Solar Dreams: a history of solar energy (1878 - 2025)
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Oh wow, this video serious is real cool! I know that engine is built with more modern engineering techniques than are available in TTL, but I'm still impressed by its potential- As well as how when it was driven in reverse the head got literally glowing hot.
On a side note, why are old industrial videos like this so good? Fells like barring niche youtube channels there is no modern media that explains engineering concepts as well as several decade old industrial and military training films.
They only had so much they could work with back then. No room for riff-raff, what was needed was something to the point, easy to understand, and thorough.
The electric car in North America was also killed by an early scandal of a company that leased electric vehicles, which was a huge blow to the industry.
Things will be different in this timeline, though
Using solar power to calcine limestone for making concrete seems mundane but doable. Niagara Falls hydroelectric works started making calcium carbide with electric arc furnaces at about this time. Solar concentrators should be able to reach the temperature necessary to compete with that.
Solar powered chemical industry sounds generally profitable, as long as your processes can take being shut down for night.
Solar powered chemical industry sounds generally profitable, as long as your processes can take being shut down for night.
The issue with the latter is that, AIUI, many processes can't handle being shut down at night--they work continuously as a lot of energy is required to get to the productive state, but then less to stay producing once you reach those conditions (e.g. a continuous casting line for metals needs a lot of molten metal throughout the process, and suddenly letting all of it freeze is a good way to end up craping a lot of equipment full of solid metal which should be molten, but once you're running, you only need to liquify what's coming in at the start, or a distillation plant needs the boiling areas to be up to temperature and the distillation columns to be the right cold temperature at the right heights before things start producing where they should be).
It's solvable with thermal energy storage or batteries, but it does take a fair amount of storage.
This is true, but SOME processes can be done in small batches. It does not even matter that much if you lose energy by reheating stuff, given that when the sun is up there should be plenty of energy available in Chile.
Low initial investment is probably more important than efficiency when starting out anyway. Later on, using solar power for energy-intensive chemical production and shipping them by sea sounds like it ought to work.
Except nitrogen fixing. Chile, of all places, hardly has a need for nitrates. Maybe Australia or something...
That's one of the limitations of solar energy. Intermitence will be an issue that will take a while to be fully solved, and solar energy will never be viable for processes like blast furnace steelmaking. However, it could be used as a combined source, where solar concentrators provide most of the energy during the day and conventional sources take off during the night. Heat storage could also be used to replace the need for conventional sources, although this would be area intensive and not very reliable at the beginning.
On the other hand, solar heat has the property that temperatures can increase infinitely given enough collectors. With a higher emphasis on solar collectors, industrial processes that require temperatures in excess of 3500° C (I'd even venture that 5000° C could without many problems beyond having a material that could withstand those temperatures ) could be reached. It could be used to boil metals, although I don't know of any process that require boiling metals. Perhaps some applications in electronics?
Oh, speaking of industrial processes and technology: I bought The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century by Jürgen Osterhammel. It deals with the intersection of all the different factors of that century, with an emphasis in technological development. It might prove useful to make the counterfactual more realistic.
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5 000 would be very, very tough. The problem is that when concentrating a source like sunlight (i.e., non-coherent essentially black-body radiation), it's theoretically impossible to heat an object higher than the temperature of the source. Well, the (effective) surface of the Sun is about 5 000 degrees Celsius, so this is right at the limits of what's theoretically possible, and would require virtually perfect mirrors almost totally surrounding whatever object you're heating so that it could functionally "bathe" in the Sun. Even 3 500 degrees is pretty hard and requires a lot of precision engineering and large-scale construction, hence why Odellio is almost the only site in the world that does it.
Realistically, none of this is necessary anyway. Few industrial processes need temperatures like that to operate, and they create a lot of operational problems.
Next update should be coming next week at the earliest. I'm having very busy week, so I have little time to write or do anything but work.
However, the next update should focus on advances on Europe and the Middle East, as well as the commercial uses of Stirling cooling.
However, the next update should focus on advances on Europe and the Middle East, as well as the commercial uses of Stirling cooling.
Part 13: Ripples
Cairo, Egypt
July, 1887
Ibrahim studied the report the custom's agent sent him. Chemicals from Austria-Hungary for a competing firm, cotton from Brazil (not India, so maybe there was something going on in that part of the world)... and two more Cottrell Boilers, bought by a farming coop near Alexandria. With that, they were ten this year.
He immediately thought of an opportunity. Ibrahim and his firm's experience with the boilers were months ahead of others. He had gathered - and formed - the know-how to exploit them at their peak efficiency for the mininal cost, and he was well aware that he could sell that knowledge for a good price. He started drawing a plan, looking for candidates among his workforce that could teach others how to operate them.
