here comes the rain again

[bluesgtr44]

I think mythbusters actually tried it....do a youtube search for "mythbusters/minto" ....I think there was a small clip of this....

[AB Hammer]

I think mythbusters actually tried it....do a youtube search for "mythbusters/minto" ....I think there was a small clip of this....

I watched that episode. I found it pathetic in its attempt. Nothing to get excited about.

[DrWhat]

True, I was extremely disappointed with Mythbusters. Not because the devices didn't work, but because their effort and precision in building was lame.

It was like me in the 19th century saying aeroplanes could never fly, and proving this by throwing a flat piece of wood off a balcony!

[greendoor]

The Minto Wheel, and the Drinking Bird levers, work on a temperature difference. A body of water is often higher temperature than the ambiant air by a few degrees.

A study of Evaporation is very interesting. Basically Water (liquid) can be turned into Steam (gas) at any temperature. At steam rises, providing a mechanism to lift a heavy mass of water upwards. It's not necessary to raise water to it's "boiling point". Surface area is a big factor.

[frettsy]

here is another (very simplified) variation of the solar water wheel, Jim: make something like the standard MT1 wheel, with 8 compartments. make them watertight, fill each one with the same amount of water. put your left half in the sun and the right half in the shade. watch it go!

or. space apart the compartments. put a heat sink on the the bottom of each and a cold sink on the top of each. put it in the sun. watch it go!

the main idea here, is that none of the energy from the steam nor the condensation is lost. so it is much more efficient. still slow (probably) but it should work!