Wally Minto's Wonder Wheel

I'd just finished shooting pictures of Minto's solar-powered, Freon engine/generator set and I wasn't quite sure if he was kidding about this newest engine. Four used propane bottles were hose-clamped to the ends of two pieces of aluminum angle, each about four feet long. The angles crossed at 90 degrees at the center and were mounted on a central hub like a skinny four-blade windmill with bottles to swing in the breeze. Each bottle was connected to its mate on the opposite end of the angle with steel brake-line tubing. Under the rig's support was a tank of the type used to locate leaks in an inner tube.

A few weeks later I again visited the Kinetics lab. By then the propane bottles had evolved into 12 containers of steel pipe welded into a polygon. The principle remained the same. I watched as Wally opened the valve to let in a trickle of water from solar panels on the roof of his parking shed. The water temperature was 155 degrees F.

Almost imperceptibly, the wheel started to turn. The speed picked up a bit and I timed a revolution -about one rpm. Minto noted my misgivings. "Try holding onto the shaft," he said. I grabbed the shaft firmly - it was as if I'd tried to stop some eerie, irresistible force: no sound, no evidence of power, just pure twist.

"Picture one 200 feet in diameter," he said. This time my mind boggled. Such a rig might hoist the pyramids.

Wally doesn't expect industrialized nations to scramble for his wheel, and he isn't selling anything. He's donating it as a "gift to the world" and expects it will be used in undeveloped, energy-short areas.

For example, a practical 33-ft. diameter wheel running on a temperature difference of as little as 3 1/2 degrees F and producing several horsepower could pump irrigation water, grind grain, or saw wood. The materials could be scrap pipe, and no machining or skills are needed to build it. Several low-boiling materials might be used, but propane or R-12 may be best.

Minto estimates a slightly larger (40-ft.) wheel with 14 pairs of 1-ft. x 4 1/3-ft. containers would provide 10,240 ft./lb. of work per container as each 269 lb. of liquid responds to gravity through a 20ft. lever arm. At only one rpm this is 8.69 hp; not spectacular, but low cost and capable of running steadily for generations. The slow rotational speed can be stepped up to whatever is needed, just as with the old-time waterwheels.

No fuel would be needed in many cases. The temperature difference required between the liquid on the bottom and the top occurs naturally in many situations: water and air, light and shade, etc.

Minto has outlined construction details in a two-sheet paper entitled "The Minto Wheel." There are no restrictions on building or experimenting with the wheel.

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