Later that evening
Tahira walked down the streets, surrounded by her fellow workers. Most of them still carried their protective white robes, which also doubled as a reasonably modest clothes for those who took their faith more seriously.
Tahira also took it seriously, but she didn't have the energy nor the disposition to meet someone else's standards of piousness. Other women, however, were just tired and wanted to go home and cook and clean and then sleep.
And that, apparetly, was a crime for some people.
- Whores! You are nothing but whores exposing yourselves to men, tempting them away from Allah! - shouted a scrawny man. He was young and soft and his eyeglasses betrayed him as an intellectual, despite his clothes being tattered and dirty, in a way no working man (or woman) would wear.
He was pelted with pebbles, a subtle warning that rocks and stones would be next. Tahira's group had learned the hard way that they couldn't tolerate any such display, that they couldn't show any weakness or unwillingness to stand their ground. They have been beaten and abused by men - by thieves, by would-be rapists, and by the police - and nothing but brute force seemed to work. Luckily, this new brand of harrasser was the most pathetic of the bunch: rich kids with too many books on their heads and too many rousing speeches on their minds but not a single fiber of muscle gained by doing hard work. They talked big, but a few punches and kicks later their commitment to their faith evaporated and the legal threats and the begging began.
The kid fled, bloodied and humiliated, to his palace. To Tahira's surprise, some men shouted threats at him, in solidarity with their sisters and mothers and daughters.
- Someone should have a little chat with that Al-Afghani guy. That cleric is stirring the pot with his ideas of going back to the Hegira, and we'elre the ones who'll be spilled. - Said Zafira, the widow that acted like the leader of the group.
- That sound a bit blasphemous, Zafira.
- No, it does not! Nowhere in the Quran said that you can't criticize someone for wanting to go back to those days. I've read it.
- That's your problem, you read and you worry about things. You shouldn't do it.
- Tahira, you are still young and pretty, and you will marry a good man one day that will sustain you. You can afford to not worry. I can not. For the sake of my orphaned grandsons, I can not. If we don't hold our ground here and now, then we will lose it all. Nor can most of our colleagues. They aren't working for a pittance and then facing harassment on their way home because they like it. Most of us have no choice, or only worse choices. We are cornered.
- I... I think that maybe we should do something.
- Like what?.
- I don't know yet.
Siracuse, Sicily
Klaus sent a telegram to his wife, telling her that he had arrived well and that he would conclude his business shortly. He couldn't afford to tell her that he loved her, but that was implicit on the message at hand.
He always wondered what it would be to find a practical application for his device, to see someone actually using it, and if he would be happy when that time came. Now that the opportunity was here, he felt very little, it was more of a nuisance that stopped him from his real work on research, but a welcomed one as it would finally involve proof of the profitability of the device.
Andrea Sebastiani was his contact, an accountant for a sulphur mining operation in the interior. He looked a bit shady, or perhaps it was his mind finding a face to all the stories he had heard about organized criminals. Maybe both.
Pleasantries were exchanged, wine was drank and dinner was eaten before they went down to business.
Sebastiani proved a tough customer, inquiring about every aspect of the machine, its properties, its downsides and advantages.
- What about the night? Do these machines stop working during the night?
This question, above all others, had tormented him. During the night the collectors stopped working. There was nothing to be done about it, solar energy was useless for exactly half the time.
- Indeed. -Answered Klaus - Although they can perform work at a diminished capacity during cloudy days, at night they stop altogether. Without their power source, they don't work... but there are manners in which you could store that power during the night and then release it during the night. Are you familiar with compressed air systems?
Sebastiani shook his head, he didn't know about them.
- It's a method to store motive power, very common in Germany. Air is compressed in cylinders with a pump, and then the same pump acts as an engine when work is needed. At the scale we're operating, these should be a cost effective solution.
- What if we expand? Would they remain cost effective?
- For the amount of work your operation requires? You could expand it five times and still get enough work out of then to suit your needs. It's trying to power a town where the hard limits of this technology are reached.
- Doktor Hess, I understand that these devices can help us save on fuel and workers, but it is still an unproven technology, and my superiors sent me to speak with you hoping for a Panacea, which I know this device is not. I appreciate your honesty, but given the circumstances you have described, I am obligated to be cautious... which means that the original order can't be carried on. We will instead buy a test unit, and I would request your assistance purchasing and installing one of these compressed air devices. Your work with us will, of course, be adequately compensated.
Klaus, reluctantly, approved. He had ideas in his mind, hypotheses to test abd improvements to make, and negotiating felt like a waste of time.
