John Ericsson, the inventor of marine screw propellers and gun turreted warships and the designer of the famous civil war era Monitor was also the inventor of the high performance wire mesh regenerator used in modern Stirling engines and cooling machines. Indeed, the largest Stirling engine ever constructed was designed by Ericsson for use in the ship of the same name Ericsson. Even more amazing is that he constructed the first solar driven Stirling engine using a parabolic reflector in about 1870.