Wait x3...oh no, oh f..... please don't let my cynical side to be true. I don't want to imagine what happened...oh dear...moving on...October, 1891
Canicattini Bagni, Sicily
Klaus sat in his office with a pen in his hand, pondering how to get hydrogen to increase the efficiency of the Stirling engines (perhaps it could be made locally using electrolysis?) for an air liquefaction setup. Orders from the Leopoldina, which irked him as it slowed his progress on the electrification project for the town. An idea was forming in his mind when he was startled by an urgent knock on his door.
- Vieni dentro - He said in a passable Italian. In came a scrawny looking man, panting like and clearly tired.
- Messaggio urgente. - The man responded, also in a passable Italian. He handed Klaus an envelope with Klara's wax seal. Klaus in turn gave the man some coins and sent him on his way.
He broke the seal and began reading. The handwriting was shaky, as was her grammatical structure.
"Love,
I am not well. I was heckled off the podium during my exposition on the Phoenician-Greek commerce. I couldn't handle it and I completely forgot the rest of it. All the work I've done for a year has been wasted, and the dread is eating me up. Please come, I need you here with me.
Your Klara."
He read it for a second time. It was unusual, to say the least. And if Klara felt that it was urgent, then it was. And so he mounted on his safety bicycle and hit the road towards his home on the outskirts of Syracuse. It was a downhill trip, which took less than ninety minutes. He didn't waste time greeting anyone as he went inside the house, upstairs and to the bedroom. Klara laid there, sobbing still. He hugged her as he hugged during the time after her father's death, and she in turn hugged him back. Objectively, it wasn't the end of the world, just a bad day.
But it was the day that couldn't be anything but perfect for Klara, and it was ruined by a heckler. For her it was as important as the demonstration at the Leopoldina was for him, all those years ago. No words were needed, not when they've gone through so much together. It took almost an hour before she spoke, her voice calm but exhausted.
- All I could understand was something about her child. - She said.
- The heckler? - Klaus asked, only realising how dumb he was - You don't have any contact with kids.
- I know... I recognized the heckler. I bumped into her a few times in the past. Now I think she was following me.
- A stalker? - Klaus asked, worried.
- No, she had a sales stand near the library. I bought some fruit from her a few times. She always looked so sad.
- How worried are you?
- A bit. She was barred from entering the library for life, and was jailed shortly afterwards... but why would she heckle me about kids? I've never worked near them.
- Maybe she's just a crazy lady. But still, I don't want to be alone for the next weeks.
Ok, for something that would create less depressing thoughts...well, there would some advancement in term in Sterling's engine efficiency and perhaps by the end of the decade, they would achieve something that Philips were only capable of in 1950s IOTL. (Then again that could be me being very optimistic to balanced to very pessimistic side of me in regards to this)- Well... I don't think you've ever seen the results of your husband's work, have you?
- Oh. Now that you've mentioned, no I haven't.
- How about you stay with me? Maybe you can help me in test a theory.
- Really? What are you trying to prove.
- The walls of my office are pretty thick. I want to prove if they're soundproof.
She looked blankly at him, before slapping him when she understood.
- We'll start our research tomorrow. - She said, smiling.
... The renewed interest for Stirling engines that the Solar industry demanded resulted in a rapid exhaustion of the direct improvements that could be achieved with the technological developments of the late XIX century. A Stirling engine built in 1888 was a completely different creature to one built in 1890, and the performance and effectiveness were worlds apart.
And yet, the actual efficiency of Stirling engines was limited by the working fluid. Air was workable and produced 25% efficiency, but ideal gas equations suggested an efficiency close to 50%, and it was clear that it wasn't the best option. It would take years for the adoption of hydrogen as the working fluid of choice, which reached 40% efficiency.
In the meantime, the demand for these engines continued to increase among solar applications and its derivatives. Solar cryonics and Hess Arrays were already viable by the time hydrogen became the standard working fluid. Its adoption was the breakthrough that ensured it would be one of the defining technologies of the XX century.
As the design first appeared in the 1830s, it should be in the Public Domain by now. Which is very good for this timeline.Well whomever holds the Sterling Engine patent is making a fortune.
Hope Klara and Klaus will be ok.
Well you came back, I hope you are doing well BTW, but let's get on with it
Wait x3...oh no, oh f..... please don't let my cynical side to be true. I don't want to imagine what happened...oh dear...moving on...
