Robert Stirling invented The Stirling engine in 1816 to create a safer alternative to the steam engine. Steam engine boilers would explode due to high pressure combined with low quality parts, killing and injuring many operators. The Stirling engine operates by cycling the compression and expansion of gasses. The gasses used never leave the engine, so it has no exhaust valves that can explode and cause injuries and deaths. They have been used to run refrigerators, fans, cars, and sewing machines.
Modern Day Uses:
Modern ingenuiety has created other alternatives to the Stirling heat engine, but ti is still used in solar power generation for being very efficient in converting solar energy to electrical energy and
The Peltier effect is a temperature difference created by applying a voltage between two electrodes connected to a sample of semiconductor material. This phenomenon can be useful when it is necessary to transfer heat from one medium to another on a small scale. A Peltier device is a heat pump that uses the Peltier effect to move heat.
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