Solar Dreams: a history of solar energy (1878 - 2025)
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Thats a fascinating paper ScorchedLight, thanks for linking it! Relevant to TTL's themes indeed!
There are four "main" players in the development of Solar technology in this story (while other inventors are also experimenting with it, but from a narrative and historiographical perspective, these characters are the ones who will cause the most impact), which already diverged the timeline from OTL.
Among the most important changes:
Patrick Egan's scheme - a parallel to the Baltimore Crisis - ended in a humilliation for the United States, with the Royal Navy forcing the expulsion of US Navy ships. This has deteriorated the relations between the British Empire and the United States. In the United States, it also resulted in a minor scandal due to Patrick Egan's colusion with a certain San Francisco Press magnate. In Europe, the Monroe Doctrine has been defied, which will lead to further influence in Latin America, by the British and other actors.
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In Chile, the Balmaceda administration ended without further problems, as the actors who would conspire against it in OTL would disgrace themselves in the Tarapaca Saltpeter Company Massacre. However, this same event resulted in the de facto expropriation of the Saltpeter Industry by the British Empire as a compensation for the murder of several British citizens. This left Balmaceda without the resources to implement most of his ambitious modernization plans, while leaving copper mining as the only viable alternative to copper as a source of income for the Chilean State - a less profitable one.
Chile is politically stable, but without many options to increase public expenditure.
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Egypt is among the first widespread users of solar energy, which is spreading from both the upper layers of society (business owners and the government) and the lower layers (poor people using solar energy as a cheaper alternative to fueled sources of heat). The decision of a Christian Copt businessowner and early adopter of this technology to employ women as operators of the Solar Boilers has cascaded into a cultural preconception that Solar Power operation is a rather feminine occupation. This is secondary to its adoption by Panarabic and Panmuslim thinkers as a symbol of the potential of their society.
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As for the characters, Agustin Mouchot has built a successful company. More importantly, he has proved the concept and established a bureau which expands and innovates upon his work. He has still some ideas which will set him as one of the most important inventors of the 19th Century, but he isn't the prime mover of the company anymore or a Steve Jobs-like figure. The company is developing a wide variety of solar-powered devices, and can consistently reach temperatures between 73 K and 5273 K.
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Morgan Cottrell has unwittingly invented the concept of Venture Capitalism a century earlier, although his method involves a careful examination of the proposed inventions, which need to demonstrate their viability to a comittee of experts, or be in line with current scientific understanding. Among the inventions developed under this method is an early - and mysterious - photovoltaic cell and what we would now call a mountain bike, with deraileurs and suspension.
He is also profiting from solar parabolic throughs and improving on Mouchot's original design. These designs are more focused on providing steam and motive power, acting more as a boilers than furnaces. He has also led a project which made a working copy of the Analytical Engine, and translated Babbage's notes into something normal people can read.
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In Sicily, Klauss Hess is experimenting with solar arrays, to produce electricity. An early adopter of this technology is the Sicilian sulphur mining industry. He is also experimenting with Stirling cryonics... without much enthusiasm.
It's not as important, perhaps as above, but @ScorchedLight forgot to mention that in both Egypt and Chile some important buildings now have Air Con.
A smaller event, but one with a bigger impact than some other stuff l think, we Humans like our comfort.
A smaller event, but one with a bigger impact than some other stuff l think, we Humans like our comfort.
The British were the main enforcers of Monroe Doctrine were they not? As it benefited them the most to keep other Europeans out.
The British and the US backed opposite sides during the War of the Pacific, and the US would often oppose British interests in the region, most famously in the Venezuelan Crisis of 1895.
The Baltimore Crisis was also in part engineered as plot to gain control over the Nitrate deposits in Chile, which were controlled by British interests - although not to the extent seen ITTL.
(About those dots before each paragraph: When I'm using the desktop browser, it deletes the last jump line if I use the delete button anywhere, so I've resorted to that to stop it from happening.)
I guess US is going to fight on the side of the Germans...well fuck, bye bye British Empire.
Fascist UK in 1940s, anyone?
The Entente Agreement hasn’t even been signed yet, and the US’ foreign policy is more sophisticated than ‘declare war on anyone who humiliates us in any way whatsoever’.
And who says World War I is going to happen exactly as OTL? For all we know, the British might sit that one out if a war happens.
Part 29: A Night to Remember
February, 1893
Caltanissetta, Sicily
I
- "Well, these are my terms, Mr. Sebastiani. You can take them or leave them.". Klaus wondered if he had the strength to throw the desk onto the old Sicilian man. It was a nice, solid desk, one in which Klaus had spent many evenings making calculations and parsing data, or just staring into the beautiful countryside. Those pleasurable memories now stung with remorse over their price.
- "You are being unreasonable, Herr Klaus." - Sebastiani responded.
- "Doctor Klaus. And I fail to see how these terms would be unreasonable to any civilized man."
- "Do you really think we can afford to work with adults in those mines? Or that a fully grown man could fit inside the tunnels?"
- "I don't think that. I know it's entirely possible because we did it in Prussia sixty years ago." - Klaus answered, feeling some measure of national pride he didn't know he had. - "And I don't believe that even before that the conditions were quite as horrid as they are here."
- "Well, I'll tell you something: Sicily isn't Prussia. The kids you're so vehemently defending have nowhere else to go, their parents leave them with us. In some cases they sell them to us. We're all they have."
