Patent ID: 8020380

Claim:
An external combustion engine comprising a container having one merging pipe, a plurality of branch pipes, and a branched part branching from said merging pipe toward said plurality of branch pipes and having a working fluid sealed inside it flowable in the liquid phase state, a plurality of heating portions heating and evaporating part of said working fluid in a liquid phase state, formed at said container to correspond to said plurality of branch pipes, and communicated with the ends of said plurality of branch pipes at the sides opposite to said branched part, a plurality of cooling portions cooling and condensing said working fluid evaporated at said heating portions, formed at said plurality of branch pipes, and an output part converting displacement of the liquid phase part of said working fluid to mechanical energy, communicated with an end of said merging pipe at a side opposite to said branched part, said external combustion engine alternately repeating a first stroke of making said working fluid evaporate at said plurality of heating portions and making the liquid phase part of said working fluid displace toward said output part side and a second stroke of making said working fluid evaporated at said first stroke condense at said plurality of cooling portions and making the liquid phase part of said working fluid displace toward the side of said plurality of the heating portions, and further comprising inflow adjusting means for reducing differences in inflows among said plurality of the heating portions, wherein the inflow is defined as the amount of a liquid phase part of said working fluid flowing into the heating portions when the liquid phase part of said working fluid displaces from said output part side to the side of said plurality of the heating portions in said second stroke.