London, United Kingdom
"Funds received. Will commence work immediately. CF"
Morgan Cottrell read the telegram and was satisfied with the answer. Although £5,000 seemed like a lot of money, his venture into solar power was proving extraordinarily profitable, and he projected that he would end the year closing a hundred and fifty sales across the world. From Brazil to Australia, Cottrell was becoming the name people associated with solar energy, and he was willing to gamble with the American inventor that claimed he could generate electricity out of sheers of gold and selenium.
Morgan's business was expanding, and he knew that there was a market beyond the industrial needs in hot climates. His engineers had designed and tested a solar water heater that was in effect a miniaturised version of his Solar Boiler, and could generate hot water even in cloudy weather. He had submitted his design to the patent office, and was reading the production line to offer thousands of these devices a month.
So he smiled when he received a letter from the Patent office, he could already count the profits.
Rejected.
Rejected on the grounds that the device was too similar to the one already provided by the Compañía Franco-Chilena de Energía Solar, submitted by Agustin Mouchot, Alejandro Puig, Constantino Serrano and Isidora Goyenechea. The devices were almost identical, based on the parabolic mirror designed for the extinct Tarapaca Saltpeter Company.
The smile on his face was gone, replaced by a cold fury at the insolent Latin Americans who dared to step on his turf.
"By the boreal summer of 1887, Solar energy was experiencing a massive - if still silent - consolidation. Experiments that were previously solely theoretical were giving way to testing of practical applications, and some large scale industrial applications in an area roughly delimited by the Tropics. While still far behind the extent of Solarization occuring near Almonte (which was still an outlier, given the small size of the town, the amount of irradiance it received and the resources gathered by the Franco-Chilena), the spread of these technologies as a somewhat viable alternative to coal began to influence events throughout the world. These events were probably the result of random and capricious acts, but they became inextricably attached to the development, adoption and perfection of solar power.
While the true changes will only be noted un the next decade and century, their kernels were planted in the later half of the 1880s.
July, 1887
Ibrahim studied the report the custom's agent sent him. Chemicals from Austria-Hungary for a competing firm, cotton from Brazil (not India, so maybe there was something going on in that part of the world)... and two more Cottrell Boilers, bought by a farming coop near Alexandria. With that, they were ten this year.
He immediately thought of an opportunity. Ibrahim and his firm's experience with the boilers were months ahead of others. He had gathered - and formed - the know-how to exploit them at their peak efficiency for the mininal cost, and he was well aware that he could sell that knowledge for a good price. He started drawing a plan, looking for candidates among his workforce that could teach others how to operate them.
Later that evening
Tahira walked down the streets, surrounded by her fellow workers. Most of them still carried their protective white robes, which also doubled as a reasonably modest clothes for those who took their faith more seriously.
Tahira also took it seriously, but she didn't have the energy nor the disposition to meet someone else's standards of piousness. Other women, however, were just tired and wanted to go home and cook and clean and then sleep.
And that, apparetly, was a crime for some people.
- Whores! You are nothing but whores exposing yourselves to men, tempting them away from Allah! - shouted a scrawny man. He was young and soft and his eyeglasses betrayed him as an intellectual, despite his clothes being tattered and dirty, in a way no working man (or woman) would wear.
He was pelted with pebbles, a subtle warning that rocks and stones would be next. Tahira's group had learned the hard way that they couldn't tolerate any such display, that they couldn't show any weakness or unwillingness to stand their ground. They have been beaten and abused by men - by thieves, by would-be rapists, and by the police - and nothing but brute force seemed to work. Luckily, this new brand of harrasser was the most pathetic of the bunch: rich kids with too many books on their heads and too many rousing speeches on their minds but not a single fiber of muscle gained by doing hard work. They talked big, but a few punches and kicks later their commitment to their faith evaporated and the legal threats and the begging began.
The kid fled, bloodied and humiliated, to his palace. To Tahira's surprise, some men shouted threats at him, in solidarity with their sisters and mothers and daughters.
- Someone should have a little chat with that Al-Afghani guy. That cleric is stirring the pot with his ideas of going back to the Hegira, and we'elre the ones who'll be spilled. - Said Zafira, the widow that acted like the leader of the group.
- That sound a bit blasphemous, Zafira.
- No, it does not! Nowhere in the Quran said that you can't criticize someone for wanting to go back to those days. I've read it.
- That's your problem, you read and you worry about things. You shouldn't do it.
- Tahira, you are still young and pretty, and you will marry a good man one day that will sustain you. You can afford to not worry. I can not. For the sake of my orphaned grandsons, I can not. If we don't hold our ground here and now, then we will lose it all. Nor can most of our colleagues. They aren't working for a pittance and then facing harassment on their way home because they like it. Most of us have no choice, or only worse choices. We are cornered.
