Robert Stirling
| Robert Stirling | |
|---|---|
Reverend Dr Robert Stirling
|
|
| Born |
25 October 1790 Methven, Perthshire |
| Died | 6 June 1878 (aged 87) Galston, East Ayrshire |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Children |
Patrick Stirling b.1820 Jane Stirling b.1821 William Stirling b.1822 Robert Stirling b.1824 David Stirling b.1828 James Stirling b.1835 Agnes Stirling b.1838 |
| Parent(s) | Patrick Stirling and Agnes Stirling |
| Engineering career | |
| Projects | Stirling engine |
The Reverend Dr Robert Stirling (25 October 1790 – 6 June 1878) was a Scottish clergyman, and inventor of the Stirling engine.
Stirling was born at Cloag Farm near Methven, Perthshire, the third of eight children of Patrick and Agnes Stirling and a grandson of Michael Stirling, inventor of a threshing machine. He inherited his father's interest in engineering, but studied divinity at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. and was licensed to preach in the Church of Scotland in 1816 by the Presbytery of Dumbarton. Later that year he became a minister on appointment as second charge of the Laigh Kirk of Kilmarnock. On 12 February 1824 Stirling was appointed as the minister of nearby Galston Parish Church from 1824, where he continued his ministry until 1878. In 1840 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity by University of St Andrews.
He invented what he called the Heat Economiser (now generally known as the regenerator), a device for improving the thermal/fuel efficiency of a variety of industrial processes, obtaining a patent for the economiser and an engine incorporating it in 1816. In 1818 he built the first practical version of his engine, used to pump water from a quarry.
The theoretical basis of Stirling's engine, the Stirling cycle, would not be fully understood until the work of Sadi Carnot (1796–1832).
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