Up and Coming

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Miracle Machine: Dean Kamen and the Sterling Engine

By Christopher Belknap

It is not surprising that the parts of the world that lack clean water also lack access to electricity. A single invention that solved both of these problems could be one of the most practical devices ever developed.

It may be shocking, then, that Dean Kamen is designing a pair of machines that would simultaneously provide electricity to rural areas of developing countries and drive the purification of contaminated water. As the founder of the DEKA Research and Development Corporation, Kamen invented the Segway, which, at several thousand dollars for one machine, is the decidedly impractical substitute for walking that only the upper classes can afford.

DEKA bases their design on a 200-year-old device, the Stirling Engine. Though the machine became obsolete after the development of the internal combustion engine, Kamen began examining it as a potential power source for another of his many innovative solutions to health care problems, the IBOT, a kind of all-terrain wheelchair that can climb stairs and balance itself. New materials for bearings and seals and the ability to harness gases like hydrogen and helium allowed DEKA scientists to capitalize on the Stirling engine's potential for high thermodynamic efficiency. These innovations led Kamen to think of the machine as a better way to provide electricity and clean water.