Xavier the Engineer
Greetings and Happy New Year to all.
One of the things Xavier got for Christmas was a small Sterling engine powered by a small alcohol lamp.
We finally got around to unpacking the device from its box last night and tried to get it working. After all, how hard could it be? Just put the lamp under the glass bulb, wait twenty seconds, then spin the flywheel to start the engine.
No, not that easy. Rebecca tried several things. I tried several more. We adjusted the engine's components here and there. Nothing worked.
With disappointment, we emailed the manufacturer and called it a night.
This morning, Xavier wanted to try it again. We put the lamp under the bulb, waited twenty seconds, then turned the flywheel.
The engine started spinning.
"What happened?" we asked.
"I fixed it," Xavier told us.
After that, we asked him to explain how. He said he tightened a connection on the bottom of the engine. We asked him how he knew to do that (after all, two parents didn't think to do it).
He explained that he thought about it over night and this morning noticed the connection was loose. He tightened it and it worked.
We build the fan unit for the engine to turn and got that working. However, Xavier's "thinking about it," having enough understanding to identify the problem and to fix it was more impressive than the engine itself.