- "And I know that you are lying. I've actually talked with the parents of some of the kids you've taken. What you've done to those families..." - Klaus unconsciously grabbed the desk, felt the weight and realized that he wouldn't be able to throw it with enough force to do anything. That the thought crossed his mind was enough reason to take a breath and calm down, even if the bastard deserved something thrown at him. - "... few things I've seen are as despicable as that."
- "Doctor Hess, I'm afraid I can't accept your terms. We can afford to stop using electricity in our mines, which isn't the case with children. I don't understand your thought. These kids are provided for, have daily rations and some even earn money. Don't you think this is good for them?"
- "Mr. Sebastiani, I've seen some of the kids you sent to work on my concentrators begging your overseers to not drag them back into the mines. I've seen some of the kids deformed by the backbreaking labour your company has subjected them to begging on the streets, or dying on them. This whole enterprise is criminal, and it is my shame that I've ever associated with you."
- "An association which has been very profitable to you, if I recall correctly. Isn't it? Hasn't it allowed you to fund your research?"
- "Yes it has. That's another shame I'll have to burden. But the Leopoldina will fund my research if needed. I don't need your money."
- "I am sorry that we'll have to part ways in this manner, Doctor Klaus. I am sorry that you think we're being evil when we're just helping those who have no other options."
- "If this is your idea of help, perhaps you ought to stop and leave fate have its' way with these kids. At least then it'd be quick."
That last comment appeared to hit, as a single tear ran down Andrea's face. It felt both satisfying to watch and heartbreaking.
- "Very well, Doctor Hess. You've made your point very clear. I don't think I can't retain you any longer. I wish you success in your future endeavours, and perhaps one day we may find under better circumstances." - Andrea Sebastiani strecthed his hand for a final handshake. Klaus looked at his hand, and then to his eyes. A man who had grown rich over the exploitation of children, who had destroyed countless families and left the discarded and ruined boys as soon as they weren't capable of work. That was the man who asking for a handshake to part on good terms.
- "Good bye, Mr. Sebastiani. I hope that Christ will forgive you for your sins." - Klaus said, deliberately refusing to shake hands. He closed his notebook and went outside the small office one last time basking in the beauty of Caltanissetta. At least now he'd be able to look Klara in the eyes.
II
The next night, Klara surprised Klaus by dressing in her best evening gown and compelling him to stop his work for a bit. He accepted at once, almost enthralled by her beauty. He asked her if she wanted for him to prepare for the evening, still not understanding what was the occasion. He always finished the day a bit disheveled.
- "Not if you don't want to. And I'd rather spend those minutes with you."
- "Oh, then I won't. What's the occasion?"
- "I am celebrating that I married a good man. I knew you'd do the right thing even if it costed us."
- "After what I saw, I wouldn't do it any other way. It was monstrous." - A spark of outrage came and went, remembering what his work had enabled these years.
- "Can we... stop thinking about that? It's over. We'll head back to Germany and start over. Now, let's go down to the dinner room. I've prepared you a surprise."
A surprise indeed. On the table there was a full course meal, cooked to perfection by Klara and her domestic helpers. That he didn't notice any of it was a sign of how absorbed in his work he could get. He usually made do with a sandwich and, if he was totally honest, he didn't think that Klara was capable of cooking like that.
- "Are those pork ribs?"
- "In the pomeranian style. I think this is your favourite, right?"
- "Yes" - He said, baffled. Not once had he told her what he liked to eat. He didn't much care for food in general. He would eat as quickly as possible, and even cook when Klara couldn't or wouldn't. - "but how did you know?"
- "I carry a little notebook with all I need to know about you." - She said, in jest. - "I asked your friends and family."
- "My favourite indeed, and this smells wonderful!"
- "Then, let's start." - She said. - "I am very proud of you, my love. You did the difficult thing, the right thing."
- "It wasn't difficult at all. Not after I saw those boys." - he thought about that for a moment. Several years, and he never saw or even suspected he was enabling such evil. - "Am I really a good man?"
- "My love, you didn't know. And you took steps once you did. That's all that can be done. Now... let's forget about the horror for this evening. Let's drink and look up to our future, instead." - She raised her cup and waited for the toast. Klaus did and was almost intoxicated by the wine's smell even before tasting it. Klara noted that, and explained. - "This is a gift from Miss Rancatore."
- "The hag that harrassed you gave you this wine?" - Klaus asked.
- "Yes. And she was right to do so. I'd do the same if they were my kids." - Klara hesitated for a bit, then drank a long sip of the wine. Klaus understood why, and looked her into her eyes, telling everything she needed to calm down. A conversation had a thousand times before, reduced to a single glance. - "But perhaps we should talk about the future, instead of the past."
- "About that... I think I have an avenue of research ready. I've already sent a proposal which might get an approved."
- "So tell me."
- "Solar energy is the future. There's no doubt about it, there are some factories in the Atacama Desert that now operate without burning a single lump of coal. The other day I saw a building with one of those Solar Boilers the English are producing on its roof. There's no doubt that that crazy Frenchman baking in the desert was right: the sun can provide enough energy to suit our needs, but there's only one problem."
- "It's away half of the time?" - She guessed.
- "That's it! So we have to find a way do deal with the intermittency. I have an idea for a building-sized battery, which should provide enough power for a small city until my concentrators can kick in. Lead-acid batteries ough to be enough, but we could take advantage of their charge surges to charge Kleistian jars and provide a flow of constant voltage direct current. So, it's just a matter of improving the batteries and prevent adsorption on the catodes and anodes to retard corrosion." - He said, enthusiastically. Klara just looked at him, smiling. - "You didn't hear anything of what I've said, right?"
