Hot Air Engines

A history

Numerous inventors started a hot air engine venture, many scientists wrote about this engine, hundreds of patents were filed, thousands of articles have been written. An enormous amount of work has been dedicated to this technology. All of this resulted in an incredible amount of learning and science. A history of the Hot Air Engine is a way to leverage on a century of acquired knowledge and experience. It is based on the scrutiny of numerous archives between 1800 and 1920, most of them being books, magazines, scientific review, articles, patents.


Year Inventor Country Engine page
1699 Amontons France Le moulin à feu d'Amontons
1784 Montgolfier France La pompe à feu de Montgolfier
1807 Cayley England Cayley's air engine
1816 Stirling Scotland Stirling engine
1825 Bresson France La machine à air chaud de Bresson
1827 Stirling Scotland Stirling engine
1828 Parkinson & Crosley England Parkinson & Crosley Motive Engine
1829 Arnott England Arnott air engine
1833 Ericsson Sweden / England Ericsson caloric engine
1837 Cayley England Cayley air engine
1838 Franchot France Le moteur à air chaud de Franchot
1845 Gordon Scotland Gordon's fumific impeller
1847 Lemoine France Lemoine air machine
1851 Ericsson Sweden / America Ericsson caloric engine
1853 Woodbury America Woodbury atmospheric engine
1854 Shaw America Shaw air engine
1855 Franchot France Le moteur sériaire à air chaud de Franchot
1860 Wilcox America Wilcox hot air engine
1861 Shaw America Shaw air engine
1862 Roper America Roper caloric beam engine
1861 Mouchot France Mouchot sun motor
1867 Lehmann Germany Lehmann'sche Luftexpansionsmaschine
1868 Ericsson Sweden / America Ericsson sun motor
1868 Wenham England Wenham heated-air engine
1871 Rider America Rider's Hot air engine
1875 Rider America Rider's Hot air engine
1881 Robinson England Robinson's Hot air engine