The Minto wheel is a heat engine developed by Wally Minto.
The engine consists of a set of sealed chambers arranged in a circle, with each chamber connected to the chamber opposite it. One chamber in each connected pair is filled with a liquid with a low boiling point (propane and R-12 are listed in the Mother Earth News articles). As the lower chamber in each pair is heated, the liquid begins to vaporize, forcing the remaining liquid to travel to the upper chamber. This fluid transfer results a weight imbalance, which causes the wheel to rotate.
The Minto wheel operates on a small temperature gradient, and produces a large amount of torque, but at very low rotational speed.
A working example of a wheel was first published in a series of articles in The Mother Earth News, Issues #38 March, #39 May and #40 July 1976.
Test units constructed by Mother Earth News (Issue 40, July 1976) and the MythBusters (Episode 24, December 5, 2004 - "Ming Dynasty Astronaut") failed to perform as well as claimed.
A Minto wheel is effectively just a solar powered wheel.
See also
External links
- Scans of the 1976 The Mother Earth News articles
- Wally Minto's original booklet
- Minto outline
- Yahoo's Minto Wheel group
- YouTube video of a model Minto wheel in operation
- YouTube video of a model Minto wheel in operation (shows smoother action from more chambers)
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