- "... I tried. It's just that I don't have the mind for it. I think I'm better with the past."
- "You and your philhellenism." - He said, getting a chuckle out of her. "I guess I'll have to show it to you."
- "I'll guess you'll have to." - She said, smiling.
- "This wine is amazing. Please tell me you got more than a bottle?"
- "She offered me three barrels. Turns out she has quite the vineyard. But I had to turn her down, after you turned the wine cellar into a laboratory."
- "Well, the place was well suited for cryonic storage. I guess the builders of this place knew what they were doing. The thermal stability of that cellar is amazing."
The evening was on to a good start.
III
A loud noise awoke Klaus. It wasn't a strike and it wasn't a shot, but he couldn't identify it. Klaus' conscience returned in parts. First his self-awareness, then his thought, and then his senses. Klara's skin against his', cold bedsheets damp with sweat and a tinge of wine in their breaths came in first. Then moonlight entering through the window, enough to discern volume and distance. Then steps and loud voices in Sicilian. Close. Beneath their room, at the Manor's main entrance. Forcing their way in.
He shook Klara until she was awake. She started to protest, but he shut her mouth with his hands.
- "There are people here. Put some clothes, quick. We need to get out of here." - He said. It wasn't a plan, not yet. Within a minute, both were dressed enough, and another idea appeared. He kept a revolver in his office, in case something like this ever happened. He kept it under lock and key, but he thought that the door would hold on for a few more seconds. After that, he'd have something to fight back, whomev-
Andrea Sebastiani. It couldn't be anyone else. He had come to seek vengeance with a group of thugs.
It didn't matter. He had to find the key, it was somewhere in his desk. Not in the first drawer. Not in the second. By the third, he was ripping the drawers off, there was no time left.
The main door bursted, steps and loud voices came much clearer this time. Klara covered her mouth and shouted. Loudly enough to give their position. More steps. Nearer.
The last drawer, the closest to the floor. The logical place to hide something. He tore it from the desk and shook its contents over it. Down came the brass key. Steps outside. The office door ought to hold long enough for him to recover the gun.
A shot disintegrated the door lock, propelling it with enough force to make sparks when it impacted against the stone wall. In came three thugs carrying guns, axes and clubs. Behind them, impeccably dressed, came Sebastiani.
- "Doctor Hess, Frau Hess... I'm sorry it has come to this, but you disrespected me in front of my men, so now I have to send a message. Please, follow me."
IV
- "First we will thrash this place. Then we will set it on fire. Then you'll go back to work for me, until your debt is paid. You will see everything you've built with my money destroyed, Doctor Hess." - Sebastiani said, venom pouring from his voice. Axes came down the desk, notebooks were ripped, decorations shattered and the furniture was ripped apart. Then the same happened to the room, then the dining room, the kitchen and the garden Klara nurtured. She fainted early on, skipping most of the violence. A small mercy that punctuated the ongoing horror. Within five minutes, the villa was almost completely destroyed. They spent another five destroying the Solar Concentrators he used to produce liquid air. That hurt.
- "You are a monster, Sebastiani. God will judge you."
- "I am not going to be lectured on religion by a Lutheran heretic like you. Has it occurred to you that maybe I'm God's agent on Earth? Do you even know how many people I've led to Christ in these troubling times? Maybe God is using me to punish you, Herr Hess."
- "You better shoot me, I won't be going back to your mines. I won't work for you."
- "That's acceptable too. But first you get to see all your work undone. Death shouldn't be a relief."
The thugs dragged Klaus and the unconscious Klara towards the wine cellar, to continue their rampage.
- "I didn't imagine you for a cultured man, Herr Hess. Few Germans know their wine, and few Germans would appreciate the wine produced by that old cunt. Congratulations. Now you get to see your whole reserves poured on the floor and pissed upon."
- "That isn't a wine cellar anymore."
Upon hearing that, Sebastiani gestured his men to stop. He then faced Klaus and slapped him. A feeble slap, all things considered. Unsurprising, given how old and weak Sebastiani looked.
- "I don't care what you have in there. It's getting destroyed along anything else in this place. This is what your impertinence brings you."
And then, a plan finally was formed in his mind.
- "Please, Mr. Sebastiani. Let me keep my life's work. It is worth a fortune." - Klaus said, appealing to Sebastiani's sadism.
- "No. I don't care anymore. You insulted me, and I already have a fortune. Your disrespect will cost yours'."
Klaus struggled as two thugs dragged him inside, the other carrying Klara over his shoulder. She woke up and struggled briefly, before looking at Klaus in the eyes. Klaus looked back, and she calmed down. The thug carrying her dropped her like a sack of potatoes and joined the other two as they waited for Sebastiani's signal to start their work.
- " I see that your lovely wife woke up. Klaudia, isn't it? A pleasure to meet you." - Sebastiani said, giving a lascivious look at her. - "...So this is your life's work? These metal barrels?" - He pointed towards the six Dewar flasks, each containing two cubic meters of liquid air at normal pressure.
- "Please, Mr. Sebastiani, I'm working on a revolutionary fuel source. It can burn ten times longer than coal, but is stable and safe at room temperature. It will change everything. Please, Mr. Sebastiani, I beg you!" - Sebastiani proved to be suggestible. Pushing him to the right direction wouldn't be too difficult."
- "Does it? Then perhaps we can use it to burn your home. Thank you for providing us with the means." - And with that, he ordered the men to rip one of the flasks from its base. The thugs at first tried to push one with their hands, burning them with the extreme cold.
