering iron with a magnetic switch that was closed as long as the tip was lower than the curie point and turned on the heater. The "8" in the part number indicated 800 degrees F. A 600 degree tip would have worked better, but I did not want to look that hard. Tied the tip to a length of copper wire with a hook on it that I hung on a convenient peg. Put a 1/4 diameter x 1/2 inch long super magnet over to the side so it would attract the tip.

Heated the tip with a small propane torch flame and got an oscillation of about once per second. Flame position was a little bit critical but not as bad as a flame licker.

The whole setup must have taken about 10 minutes.

Thanks for jogging the memory Foozer.

Gail in NM,USA

 

[Foozer]

Foozer,
I am reminded of a Curie point engine, the plans for which was published in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics, I think, in the late 50's or early 60's.
Heated the tip with a small propane torch flame and got an oscillation of about once per second. Flame position was a little bit critical but not as bad as a flame licker.

The whole setup must have taken about 10 minutes.

Thanks for jogging the memory Foozer.

Gail in NM,USA

A nice slow runner, did it have similar oomph as a flame licker? Sounds like the making of another off the wall project, not as hazardous as Liquid Nitrogen

 

[GailInNM]

It was just a simple pendulum motion with no way to extract power from it.

If you do a Google search for CURIE ENGINE you will get a lot of hits, including some for rotary motion and some kits for the pendulum types.
One link is:

http://www.imagesco.com/articles/heatengine/HeatEngine.html

I did not do much searching, but one thing came up that I had not considered. A neodymium super magnet has a Curie point much lower than that of nickel. If you demagnetize one by heating above the Curie point, then it can be used for the active material. Of course it is no longer useful as a magnet, but small ones are so cheap that is of little concern if one wanted to play. Maybe someday! Too many other active projects right now for me to even think about it.

Gail in NM,USA

 

[Foozer]

It was just a simple pendulum motion with no way to extract power from it.

If you do a Google search for CURIE ENGINE you will get a lot of hits, including some for rotary motion and some kits for the pendulum types.
One link is:

http://www.imagesco.com/articles/heatengine/HeatEngine.html

I did not do much searching, but one thing came up that I had not considered. A neodymium super magnet has a Curie point much lower than that of nickel. If you demagnetize one by heating above the Curie point, then it can be used for the active material. Of course it is no longer useful as a magnet, but small ones are so cheap that is of little concern if one wanted to play. Maybe someday! Too many other active projects right now for me to even think about it.

Gail in NM,USA

Google are US, thanks