Patent ID: 8240147

Claim:
A rotary heat engine comprising a cylindrical engine block having a longitudinal centre axis and containing a rotor having a plurality of equally spaced pistons and corresponding cylinders extending radially therein, said pistons being pivotally connected to connecting rods that are in turn pivotally connected to a shaft at an inner end of each connecting rod, said shaft extending through said engine block in a direction substantially parallel to said centre axis, said block containing a slot to allow said shaft to move laterally toward or away from said centre axis, said rotor being sized and shaped to rotate within said engine block in a plane perpendicular to said centre axis, said rotor having a plurality of heating and cooling chambers therein, there being one heating and cooling chamber for each piston, said heating and cooling chambers each including one of said corresponding cylinders, said pistons and said corresponding cylinders each being shaped so that said pistons slide radially within said cylinders, said engine block being heated at one or more locations and cooled at one or more alternate locations around a circumference of said block, said heated or cooled locations of said block cause heating or cooling of said chambers respectively within said rotor, said rotor containing a working fluid within said chambers, said pistons moving inward in response to a heated chamber and outward in response to a cooled chamber, a reciprocating movement of said pistons in succession causing said rotor to rotate within said block, said pistons and said chambers rotating with said rotor.