- I... I think that maybe we should do something.
- Like what?.
- I don't know yet.
Siracuse, Sicily
Klaus sent a telegram to his wife, telling her that he had arrived well and that he would conclude his business shortly. He couldn't afford to tell her that he loved her, but that was implicit on the message at hand.
He always wondered what it would be to find a practical application for his device, to see someone actually using it, and if he would be happy when that time came. Now that the opportunity was here, he felt very little, it was more of a nuisance that stopped him from his real work on research, but a welcomed one as it would finally involve proof of the profitability of the device.
Andrea Sebastiani was his contact, an accountant for a sulphur mining operation in the interior. He looked a bit shady, or perhaps it was his mind finding a face to all the stories he had heard about organized criminals. Maybe both.
Pleasantries were exchanged, wine was drank and dinner was eaten before they went down to business.
Sebastiani proved a tough customer, inquiring about every aspect of the machine, its properties, its downsides and advantages.
- What about the night? Do these machines stop working during the night?
This question, above all others, had tormented him. During the night the collectors stopped working. There was nothing to be done about it, solar energy was useless for exactly half the time.
- Indeed. -Answered Klaus - Although they can perform work at a diminished capacity during cloudy days, at night they stop altogether. Without their power source, they don't work... but there are manners in which you could store that power during the night and then release it during the night. Are you familiar with compressed air systems?
Sebastiani shook his head, he didn't know about them.
- It's a method to store motive power, very common in Germany. Air is compressed in cylinders with a pump, and then the same pump acts as an engine when work is needed. At the scale we're operating, these should be a cost effective solution.
- What if we expand? Would they remain cost effective?
- For the amount of work your operation requires? You could expand it five times and still get enough work out of then to suit your needs. It's trying to power a town where the hard limits of this technology are reached.
- Doktor Hess, I understand that these devices can help us save on fuel and workers, but it is still an unproven technology, and my superiors sent me to speak with you hoping for a Panacea, which I know this device is not. I appreciate your honesty, but given the circumstances you have described, I am obligated to be cautious... which means that the original order can't be carried on. We will instead buy a test unit, and I would request your assistance purchasing and installing one of these compressed air devices. Your work with us will, of course, be adequately compensated.
Klaus, reluctantly, approved. He had ideas in his mind, hypotheses to test abd improvements to make, and negotiating felt like a waste of time.
London, United Kingdom
"Funds received. Will commence work immediately. CF"
Morgan Cottrell read the telegram and was satisfied with the answer. Although £5,000 seemed like a lot of money, his venture into solar power was proving extraordinarily profitable, and he projected that he would end the year closing a hundred and fifty sales across the world. From Brazil to Australia, Cottrell was becoming the name people associated with solar energy, and he was willing to gamble with the American inventor that claimed he could generate electricity out of sheers of gold and selenium.
Morgan's business was expanding, and he knew that there was a market beyond the industrial needs in hot climates. His engineers had designed and tested a solar water heater that was in effect a miniaturised version of his Solar Boiler, and could generate hot water even in cloudy weather. He had submitted his design to the patent office, and was reading the production line to offer thousands of these devices a month.
So he smiled when he received a letter from the Patent office, he could already count the profits.
Rejected.
Rejected on the grounds that the device was too similar to the one already provided by the Compañía Franco-Chilena de Energía Solar, submitted by Agustin Mouchot, Alejandro Puig, Constantino Serrano and Isidora Goyenechea. The devices were almost identical, based on the parabolic mirror designed for the extinct Tarapaca Saltpeter Company.
The smile on his face was gone, replaced by a cold fury at the insolent Latin Americans who dared to step on his turf.
"By the boreal summer of 1887, Solar energy was experiencing a massive - if still silent - consolidation. Experiments that were previously solely theoretical were giving way to testing of practical applications, and some large scale industrial applications in an area roughly delimited by the Tropics. While still far behind the extent of Solarization occuring near Almonte (which was still an outlier, given the small size of the town, the amount of irradiance it received and the resources gathered by the Franco-Chilena), the spread of these technologies as a somewhat viable alternative to coal began to influence events throughout the world. These events were probably the result of random and capricious acts, but they became inextricably attached to the development, adoption and perfection of solar power.
While the true changes will only be noted un the next decade and century, their kernels were planted in the later half of the 1880s.
I lied about the Stirling cooling bit. Those will have to wait until we return to the Atacama desert.
Aight, seems some rivalry between the anglos and latins is going to burn fiercely here. Let's hope it's not too destructive. And we're possibly seeing the beginnings of a home-grown feminist movement in Egypt?