Ok, for something that would create less depressing thoughts...well, there would some advancement in term in Sterling's engine efficiency and perhaps by the end of the decade, they would achieve something that Philips were only capable of in 1950s IOTL. (Then again that could be me being very optimistic to balanced to very pessimistic side of me in regards to this)
The mine operator were up to no good aren't they, since the cynical part of me that say the women didn't even given any compensation for what stems from basically their negligence (or even cruelty)
The option that most readily comes to mind is not electrolysis, but thermolysis (directly cooking steam to well over 2000 celsius to crack it into hydrogen and oxygen), or perhaps something like the Water Gas Shift reaction (hot metal + carbon monoxide + steam = hydrogen and CO2--much lower temperature requirements, but will require some coal or gas as feedstock). More recent research has found potential catalysts for low-temperature thermolysis, but that might be beyond the abilities of the late 19th century to figure out (unless they stumble on it by accident).October, 1891
Canicattini Bagni, Sicily
Klaus sat in his office with a pen in his hand, pondering how to get hydrogen to increase the efficiency of the Stirling engines (perhaps it could be made locally using electrolysis?) for an air liquefaction setup.
I'm not sure that direct thermolysis is practical--for one thing the material requirements for process piping would be formidable, for another allegedly the sulfur-iodine cycle (which has the same net effect but a maximum process temperature of merely 850 C) is "too high temperature" for concentrating solar power, at least economical CSP. The same would surely be much more true of a 2000 C process.The option that most readily comes to mind is not electrolysis, but thermolysis (directly cooking steam to well over 2000 celsius to crack it into hydrogen and oxygen), or perhaps something like the Water Gas Shift reaction (hot metal + carbon monoxide + steam = hydrogen and CO2--much lower temperature requirements, but will require some coal or gas as feedstock).
The option that most readily comes to mind is not electrolysis, but thermolysis (directly cooking steam to well over 2000 celsius to crack it into hydrogen and oxygen), or perhaps something like the Water Gas Shift reaction (hot metal + carbon monoxide + steam = hydrogen and CO2--much lower temperature requirements, but will require some coal or gas as feedstock). More recent research has found potential catalysts for low-temperature thermolysis, but that might be beyond the abilities of the late 19th century to figure out (unless they stumble on it by accident).
I'm not sure that direct thermolysis is practical--for one thing the material requirements for process piping would be formidable, for another allegedly the sulfur-iodine cycle (which has the same net effect but a maximum process temperature of merely 850 C) is "too high temperature" for concentrating solar power, at least economical CSP. The same would surely be much more true of a 2000 C process.
Oh boy, a heat engine with hydrogen as a working fluid? That sounds very spicy. Spring a leak too close to the hot reservoir and you've got yourself a flamethrower. But it could gain fair popularity if they get the seals good enough. One thing I wonder is how often the hydrogen will need to be topped off- that stuff is notorious for gradually defusing out of any container you try to keep it in.
Turning those is sure to cause some accidents. The massive mechanisms needed to move them accurately are going to need a lot of care. But propably still less than coal miningDaily Coal Tonne Equivalent at minimum insolation, with the yearly equivalent of Anthracite and human figure to scale
(work in progress)View attachment 847821
After making some experiments in Blender and some calculations, a mirror with a radius of 25 meters should produce the equivalent of 1 tonne of anthracite of energy during the Winter Solstice in Almonte.
The cube is the total yearly production of energy as anthracite.
This timeline is definitely gonna see a lot less Zeppelin's in WW1 if you could just burn a hole straight through the dirigibles material.You know, I'm certain these will be weaponized, just like Archimedes' Solar Rays.
This timeline is definitely gonna see a lot less Zeppelin's in WW1 if you could just burn a hole straight through the dirigibles material.
I will say though, maybe I'm wrong because if you were able to weaponize it and give it a decent enough range it could also make trench warfare as we know it obsolete.
Like, imagine how horrifying it would be if you and your platoon came across a friendly trench and it's full of Vapourized Skeletons like Spiderman 1:
Pretty sure you don't need to sneak up with it, it's basically reflecting a concentrated beam of sunlight, I bet the range on one would be enough that as long as you can see the enemy you can possibly hit them. I think aiming them would be the real issue as it'd probably take so long to turn around to new targets it would be destroyed before hand.idk how you'd sneak up on a trench with a 50+ m tall mirror, doesn't seem very portable to me. Maybe if you did it at night.
You know, I'm certain these will be weaponized, just like Archimedes' Solar Rays.
They focus light on a point directly in front of them, not in a beam. If you built one to focus further away, the energy concentrated would drop significantly. It won't have a 'range' much past its own length. Further, focusing it down towards a target on the ground would be a colossal loss of sunlight.Pretty sure you don't need to sneak up with it, it's basically reflecting a concentrated beam of sunlight, I bet the range on one would be enough that as long as you can see the enemy you can possibly hit them. I think aiming them would be the real issue as it'd probably take so long to turn around to new targets it would be destroyed before hand.
They focus light on a point directly in front of them, not in a beam. If you built one to focus further away, the energy concentrated would drop significantly. It won't have a 'range' much past its own length. Further, focusing it down towards a target on the ground would be a colossal loss of sunlight.
This is a very silly idea. Maybe for April fools?