Ivo Kolin

[1] After years of experimentation he demonstrated in 1983 the first Low Temperature Difference (LTD) Stirling engine which ran at the temperature difference as low as 15 °C, astonishingly low at the time.

[2] It was also the first time in history of piston motors heat was turned into a mechanical work at the temperature lower than the boiling water.

[citation needed][3] The engine was later significantly improved by an American engineer James Senft building on his previous work with Ringbom Stirling engines.

[i][5] Senft created an ultra LTD Ringbom Stirling engine which ran at the temperature difference of just 0.5 °C.

[6][7] Such engines, which could even run from heat absorbed while resting on the palm of a human hand, offer many applications, such as Solar Powered Stirling Engines.