alternatehistory.com

Last year, I started a thread in the ASB forum about the potential to build passive radiative coolers in the 19th century:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-earlier-air-conditioning.447607/
The thread has a handy link to a TED talk on the technology.

Well, it seems researchers at SUNY Buffalo have make a breakthrough in this technology:
https://apple.news/AnR0taZPMRgmD7Bsr_1XFag
This version does no require anything so exotic as hafnium dioxide. It uses plain old aluminum and PDMS - thats the key ingredient in silly putty, originally invented in 1943.

So, lets assume that, besides finding that this attempt at a rubber substitute is a lot of fun to play with, researchers stumble onto this particular use - if you want a fun anecdote, some gets spilled onto aluminum foil by a window on a hot day, and someone notices that it is super reflective. Whatever. Its 1943ish, and the US military has the technology to build air conditioners that don’t need electricity - just line of sight toward the sky.

The first use would be in the island hopping campaigns, as a low-cost way to keep quonset huts cool (assuming it gets put into production quickly enough). After the war, these units would likely get commercialized. They would certainly be popular in the US sunbelt, but I think an even better niche would be the developing world, as the big appeal to these units is that they don’t need electricity.

This means that loads of very poor populations that can’t afford reliable power can afford effective air conditioning.

So, how might the development of these countries differ with this opportunity?
Top