the larger expansion piston/cylinder, at in diameter, was perhaps the largest piston ever built. Rumor has it that tables were placed on top of those pistons (obviously in the cool compression chamber, not the hot power chamber) and dinner was served and eaten, while the engine was running at full power. At 6.5 RPM the pressure was limited to . According to the official report it only consumed 4200 kg coal per 24 hours (original target was 8000 kg, which is still better than contemporary steam engines). The one sea trial proved that even though the engine ran well, the ship was underpowered. Some time after the trials, the Ericsson sank. When it was raised, the Ericsson-cycle engine was removed and a steam engine took its place. The ship was wrecked when blown aground in November 1892 at the entrance to Barkley Sound, British Columbia, Canada. Today's potential The Ericsson cycle (and the similar Brayton cycle) receives renewed interest today to extract power from the exhaust heat of gas (and producer gas) engines and solar concentrators. An important advantage of the Ericsson cycle over the widely known Stirling engine is often not recognized : the volume of the heat exchanger does not adversely affect the efficiency. (...)despite having significant advantages over the Stirling. Amongst them, it is worth to note that the Ericsson engine heat exchangers are not dead volumes, whereas the Stirling engine heat exchangers designer has to face a difficult compromise between as large heat transfer areas as possible, but as small heat exchanger volumes as possible. For medium and large engines the cost of valves can be small compared to this advantage. Turbocompressor plus turbine implementations seem favorable in the MWe range, positive displacement compressor plus turbine for Nx100 kWe power, and positive displacement compressor+expander below 100 kW. With high temperature hydraulic fluid, both the compressor and the expander can be liquid-ring pumps even up to 400 °C, with rotating casing for best efficiency. References Ericsson's patents. 1833 British and 1851 USA (US8481) The evolution of the heat engine, by: Ivo Kolin Published Moriya Press, 1972 by Longman Hot Air Caloric and Stirling Engines, by: Robert Sier. Published 1999, by L A Mair. New York Times 1853-03-01 The Caloric Ship Ericsson - Official Report and Correspondence External links 1979 RAND report on a new "Ericsson Cycle Gas Turbine Powerplant" design Inquiry into the Hot Air Engines of