- "See? I told you, it can remain hot for months!" - Klaus said, in his most defeated tone.
- "I don't have time for your nonsense. Now we three get to witness the end of your lifetime's work" - Sebastiani told Klaus. He then shouted something, and the men struck the flasks with their weapons.
One hit, two hits, and the first Dewar flask dented. The third shook it out of its' base, and Klaus noticed how it started to leak. The fourth hit came from the man wielding the axe. It pierced the flask. At first nothing happened, as Klaus expected. A few seconds later, the liquid air began to boil, forming a jet that engulfed the men. It was hard to tell if it was gaseous or liquid, but it didn't matter. The cryonic temperature burned the thugs' skin before freezing it. One was pushed against the wall and pinned in place by the force of the jet, until he shattered and disintegrated. Another one fell into the mist, never to be seen again. The third, the one carrying the shotgun, managed to cover his face with the gun, and was mostly unscathed.
He pointed the gun at Klara and fired, but nothing happened. He tried again, but his finger freezed in place. At such low temperatures, his nervous system struggled to send signals, so he didn't even realize he was wading in a shallow pool of liquid air until he tried to walk, breaking his leg and falling face first into the cryonic nightmare. He struggled for a few seconds, shouting for his mother before expiring. With Klara and Sebastiani in shock, and Klaus mesmerized by the spectacle of physics unfolding in front of him, the only thing moving now was the compromised Dewar flask. It almost seemed as if it was trying to free itself, as if it was protesting its predicament like a caged animal. It finally came off, and like a rocket it slammed against another flask, knocking it out of place and causing a chain reaction that resulted in the total destruction of the lab.
The cellar's temperature was dropping fast, and in a matter of minutes it would reach polar temperatures. But they had a few seconds. Klaus looked at Sebastiani in the eye, the old man was just starting to realize his situation. Klaus grabbed Sebastiani by the neck. The Sicilian businessman tried to negotiate, then beg, as Klaus dragged him to the pool of liquid air.
- "I really hope you've asked Christ for forgiveness." - Klaus said to Sebastiani, before pushing him into the boiling and freezing pool. And that was that for Andrea Sebastiani.
Klaus made sure that Klara got out first, before watching one last time the frozen inferno he had unleashed.
- "I thought you hated that lab." - Klara said with a weird calmness in her voice, either because she was catatonic or because she was trying to cope with the brief horror that they had lived.
- "I did. But then I realized that I may have accidentally told that old bastard the truth."
- "What do you mean?"
- "While you were unconscious, I told him that my life's work was in that lab to entice him into destroying it, because there was a secret fuel I was developing."
- "But it was just air, you whined about it a thousand times."
- "I didn't whine!" - Klaus protested. - "Anyways, the force with which it boiled made me think that it be used to replace steam. Not exactly a fuel, but it can be used to store energy to be used later."
- "And you were thinking this as people were dying all around you?" - Klara asked. A question that perplexed him.
- "... yes." - Klaus admitted, which caused Klara to burst out laughing.
- "I married a weird man. He can't get out of the lab even as he's killing an old man with liquid air." - She said, between snorts of unladylike laughter.
- "And I married a weird woman. She's laughing because I killed an old man with liquid air." - He answered, also laughing in an undignified way.
- "There's something very wrong with us." - Klara said.
- "... yes." - He said, which sent Klara into another fit of laughter. - "But I think that this was our cue to leave this island. We leave tomorrow at dawn. I don't want to come here ever again."
[...]The development of Solar Energy was of secondary importance for Germany during the first half of the 1890s. Epistolary records between the Director of the German Academy of Sciences and Whilhem II show clear skepticism on the part of the Young Kaiser on the merits of this source of power, even as it was starting to become an appreciable factor in the economies of British colonies and Northern Chile. Some of the skepticism comes from the Kaiser's shortsighted chauvinism which dismissed it as "a french invention" unsuitable for German climates, and in part from a very understandable concern with intermittency, a flaw which all early Solar systems possessed.
So it is surprising that, in 1895, it was a German researcher who developed one of the earliest forms of viable large-scale energy storage: the Liquid Air battery. Although not an electrochemical battery, it was a device that could store and then release energy by forcing the boiling fluid through a modified triple-expansion engine. It offered several advantages over electrochemical batteries, having higher energy density, being more economical to build and operate, while requiring no rare or dangerous materials. Crucially, the liquid air was also portable once produced, allowing it to act as a fuel for the emerging automobile industry, giving it a flexibility that electrochemical batteries lacked.
More importantly, the Liquid Air battery decoupled energy production from energy consumption. Other contemporary systems did the same with work (such as compressed air) or with heat (Mouchot's phase-change reservoirs), which made them less versatile than a true energy storage system. At the cost of a slight loss in efficiency, solar energy could be converted to motive power or electricity on demand. Other fuel-less sources also benefited from this breakthrough, with Poul La Cour adapting it for use with its wind turbines in 1897, and the Aeromotor Company in Texas offering a "wind energy system" in 1904 that radically changed the way of life for farmers in the Mid West.[...]
[...]Given the importance of this breakthrough, it is perhaps curious to learn that there's very little documentation about the early research and development of the original idea. For all intents and purposes, it is as if Klaus Hess had a flash of inspiration which led directly to the Liquid Air battery once he returned to Germany. There's no epistolary record of a discussion of the idea, or even an indirect mention of the potential use of liquid air as a storage alternative until he formally proposed it in April, 1894. Although this shouldn't be unusual given the loss of his correspondence during his time in Sicily, it gives room for speculation. In the opinion of this author, the rumours about his involvement in the disappearance of the Sicilian businessman and alleged crime boss Andrea Sebastiani are unfounded, and thus the belief that he got his idea after falling out of favour with the Sicilian mafia are sensationalistic embellishments, only backed by Hess' unscheduled early return to Germany and his staunch refusal to speak about the his motives for it.[...]