Egypt DID have, and has, a home-grown Feminist movement IOTL, though its heyday was about a generation later.
Nice to read the solar industry is beginning to grow and spread plus see profits made. I wonder how long before a big concern like a mining company or private coal concern tries to shut things down?
Hope Egypt goes differently to OTL.
Can Solar power pumps and gates on the Suez?
Nice the Patents are being recognised as to the true inventors too...
Hope Egypt goes differently to OTL.
Can Solar power pumps and gates on the Suez?
Nice the Patents are being recognised as to the true inventors too...
Currently, the biggest reaction of a coal baron is that of Isidora Goyenechea, the wealthiest person in Chile and a very successful businesswoman. She was eager to adopt new technologies in OTL, and she embraced electricity as soon at it became practical. This gives me reason to believe that she would also embrace concentrated solar power if the techniques developed by Mouchot had been further developed.
Given that she has more experience than the three founders of the Franco-Chilena, she had the sense of protecting all of their intelectual property in the important parts of the world, which hasn't been a concern for Mouchot and Co. while they explore the potential of the technology.
As for the coal and oil industry, they will have a problem in their hands in a few years, and a nightmare in a few decades. And not just from solar power.
At this point it's an unacknowledged race between the British Empire and its resources, the Kaiserreich with its know-how, and Chile with its home advantage. Neither part really knows what the other two are doing, other than knowing that solar-powered devices are viable. The technologies they develop will be very different between them.
Part 14: Dawning realization
Lota, Chile
September, 1887
Augustin Mouchot gazed into the distance, as the horses slowly pulled the coach carrying him. It was a rainy morning, and miners came and went through the The production of towns not very different from this one had ruined his life's work, and hindered him for decades. He was still bitter over it... but he could spot a silver lining on it: on the roofs of almost every housing unit, one of his water heaters was installed. Here, in the very heart of a coal zone, his inventions were being used.
And used they were, even in a rainy day. They could produce lukewarm water, which was still better than the cold water they would otherwise use.
So there was hope. One day, he might return to France with his vision vindicated, and the power of the sun harnessed for all to use.
But in the present, he had business to attend. He was heading towards the Cousiño Palace, a place that rivalled in luxury any building in Paris, even if it was still under construction. Isidora Goyenechea awaited him, to discuss the developments going on in the Atacama desert. There was so much to go through... the approaches by the Chilean Government to assist in the exploitation of copper deposits, the new designs of solar ovens for food processes, the increase in production of water heaters to meet the demand from Santiago and other cities.
And, most importantly, the discovery of air liquification via Stirling cooling. Mouchot had spent 72 hours awake after watching that phenomenon, writing down every idea that he could think of, knowing full well that if he didn't it would be years before they revisited him. It took him the better part of a month to turn those incoherent ramblings of a madman into something that could be understood by people, but he was still proud that most of those ideas were viable.
The coach stopped in front of the palace. Pleasentries were exchanged, hands were shaken and, at last, Isidora Goyenechea and him were alone to talk about business. She sat in front of him, still in her stark black, across a large desk of solid ebony.
"Madame Goyenechea, I think that me and my team have stumbled upon something that might be revolutionary. It wasn't something that we were searching for, and it wasn't even a theory I had considered. In fact, if it wasn't for a watchful worker, it might have gone unnoticed."
"You must be referring to that talk about liquid air, aren't you? Mr. Serrano already told me about that discovery and that he was worried about you."
"Not exactly. I mean, air liquification will be an industry gamechanger once we can reliably produce and store it. Like any liquid, it can be separated into its components by different processes. Nitrogen or Argon could help keep produce and meat fresh for long-range trips, oxygen could allow fuels to burn brighter and cleaner, and even other gasses might be exploited. Carbon Dioxide, which represents about 350 parts per million of the atmosphere, could be used to make a substance called "dry ice" as well, which can then be stored and used to cool objects and spaces."
"At 350 parts per million? Would that be an efficient use of resources? Wouldn't it take a lot of air to produce any useable amount?"
"Indeed. And, bar some change in the atmosphere, it will remain so for the forseable future. It was just an example, although the most feasible given the current state of the art. Carbon Dioxide 'freezes' at a temperature closer to normal conditions than other gases. It's the only gas that we can reliably and store and extract."
"Just how cold are we talking here? Mr. Serrano didn't specify in the correspondence, other than it could liquify air. Around -50 °C?"
"It's closer to -195 °C, actually." Mouchot answered, knowing that that would impress Madame Goyenechea.
"How is that even possible?"
