the documentary never addressed the only question needing to be asked . what is the efficiency, does the machine produce 30 percent of the energy needed to heat the water ? or 50 percent or 70 percent ? running an engine on heat is not a new concept . finding a way to do it more efficiently is news worthy

They were so wide-eyed and optimistic back then, I bet they saw a future full of Nitinol. Have you heard of it? I saw it once on a science video some months back, but that's it. Controlling temperature seems to be too impractical for most current applications. Maybe there's still room for a future Nitinol world. It seems like it's really useful... for

So what's happening now with this Nitinol, I remember memory metal glasses frames were a thing at one time

I'm sure that Solar power is more like $300 per kW, so unless the Nitinol folks could get that cost down to a comparable level, Solar wins out. Of course Photovoltaic technology has vastly improved snce the 1970's when this video was current data.

Nitinol engines powered by solar energy stored in thermal storage bricks could fill the gap after the sun sets.

If this technology really could be efficiently harnessed to produce energy, the Oil Lobby will try to kill it as fast as possible (maybe that is why I didn't hear about it back in 1973 (I was alive and lucid then). Big money works hard to keep their money Big against all other interests.

Wow, CNN actually used to cover newsworthy topics?? 😮

i like the idea, but the modern world has taught me that it doesn't like cheap energy, it loves oil and the flow of capital. Inventions like these often fall by the wayside.

@glennjames7107 my apologies. I accidently hit the wrong button and deleted your comment while trying to respond. I have no way to retrieve it. Feel free to repost if you read this.

Okay I'm intrigued.

Physics is racist.

This is from back before the religious right revolted against education and demonized science.

2:49

Who created nitnol? 👽

I hadn't read anything about this since the mid 1990s, though I've thought about it from time to time, and have wondered what applications it has been used for.

In 1985 I obtained a NiTinol engine. It was in the fashion of a turbine. Two sheaves of equal size were geared together in such a way that the helical spring, which was about 5mm in diameter, would pass through the cold water and it stretched quite easily as the loop on the hot side shrank vigorously.

21:16

Heavy breathing in Battletech!

Fascinating! Thx!

What's heating the water? Waste heat? So I use this instead of a nuclear reactor? So how do you heat up the water?