[...]As for Hess' Concentrator Arrays which sprung up during his time collaborating with Sebastiani, they were eventually bought by the wealthy Florio family, which copied the design and started producing it domestically, marking the beginning of a native Italian Solar Industry[...]
Caltanissetta, Sicily
I
- "Well, these are my terms, Mr. Sebastiani. You can take them or leave them.". Klaus wondered if he had the strength to throw the desk onto the old Sicilian man. It was a nice, solid desk, one in which Klaus had spent many evenings making calculations and parsing data, or just staring into the beautiful countryside. Those pleasurable memories now stung with remorse over their price.
- "You are being unreasonable, Herr Klaus." - Sebastiani responded.
- "Doctor Klaus. And I fail to see how these terms would be unreasonable to any civilized man."
- "Do you really think we can afford to work with adults in those mines? Or that a fully grown man could fit inside the tunnels?"
- "I don't think that. I know it's entirely possible because we did it in Prussia sixty years ago." - Klaus answered, feeling some measure of national pride he didn't know he had. - "And I don't believe that even before that the conditions were quite as horrid as they are here."
- "Well, I'll tell you something: Sicily isn't Prussia. The kids you're so vehemently defending have nowhere else to go, their parents leave them with us. In some cases they sell them to us. We're all they have."
- "And I know that you are lying. I've actually talked with the parents of some of the kids you've taken. What you've done to those families..." - Klaus unconsciously grabbed the desk, felt the weight and realized that he wouldn't be able to throw it with enough force to do anything. That the thought crossed his mind was enough reason to take a breath and calm down, even if the bastard deserved something thrown at him. - "... few things I've seen are as despicable as that."
- "Doctor Hess, I'm afraid I can't accept your terms. We can afford to stop using electricity in our mines, which isn't the case with children. I don't understand your thought. These kids are provided for, have daily rations and some even earn money. Don't you think this is good for them?"
- "Mr. Sebastiani, I've seen some of the kids you sent to work on my concentrators begging your overseers to not drag them back into the mines. I've seen some of the kids deformed by the backbreaking labour your company has subjected them to begging on the streets, or dying on them. This whole enterprise is criminal, and it is my shame that I've ever associated with you."
- "An association which has been very profitable to you, if I recall correctly. Isn't it? Hasn't it allowed you to fund your research?"
- "Yes it has. That's another shame I'll have to burden. But the Leopoldina will fund my research if needed. I don't need your money."
- "I am sorry that we'll have to part ways in this manner, Doctor Klaus. I am sorry that you think we're being evil when we're just helping those who have no other options."
- "If this is your idea of help, perhaps you ought to stop and leave fate have its' way with these kids. At least then it'd be quick."
That last comment appeared to hit, as a single tear ran down Andrea's face. It felt both satisfying to watch and heartbreaking.
- "Very well, Doctor Hess. You've made your point very clear. I don't think I can't retain you any longer. I wish you success in your future endeavours, and perhaps one day we may find under better circumstances." - Andrea Sebastiani strecthed his hand for a final handshake. Klaus looked at his hand, and then to his eyes. A man who had grown rich over the exploitation of children, who had destroyed countless families and left the discarded and ruined boys as soon as they weren't capable of work. That was the man who asking for a handshake to part on good terms.
- "Good bye, Mr. Sebastiani. I hope that Christ will forgive you for your sins." - Klaus said, deliberately refusing to shake hands. He closed his notebook and went outside the small office one last time basking in the beauty of Caltanissetta. At least now he'd be able to look Klara in the eyes.
II
The next night, Klara surprised Klaus by dressing in her best evening gown and compelling him to stop his work for a bit. He accepted at once, almost enthralled by her beauty. He asked her if she wanted for him to prepare for the evening, still not understanding what was the occasion. He always finished the day a bit disheveled.
- "Not if you don't want to. And I'd rather spend those minutes with you."
- "Oh, then I won't. What's the occasion?"
- "I am celebrating that I married a good man. I knew you'd do the right thing even if it costed us."
- "After what I saw, I wouldn't do it any other way. It was monstrous." - A spark of outrage came and went, remembering what his work had enabled these years.
- "Can we... stop thinking about that? It's over. We'll head back to Germany and start over. Now, let's go down to the dinner room. I've prepared you a surprise."
A surprise indeed. On the table there was a full course meal, cooked to perfection by Klara and her domestic helpers. That he didn't notice any of it was a sign of how absorbed in his work he could get. He usually made do with a sandwich and, if he was totally honest, he didn't think that Klara was capable of cooking like that.
- "Are those pork ribs?"
- "In the pomeranian style. I think this is your favourite, right?"
- "Yes" - He said, baffled. Not once had he told her what he liked to eat. He didn't much care for food in general. He would eat as quickly as possible, and even cook when Klara couldn't or wouldn't. - "but how did you know?"
- "I carry a little notebook with all I need to know about you." - She said, in jest. - "I asked your friends and family."
- "My favourite indeed, and this smells wonderful!"
- "Then, let's start." - She said. - "I am very proud of you, my love. You did the difficult thing, the right thing."
- "It wasn't difficult at all. Not after I saw those boys." - he thought about that for a moment. Several years, and he never saw or even suspected he was enabling such evil. - "Am I really a good man?"