"Well, it's one of the properties of the Stirling Engine. Unlike a steam engine, the process is rev-""
"That was rethorical, Docteur Mouchot. I won't pretend to understand the processes behind your discoveries, with the basics I can work. You were saying that reaching these temperatures prove difficult? What about lower temperatures? Could they be used to reach, say, -100 °C or -75 °C?"
"Those are higher temperatures, Madame Goyenechea... "
"Oh, right. Negative numbers... a bit inconvenient."
"We could use the absolute scale developed by Lord Kelvin, if it would help." By the way she was looking, it wouldn't. "... or we could just keep this conversation on a need-to-know basis. Answering your questions, the main difficulty of producing liquid air is that, while we can reach them without difficulty, staying there is more difficult. The materials on the Stirling Engine become very brittle and fragile, cracking or grinding themselves into scrap. Metallurgy isn't quite where we need it to be to operate these machines... although we can see it from here. With dedicated research, I think that we could have a steel alloy suitable for that kind of work within two or three years. Storage is another problem. One that can be tackled with brute force, thankfully. I've designed a clay vessel that could store liquid air for a few hours before evaporating. It's bulky, though."
"What about higher temperatures, like the ones I've asked?"
"Those are significantly easier to reach and use. In Almonte we're developing a cooling unit that can cool a medium sized building. It can cool air down to -75 °C, which is then forced through a piping system to exchange heat. It still in a very primitive stage, but it can operate continuously and lower temperatures by up to 5 °C. We could have a viable commercial unit within a year."
"Hmm..." Isidora Goyenechea let slip. She was good at keeping things porfessional, but that sigh betrayed an idea forming in her mind.
"Could we integrate these cooling units with our heaters? The process needs a source of concentrated heat, right?"
"Indeed. I hadn't thought about it, but both systems could be integrated quite easily and perhaps even cheaper than building two separate systems." Mouchot said. "... it's actually quite a smart idea!"
"Thank you, Docteur Mouchot. I'm sure these devices could also be used for industrial refrigeration? Do they scale well?"
"In my estimate, they scale linearly. An array of them could provide enough cold to run an industrial freezer, although I don't know if they could be competitive with other processes in development. They're viable, at he very least."
"This could be very profitable for us, Docteur. Can the Franco-Chilena develop a viable unit for next year?"
"About that..."
"Yes?"
"Well, me and my team are already stretched thin. Between the solar collectors for motive power and heat, the domestic and light industrial heat developments and this newer avenue of research, we would need 72 hour days to keep up with the pace."
"And you'll need more educated talent, right? People that could help with that?"
"Indeed. Running the numbers, Monsieur Serrano estimates that we could sustain ten good engineers from Europe or the United States working on development, plus the resources needed to do that research. What we can't afford, however, is the research for cold-resistant materials. I've been thinking about installing a metallurgical laboratory in Almonte, which should allow us to develop the necessary alloys for viable liquid air production. Those are resources beyond the scope of what the Franco Chilena can provide in the short term."
"Granted." Isidora Goyenechea said in a confident tone. "The only condition is that I'll have a 40% stake on any and all patents and profits obtained from it."
Mouchot was shocked by the answer. He expected a round of negotiation, a back and forth that would lower his initial demands. Instead, Isidora Goyenechea just accepted the request for money, then and there.
"Madame Goyenechea... are you sure you want to accept so quickly? haven't you considered the viability of the project?"
"I haven't, but my acceptance doesn't come out of a whim, Docteur. You're not the only one doing research on solar energy." - She produced a folder from her desk. Out of it came a notebook and several notes and papers. "I could handle these to you, but I'm sure you've seen my little experiment going on in Lota."
"Come again? I am not sure if I follow."
"Oh, I meant your water heating devices. Did you think I bought them just out of the kindness of my heart? I love my workers and I strive to make their lives better, but I didn't spend a significant amount on them out of charity: For the past year or so I've been measuring the production and consumption of hot water... both on your solar collectors and on coal boilers... and the numbers are up."
"And what do those numbers show?"
"Between the two of us and these walls? That one day - perhaps soon - coal won't be able to compete with solar energy. Boiling water is cheaper on your devices than with coal, and the water remains warm and even hot through the night. Only on rainy days does coal remain viable... but those are a minority. I have no doubts that scale only favours solar over coal even more. And the genie is out of the bottle, if my informants in Europe are any indication: the British are also developing their own solar boilers. Now is the time to get in and make a fortune. Or keep one."
Mouchot, being a man of science, perused through the documents. And what he read brought tears to his eyes. At last, at the very last, his ideas had been vindicated.
