Saturday, July 19, 2008
Guess the solar power advocate
Who said this?
"Some day some fellow will invent a way of concentrating and storing up sunshine to use instead of this old, absurd Prometheus scheme of fire. I'll do the trick myself if some one else doesn't get at it.Answer: the person who was an early advocate of turning sunlight into electricity to replace burning things (oil and coal) was also instrumental in turning electricity into light...Thomas Edison, who said the above in 1910, almost 100 years ago.
"Sunshine is spread out thin and so is electricity . . . the trick [is], you see, to concentrate the juice and liberate it as you needed it. . . . This scheme of combustion to get power makes me sick to think of—it is so wasteful. . . . When we learn how to store electricity, we will cease being apes ourselves; until then we are tailless orangutans. You see, we should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power."
Visit this page for a series of fascinating, albeit technically challenging, articles on modern-day efforts to fulfill Edison's vision.