- "My love, you didn't know. And you took steps once you did. That's all that can be done. Now... let's forget about the horror for this evening. Let's drink and look up to our future, instead." - She raised her cup and waited for the toast. Klaus did and was almost intoxicated by the wine's smell even before tasting it. Klara noted that, and explained. - "This is a gift from Miss Rancatore."
- "The hag that harrassed you gave you this wine?" - Klaus asked.
- "Yes. And she was right to do so. I'd do the same if they were my kids." - Klara hesitated for a bit, then drank a long sip of the wine. Klaus understood why, and looked her into her eyes, telling everything she needed to calm down. A conversation had a thousand times before, reduced to a single glance. - "But perhaps we should talk about the future, instead of the past."
- "About that... I think I have an avenue of research ready. I've already sent a proposal which might get an approved."
- "So tell me."
- "Solar energy is the future. There's no doubt about it, there are some factories in the Atacama Desert that now operate without burning a single lump of coal. The other day I saw a building with one of those Solar Boilers the English are producing on its roof. There's no doubt that that crazy Frenchman baking in the desert was right: the sun can provide enough energy to suit our needs, but there's only one problem."
- "It's away half of the time?" - She guessed.
- "That's it! So we have to find a way do deal with the intermittency. I have an idea for a building-sized battery, which should provide enough power for a small city until my concentrators can kick in. Lead-acid batteries ough to be enough, but we could take advantage of their charge surges to charge Kleistian jars and provide a flow of constant voltage direct current. So, it's just a matter of improving the batteries and prevent adsorption on the catodes and anodes to retard corrosion." - He said, enthusiastically. Klara just looked at him, smiling. - "You didn't hear anything of what I've said, right?"
- "... I tried. It's just that I don't have the mind for it. I think I'm better with the past."
- "You and your philhellenism." - He said, getting a chuckle out of her. "I guess I'll have to show it to you."
- "I'll guess you'll have to." - She said, smiling.
- "This wine is amazing. Please tell me you got more than a bottle?"
- "She offered me three barrels. Turns out she has quite the vineyard. But I had to turn her down, after you turned the wine cellar into a laboratory."
- "Well, the place was well suited for cryonic storage. I guess the builders of this place knew what they were doing. The thermal stability of that cellar is amazing."
The evening was on to a good start.
III
A loud noise awoke Klaus. It wasn't a strike and it wasn't a shot, but he couldn't identify it. Klaus' conscience returned in parts. First his self-awareness, then his thought, and then his senses. Klara's skin against his', cold bedsheets damp with sweat and a tinge of wine in their breaths came in first. Then moonlight entering through the window, enough to discern volume and distance. Then steps and loud voices in Sicilian. Close. Beneath their room, at the Manor's main entrance. Forcing their way in.
He shook Klara until she was awake. She started to protest, but he shut her mouth with his hands.
- "There are people here. Put some clothes, quick. We need to get out of here." - He said. It wasn't a plan, not yet. Within a minute, both were dressed enough, and another idea appeared. He kept a revolver in his office, in case something like this ever happened. He kept it under lock and key, but he thought that the door would hold on for a few more seconds. After that, he'd have something to fight back, whomev-
Andrea Sebastiani. It couldn't be anyone else. He had come to seek vengeance with a group of thugs.
It didn't matter. He had to find the key, it was somewhere in his desk. Not in the first drawer. Not in the second. By the third, he was ripping the drawers off, there was no time left.
The main door bursted, steps and loud voices came much clearer this time. Klara covered her mouth and shouted. Loudly enough to give their position. More steps. Nearer.
The last drawer, the closest to the floor. The logical place to hide something. He tore it from the desk and shook its contents over it. Down came the brass key. Steps outside. The office door ought to hold long enough for him to recover the gun.
A shot disintegrated the door lock, propelling it with enough force to make sparks when it impacted against the stone wall. In came three thugs carrying guns, axes and clubs. Behind them, impeccably dressed, came Sebastiani.
- "Doctor Hess, Frau Hess... I'm sorry it has come to this, but you disrespected me in front of my men, so now I have to send a message. Please, follow me."
IV
- "First we will thrash this place. Then we will set it on fire. Then you'll go back to work for me, until your debt is paid. You will see everything you've built with my money destroyed, Doctor Hess." - Sebastiani said, venom pouring from his voice. Axes came down the desk, notebooks were ripped, decorations shattered and the furniture was ripped apart. Then the same happened to the room, then the dining room, the kitchen and the garden Klara nurtured. She fainted early on, skipping most of the violence. A small mercy that punctuated the ongoing horror. Within five minutes, the villa was almost completely destroyed. They spent another five destroying the Solar Concentrators he used to produce liquid air. That hurt.
- "You are a monster, Sebastiani. God will judge you."
- "I am not going to be lectured on religion by a Lutheran heretic like you. Has it occurred to you that maybe I'm God's agent on Earth? Do you even know how many people I've led to Christ in these troubling times? Maybe God is using me to punish you, Herr Hess."
- "You better shoot me, I won't be going back to your mines. I won't work for you."
- "That's acceptable too. But first you get to see all your work undone. Death shouldn't be a relief."
The thugs dragged Klaus and the unconscious Klara towards the wine cellar, to continue their rampage.
- "I didn't imagine you for a cultured man, Herr Hess. Few Germans know their wine, and few Germans would appreciate the wine produced by that old cunt. Congratulations. Now you get to see your whole reserves poured on the floor and pissed upon."