The lack of what is now called "Advanced Human Capital" and developed infrastructure in late 19th Chile proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Compañía Franco-Chilena de Energía Solar. It forced the nascent company to deepen its links with Isidora Goyenechea, which in turn provided nearly limitless funds for Augustin Mouchot's research and development. In fact, studies on the early accounting reports of the Franco-Chilena suggest that they would have to wait at least a decade before reaching the profit levels needed to sustain the scale of research for the more arcane technologies envisioned by Mouchot.
Isidora Goyenechea, therefore, is arguably the key figure behind the Third Industrial Revolution that came into full force by the turn of the century. Her financial backing, and her keen eye for business helped to materialize Mouchot's vision and channel it towards immediate practical applications.
September, 1887
Augustin Mouchot gazed into the distance, as the horses slowly pulled the coach carrying him. It was a rainy morning, and miners came and went through the The production of towns not very different from this one had ruined his life's work, and hindered him for decades. He was still bitter over it... but he could spot a silver lining on it: on the roofs of almost every housing unit, one of his water heaters was installed. Here, in the very heart of a coal zone, his inventions were being used.
And used they were, even in a rainy day. They could produce lukewarm water, which was still better than the cold water they would otherwise use.
So there was hope. One day, he might return to France with his vision vindicated, and the power of the sun harnessed for all to use.
But in the present, he had business to attend. He was heading towards the Cousiño Palace, a place that rivalled in luxury any building in Paris, even if it was still under construction. Isidora Goyenechea awaited him, to discuss the developments going on in the Atacama desert. There was so much to go through... the approaches by the Chilean Government to assist in the exploitation of copper deposits, the new designs of solar ovens for food processes, the increase in production of water heaters to meet the demand from Santiago and other cities.
And, most importantly, the discovery of air liquification via Stirling cooling. Mouchot had spent 72 hours awake after watching that phenomenon, writing down every idea that he could think of, knowing full well that if he didn't it would be years before they revisited him. It took him the better part of a month to turn those incoherent ramblings of a madman into something that could be understood by people, but he was still proud that most of those ideas were viable.
The coach stopped in front of the palace. Pleasentries were exchanged, hands were shaken and, at last, Isidora Goyenechea and him were alone to talk about business. She sat in front of him, still in her stark black, across a large desk of solid ebony.
"Madame Goyenechea, I think that me and my team have stumbled upon something that might be revolutionary. It wasn't something that we were searching for, and it wasn't even a theory I had considered. In fact, if it wasn't for a watchful worker, it might have gone unnoticed."
"You must be referring to that talk about liquid air, aren't you? Mr. Serrano already told me about that discovery and that he was worried about you."
"Not exactly. I mean, air liquification will be an industry gamechanger once we can reliably produce and store it. Like any liquid, it can be separated into its components by different processes. Nitrogen or Argon could help keep produce and meat fresh for long-range trips, oxygen could allow fuels to burn brighter and cleaner, and even other gasses might be exploited. Carbon Dioxide, which represents about 350 parts per million of the atmosphere, could be used to make a substance called "dry ice" as well, which can then be stored and used to cool objects and spaces."
"At 350 parts per million? Would that be an efficient use of resources? Wouldn't it take a lot of air to produce any useable amount?"
"Indeed. And, bar some change in the atmosphere, it will remain so for the forseable future. It was just an example, although the most feasible given the current state of the art. Carbon Dioxide 'freezes' at a temperature closer to normal conditions than other gases. It's the only gas that we can reliably and store and extract."
"Just how cold are we talking here? Mr. Serrano didn't specify in the correspondence, other than it could liquify air. Around -50 °C?"
"It's closer to -195 °C, actually." Mouchot answered, knowing that that would impress Madame Goyenechea.
"How is that even possible?"
"Well, it's one of the properties of the Stirling Engine. Unlike a steam engine, the process is rev-""
"That was rethorical, Docteur Mouchot. I won't pretend to understand the processes behind your discoveries, with the basics I can work. You were saying that reaching these temperatures prove difficult? What about lower temperatures? Could they be used to reach, say, -100 °C or -75 °C?"
"Those are higher temperatures, Madame Goyenechea... "
"Oh, right. Negative numbers... a bit inconvenient."
"We could use the absolute scale developed by Lord Kelvin, if it would help." By the way she was looking, it wouldn't. "... or we could just keep this conversation on a need-to-know basis. Answering your questions, the main difficulty of producing liquid air is that, while we can reach them without difficulty, staying there is more difficult. The materials on the Stirling Engine become very brittle and fragile, cracking or grinding themselves into scrap. Metallurgy isn't quite where we need it to be to operate these machines... although we can see it from here. With dedicated research, I think that we could have a steel alloy suitable for that kind of work within two or three years. Storage is another problem. One that can be tackled with brute force, thankfully. I've designed a clay vessel that could store liquid air for a few hours before evaporating. It's bulky, though."
