Unusual Fans.

A STEAM-POWERED FAN? NO, A HOT-AIR ENGINE FAN

Left: A hot-air engine fan: date unknown Having convinced ourselves that steam-powered table fans are an unlikely concept, we are confronted by this machine, which is for sale on Amazon and Ebay. Confusingly, both say it is a steam fan, but also say it is electrically powered. Both statements are wrong. It does look very much like a steam engine, and at least one picture shows it with the burner at the bottom alight. There is a plate on the front saying 'East India Company 1845' but it looks modern, and I am not convinced this really an antique. It is entirely possible that the East India Company was involved in making fans as Englishmen found India hot.

Left: A hot-air engine fan: date unknown This top view of the fan shows there are two cylinders coupled to the crankshaft, one central, and he other perched on the edge of the main body. It looks as if the central cylinder is of much greater diameter than the other, and that made me think this is really a hot-air engine fan. The small cylinder is the power cylinder, and the big cylinder is the displacer, working in a Stirling cycle. The problem remains that you are generating heat to get a cooling breeze.

Left: A hot-air engine fan: date unknown I think these old adverts clinch the matter. The one on the bottom left has the distinctive carrying handles seen above. The ad on the bottom right is for a different design of hot-air fan. The Lake Breeze Motor Company were making them in 1919. It may be "A most remarkable invention" but it was not their invention. You can see a video of an East India fan running here. It is very clearly a hot-air engine.

THE LAKE BREEZE HOT-AIR ENGINE FAN

Left: A Lake Breeze Hot-Air engine fan: 1915-21 The only other hot-air engine fan currently known is the Lake Breeze fan, manufactured from 1915 to 1921 by the Lake Breese Moto company of Chicago, Illinois. USA. (there are various dates given on the Net) Just below the bottom of the fan guard small vertical fins can be seen around the stem; these were to help cool the cold end of the displacer cylinder. They don't have much surface area and cannot have been very effective. Hot air engines don't start by themselves. A small knob on the back of the fan was given a twist to start it once the internals had heated up. Two levers near the base release the fuel tank and wick burner which lies under the base. A copper plate behind the blades states: "Important directions use best grade alcohol only, grain or denatured, NOT wood alcohol. oil with one drop only, too much oil will stop motor, keep cap over wick when not in use and renew wick each 5 days" A wick only lasts 5 days? That sounds less than convenient. You can see a video of a Lake Breeze fan here. The fan starts running at about 1:15. There is some more info here. This fan seems especially subject to misinformation, probably because few people know how a hot-air engine works. One web page said the fan was driven by a gas turbine...

Left: A Lake Breeze Hot-Air engine fan: 1915-21 This is a different model of the Lake Breeze fan, on a stand. The burner seems to be an ordinary oil lamp with a glass chimney. Presumably the displacer cylinder is inside the black cylinder at the bottom.

THE PAILLARD CLOCKWORK FAN

Left: A Paillard clockwork fan: 1910 This is a clockwork-powered fan made by E. Paillard & Co. of Switzerland in the 1910s. As soon as I saw this image I thought Clockwork! The winding handle is a dead giveaway, and the cylinder at the bottom no doubt holds a hefty spring motor. Another clue is the name Paillard; the company made a lot of clockwork gramophones and even some hot-air engine gramophones. There are statements on the Net that it could run for 30 minutes per winding, but the general opinion seems to be that is very optimistic. There is no fan guard; keeping a full set of fingers was your responsibility. An obvious problem is that you could get hot and sweaty winding it up; but given the date you'd probably have a servant to do it. You can see a video of the Paillard fan being wound and then run here. The casing is opened, and while it's not very clear, the spring appears to be geared up to fan speed in two stages of gearing. It is clearly a Clockpunk artefact.

THE ZERPHYR CLOCKWORK FAN

Left: A Zephyr clockwork fan: 1902 This floor-standing clockwork fan was made by the Zephyr Company of Paris. A US patent number 322,961 was taken out by Gabriel Kaiser in 1902. The spring was wound not by a crank-handle like the Paillard fan, but by a giant key, which must have been rather awkward. When fully wound it would run ro 14 minutes before it ground to a halt There is more info here.