- "That isn't a wine cellar anymore."
Upon hearing that, Sebastiani gestured his men to stop. He then faced Klaus and slapped him. A feeble slap, all things considered. Unsurprising, given how old and weak Sebastiani looked.
- "I don't care what you have in there. It's getting destroyed along anything else in this place. This is what your impertinence brings you."
And then, a plan finally was formed in his mind.
- "Please, Mr. Sebastiani. Let me keep my life's work. It is worth a fortune." - Klaus said, appealing to Sebastiani's sadism.
- "No. I don't care anymore. You insulted me, and I already have a fortune. Your disrespect will cost yours'."
Klaus struggled as two thugs dragged him inside, the other carrying Klara over his shoulder. She woke up and struggled briefly, before looking at Klaus in the eyes. Klaus looked back, and she calmed down. The thug carrying her dropped her like a sack of potatoes and joined the other two as they waited for Sebastiani's signal to start their work.
- " I see that your lovely wife woke up. Klaudia, isn't it? A pleasure to meet you." - Sebastiani said, giving a lascivious look at her. - "...So this is your life's work? These metal barrels?" - He pointed towards the six Dewar flasks, each containing two cubic meters of liquid air at normal pressure.
- "Please, Mr. Sebastiani, I'm working on a revolutionary fuel source. It can burn ten times longer than coal, but is stable and safe at room temperature. It will change everything. Please, Mr. Sebastiani, I beg you!" - Sebastiani proved to be suggestible. Pushing him to the right direction wouldn't be too difficult."
- "Does it? Then perhaps we can use it to burn your home. Thank you for providing us with the means." - And with that, he ordered the men to rip one of the flasks from its base. The thugs at first tried to push one with their hands, burning them with the extreme cold.
- "See? I told you, it can remain hot for months!" - Klaus said, in his most defeated tone.
- "I don't have time for your nonsense. Now we three get to witness the end of your lifetime's work" - Sebastiani told Klaus. He then shouted something, and the men struck the flasks with their weapons.
One hit, two hits, and the first Dewar flask dented. The third shook it out of its' base, and Klaus noticed how it started to leak. The fourth hit came from the man wielding the axe. It pierced the flask. At first nothing happened, as Klaus expected. A few seconds later, the liquid air began to boil, forming a jet that engulfed the men. It was hard to tell if it was gaseous or liquid, but it didn't matter. The cryonic temperature burned the thugs' skin before freezing it. One was pushed against the wall and pinned in place by the force of the jet, until he shattered and disintegrated. Another one fell into the mist, never to be seen again. The third, the one carrying the shotgun, managed to cover his face with the gun, and was mostly unscathed.
He pointed the gun at Klara and fired, but nothing happened. He tried again, but his finger freezed in place. At such low temperatures, his nervous system struggled to send signals, so he didn't even realize he was wading in a shallow pool of liquid air until he tried to walk, breaking his leg and falling face first into the cryonic nightmare. He struggled for a few seconds, shouting for his mother before expiring. With Klara and Sebastiani in shock, and Klaus mesmerized by the spectacle of physics unfolding in front of him, the only thing moving now was the compromised Dewar flask. It almost seemed as if it was trying to free itself, as if it was protesting its predicament like a caged animal. It finally came off, and like a rocket it slammed against another flask, knocking it out of place and causing a chain reaction that resulted in the total destruction of the lab.
The cellar's temperature was dropping fast, and in a matter of minutes it would reach polar temperatures. But they had a few seconds. Klaus looked at Sebastiani in the eye, the old man was just starting to realize his situation. Klaus grabbed Sebastiani by the neck. The Sicilian businessman tried to negotiate, then beg, as Klaus dragged him to the pool of liquid air.
- "I really hope you've asked Christ for forgiveness." - Klaus said to Sebastiani, before pushing him into the boiling and freezing pool. And that was that for Andrea Sebastiani.
Klaus made sure that Klara got out first, before watching one last time the frozen inferno he had unleashed.
- "I thought you hated that lab." - Klara said with a weird calmness in her voice, either because she was catatonic or because she was trying to cope with the brief horror that they had lived.
- "I did. But then I realized that I may have accidentally told that old bastard the truth."
- "What do you mean?"
- "While you were unconscious, I told him that my life's work was in that lab to entice him into destroying it, because there was a secret fuel I was developing."
- "But it was just air, you whined about it a thousand times."
- "I didn't whine!" - Klaus protested. - "Anyways, the force with which it boiled made me think that it be used to replace steam. Not exactly a fuel, but it can be used to store energy to be used later."
- "And you were thinking this as people were dying all around you?" - Klara asked. A question that perplexed him.
- "... yes." - Klaus admitted, which caused Klara to burst out laughing.
- "I married a weird man. He can't get out of the lab even as he's killing an old man with liquid air." - She said, between snorts of unladylike laughter.
- "And I married a weird woman. She's laughing because I killed an old man with liquid air." - He answered, also laughing in an undignified way.
- "There's something very wrong with us." - Klara said.
- "... yes." - He said, which sent Klara into another fit of laughter. - "But I think that this was our cue to leave this island. We leave tomorrow at dawn. I don't want to come here ever again."
[...]The development of Solar Energy was of secondary importance for Germany during the first half of the 1890s. Epistolary records between the Director of the German Academy of Sciences and Whilhem II show clear skepticism on the part of the Young Kaiser on the merits of this source of power, even as it was starting to become an appreciable factor in the economies of British colonies and Northern Chile. Some of the skepticism comes from the Kaiser's shortsighted chauvinism which dismissed it as "a french invention" unsuitable for German climates, and in part from a very understandable concern with intermittency, a flaw which all early Solar systems possessed.
