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TomBooth; thank you for posting this interesting topic, very brave of you to challenge both the second law of thermodynamics heat flow statement: ‘Heat flows spontaneously from a substance at a higher temperature to a substance at a lower temperature and does not flow spontaneously in the reverse direction’ and also Carnot’s principle, (An alternative statement of the second law of thermodynamics), ‘No irreversible engine operating between two reservoirs at constant temperatures can have a greater efficiency than a reversible engine operating between the same temperatures. Furthermore, all rev

Interesting, but I’m not sure what to make of all of this. You have made good progress with the epoxy piston and now that you have the thermometer, you can get some good T data. I am going to go out on a limb and hazard a guess that the engine runs so much slowly because the epoxy piston, along with the insulation on the top plate, is reducing the amount of heat that can be transferred from the hot source to the cold sink, which is what the experiment was intended to show. I did some back of the envelope calculations and will post them later, but very roughly, if one cup of water at 373

This is probably nothing, and not really worth reporting, but It seems rather strange to me. Over the years, several times in various forums on this topic, I posted this video, because it looks like, when the engine is picked up, that it is frozen to the ice. https://youtu.be/L6Jmdve1JK8 I speculated, that, because that engine comes as a kit, there are a lot of ways to put it together. I had one or these engines (before I destroyed it, experimenting with it) and the piston pushes onto the connecting rod and is retained by a retaining clip by pressure. There is a lot of leeway in terms

Not if it is efficiently dissipating the heat to the greater ambient surroundings. If the sink gets as hot as the source, the machine will not work. Hopefully with that thermometer you now have, you can take some T data and clear up some of these questions. Yes, though I don't have the thermometer yet. Mail order is agonizingly slow these days. I really appreciate your input. It is very encouraging. "If the sink gets as hot as the source, the machine will not work", That is absolutely true, as far as anyone who has ever worked with these engines, model builders and such, has ever known.