"What about higher temperatures, like the ones I've asked?"
"Those are significantly easier to reach and use. In Almonte we're developing a cooling unit that can cool a medium sized building. It can cool air down to -75 °C, which is then forced through a piping system to exchange heat. It still in a very primitive stage, but it can operate continuously and lower temperatures by up to 5 °C. We could have a viable commercial unit within a year."
"Hmm..." Isidora Goyenechea let slip. She was good at keeping things porfessional, but that sigh betrayed an idea forming in her mind.
"Could we integrate these cooling units with our heaters? The process needs a source of concentrated heat, right?"
"Indeed. I hadn't thought about it, but both systems could be integrated quite easily and perhaps even cheaper than building two separate systems." Mouchot said. "... it's actually quite a smart idea!"
"Thank you, Docteur Mouchot. I'm sure these devices could also be used for industrial refrigeration? Do they scale well?"
"In my estimate, they scale linearly. An array of them could provide enough cold to run an industrial freezer, although I don't know if they could be competitive with other processes in development. They're viable, at he very least."
"This could be very profitable for us, Docteur. Can the Franco-Chilena develop a viable unit for next year?"
"About that..."
"Yes?"
"Well, me and my team are already stretched thin. Between the solar collectors for motive power and heat, the domestic and light industrial heat developments and this newer avenue of research, we would need 72 hour days to keep up with the pace."
"And you'll need more educated talent, right? People that could help with that?"
"Indeed. Running the numbers, Monsieur Serrano estimates that we could sustain ten good engineers from Europe or the United States working on development, plus the resources needed to do that research. What we can't afford, however, is the research for cold-resistant materials. I've been thinking about installing a metallurgical laboratory in Almonte, which should allow us to develop the necessary alloys for viable liquid air production. Those are resources beyond the scope of what the Franco Chilena can provide in the short term."
"Granted." Isidora Goyenechea said in a confident tone. "The only condition is that I'll have a 40% stake on any and all patents and profits obtained from it."
Mouchot was shocked by the answer. He expected a round of negotiation, a back and forth that would lower his initial demands. Instead, Isidora Goyenechea just accepted the request for money, then and there.
"Madame Goyenechea... are you sure you want to accept so quickly? haven't you considered the viability of the project?"
"I haven't, but my acceptance doesn't come out of a whim, Docteur. You're not the only one doing research on solar energy." - She produced a folder from her desk. Out of it came a notebook and several notes and papers. "I could handle these to you, but I'm sure you've seen my little experiment going on in Lota."
"Come again? I am not sure if I follow."
"Oh, I meant your water heating devices. Did you think I bought them just out of the kindness of my heart? I love my workers and I strive to make their lives better, but I didn't spend a significant amount on them out of charity: For the past year or so I've been measuring the production and consumption of hot water... both on your solar collectors and on coal boilers... and the numbers are up."
"And what do those numbers show?"
"Between the two of us and these walls? That one day - perhaps soon - coal won't be able to compete with solar energy. Boiling water is cheaper on your devices than with coal, and the water remains warm and even hot through the night. Only on rainy days does coal remain viable... but those are a minority. I have no doubts that scale only favours solar over coal even more. And the genie is out of the bottle, if my informants in Europe are any indication: the British are also developing their own solar boilers. Now is the time to get in and make a fortune. Or keep one."
Mouchot, being a man of science, perused through the documents. And what he read brought tears to his eyes. At last, at the very last, his ideas had been vindicated.
The lack of what is now called "Advanced Human Capital" and developed infrastructure in late 19th Chile proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Compañía Franco-Chilena de Energía Solar. It forced the nascent company to deepen its links with Isidora Goyenechea, which in turn provided nearly limitless funds for Augustin Mouchot's research and development. In fact, studies on the early accounting reports of the Franco-Chilena suggest that they would have to wait at least a decade before reaching the profit levels needed to sustain the scale of research for the more arcane technologies envisioned by Mouchot.
Isidora Goyenechea, therefore, is arguably the key figure behind the Third Industrial Revolution that came into full force by the turn of the century. Her financial backing, and her keen eye for business helped to materialize Mouchot's vision and channel it towards immediate practical applications.
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Mouchot's very lucky to find that patron alright. Chile is the center of a revolution!
I know nothing about low-temperature materials science, how believable is the prediciton of taking three years to make a metal alloy that will allow a reverse-stirling to handle cryogenic temperatures?
I know nothing about low-temperature materials science, how believable is the prediciton of taking three years to make a metal alloy that will allow a reverse-stirling to handle cryogenic temperatures?