So it is surprising that, in 1895, it was a German researcher who developed one of the earliest forms of viable large-scale energy storage: the Liquid Air battery. Although not an electrochemical battery, it was a device that could store and then release energy by forcing the boiling fluid through a modified triple-expansion engine. It offered several advantages over electrochemical batteries, having higher energy density, being more economical to build and operate, while requiring no rare or dangerous materials. Crucially, the liquid air was also portable once produced, allowing it to act as a fuel for the emerging automobile industry, giving it a flexibility that electrochemical batteries lacked.
More importantly, the Liquid Air battery decoupled energy production from energy consumption. Other contemporary systems did the same with work (such as compressed air) or with heat (Mouchot's phase-change reservoirs), which made them less versatile than a true energy storage system. At the cost of a slight loss in efficiency, solar energy could be converted to motive power or electricity on demand. Other fuel-less sources also benefited from this breakthrough, with Poul La Cour adapting it for use with its wind turbines in 1897, and the Aeromotor Company in Texas offering a "wind energy system" in 1904 that radically changed the way of life for farmers in the Mid West.[...]
[...]Given the importance of this breakthrough, it is perhaps curious to learn that there's very little documentation about the early research and development of the original idea. For all intents and purposes, it is as if Klaus Hess had a flash of inspiration which led directly to the Liquid Air battery once he returned to Germany. There's no epistolary record of a discussion of the idea, or even an indirect mention of the potential use of liquid air as a storage alternative until he formally proposed it in April, 1894. Although this shouldn't be unusual given the loss of his correspondence during his time in Sicily, it gives room for speculation. In the opinion of this author, the rumours about his involvement in the disappearance of the Sicilian businessman and alleged crime boss Andrea Sebastiani are unfounded, and thus the belief that he got his idea after falling out of favour with the Sicilian mafia are sensationalistic embellishments, only backed by Hess' unscheduled early return to Germany and his staunch refusal to speak about the his motives for it.[...]
[...]As for Hess' Concentrator Arrays which sprung up during his time collaborating with Sebastiani, they were eventually bought by the wealthy Florio family, which copied the design and started producing it domestically, marking the beginning of a native Italian Solar Industry[...]
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That's a wow! Solar's competitiveness just got a big one in the pocket.
All this makes me wonder how the Mouchot is perceived in France. His idea is now causing a seismic shift on a global scale and his name sure to be in the historic books, bringing immense benefit to surrounding rival nations who are all wholeheartedly pursuing solar while they sat on the fence. How is French pride taking this?
Also the sheer material and industrial wealth now available to these powers will be staggering, how many more battleships is the Kaiser going to demand and how will the British respond? Is the Italian government going to let the mafia keep control of the new Sicilian golden goose?
The Midwest seems on the path for a quite different electrification, can this new wind energy system be used for railway electrification? If so Africa and Australia might soon be brisked with tracks. Northern Mexico might be even more tied to the US than just dialect.
All this makes me wonder how the Mouchot is perceived in France. His idea is now causing a seismic shift on a global scale and his name sure to be in the historic books, bringing immense benefit to surrounding rival nations who are all wholeheartedly pursuing solar while they sat on the fence. How is French pride taking this?
Also the sheer material and industrial wealth now available to these powers will be staggering, how many more battleships is the Kaiser going to demand and how will the British respond? Is the Italian government going to let the mafia keep control of the new Sicilian golden goose?
The Midwest seems on the path for a quite different electrification, can this new wind energy system be used for railway electrification? If so Africa and Australia might soon be brisked with tracks. Northern Mexico might be even more tied to the US than just dialect.
Knowing France they're going to be throwing tantrum after tantrum, all while refusing to adapt and doubling down on coal.
NOTE:
I had to edit a final part on the epiloge of this chapter, which I forgot to include. 🤦♂️
I had to edit a final part on the epiloge of this chapter, which I forgot to include. 🤦♂️
Damn this was a really 'cool' scene.
Sorry.
Anyways, I love how you always find fun ways to demonstrate the viability and effect of new developments in solar. Boiling/freezing four people alive is certainly one way to do it😮. On the broader implications of this, liquid air is a fuel source I honestly never considered before. I suppose insulation might be a bit of a problem, you can't exactly haul it around in steel drums like you can with oil, but the possibility for a liquid air train or car is intriguing.
Which reminds me... I assume the development of automobiles is currently progressing as per OTL, but I wonder if any of those early inventors are sending inquisitive looks over at the solar industry. Karl Benz is certainly situated at the right place and time to run into Doctor Hess once he makes his return to the reich. Perhaps we'll get a cameo from him down the line?
Great update, can't wait for more!
Sorry.
Anyways, I love how you always find fun ways to demonstrate the viability and effect of new developments in solar. Boiling/freezing four people alive is certainly one way to do it😮. On the broader implications of this, liquid air is a fuel source I honestly never considered before. I suppose insulation might be a bit of a problem, you can't exactly haul it around in steel drums like you can with oil, but the possibility for a liquid air train or car is intriguing.
Which reminds me... I assume the development of automobiles is currently progressing as per OTL, but I wonder if any of those early inventors are sending inquisitive looks over at the solar industry. Karl Benz is certainly situated at the right place and time to run into Doctor Hess once he makes his return to the reich. Perhaps we'll get a cameo from him down the line?
Great update, can't wait for more!
