Post by swampmonster on Nov 10, 2018 12:32:48 GMT
Perhaps maybe by now you know I am a studied student of history, especially science/tech history.
It was sorta shocking for me to discover that solar power was first discovered way way back in the early 1800's by some French guy...I hate the French, so I'll skip that...Besides, it was much later that a guy named Fritts actually applied the discovery with the first roof top array....But before him in 1876, 20 years before my hero Edward Weston invented his Weston Cell battery and the metal Maginum and shunts and the volt meter and ohm meter and the amp meter....Yup almost 20 years before Weston. Two American guys really did it right....40 years after the French guy perhaps, but hey, the French guy was sorta wacko like most French people, so the honors go to the Americans.
The first recorded history of solar power was discovered by a couple of American researchers. One guy named Billy Adams and his student Dick Day discovered that the material Selenium reacted to sunlight by producing the mystical stuff Electricity.....The worlds top electrical expert at the time, Werner Von Siemens reacted with a sorta, "That's cool boys, That is really cool!"...And that was mostly the end of it...Yup, fini for the most part......Funny how Mr. Siemens sorta ignored the discovery yet still became the guy who somehow propelled the world of electrical control devices to the present pentacle it stands today, huh?...And good old Albert Einstein agreed and said it proved out based on his Math....LOL...Good old Albert went on to help the inventors understand exactly how what they discovered actually worked..Yup, Albert explained it in a paper and won the Noble prize...That guy kinda stole their glory, maybe?...Yup....They discovered it, but he explained it, so he gets the prize....Hmmm.
Well anyway, solar power after that was almost totally ignored until the early 1950's where it was discovered that Silicone (one of the most abundant materials on this planet) also reacted to sunlight to produce electricity....Wow, it took over 75 years for scientist to wake up and knuckle down nuff to discover such a simple thing as the photovoltaic characteristics of simple Silicone!...Yaknow, it's a miracle we walk up right today, maybe?...Hmmmm....BUT at least it happened even tho very late, it finally happened.
...And Friends when it finally happened, it set in motion a huge new science and a new technology and an ever increasing and ever transforming effort that is now expanding at stellar speeds...In it's path, we put Men on the Moon....Yes because of solar power and many other advances in science and tech, men actually left Earth and walked on the very moon....They even came back with Moon rocks!...And they did so just 16 years after the discovery of Silicon based solar power....LOL, and when we examined those rocks we discover that the Moon consists of over 30% Silicone....Yuk, yuk...
We guys sitting here on Earth are just now starting to realize and enjoy the bennies of Silicone based solar, whereas those up in Space are riding a much more advanced form of solar power too expensive for us sand crab Earth dwellers...So far...so far....Yep those space cadets are enjoying well over 40% solar efficiency in the clean vacuum of outer space while we here on Earth are happy with maybe 20% efficiency on a bright sunny day....Kind sucks yaknow, but I like gravity and I don't think I want my turds floating around...Nope, those thangs need to stay deep in the toilet and from there go downhill.
It was sorta shocking for me to discover that solar power was first discovered way way back in the early 1800's by some French guy...I hate the French, so I'll skip that...Besides, it was much later that a guy named Fritts actually applied the discovery with the first roof top array....But before him in 1876, 20 years before my hero Edward Weston invented his Weston Cell battery and the metal Maginum and shunts and the volt meter and ohm meter and the amp meter....Yup almost 20 years before Weston. Two American guys really did it right....40 years after the French guy perhaps, but hey, the French guy was sorta wacko like most French people, so the honors go to the Americans.
The first recorded history of solar power was discovered by a couple of American researchers. One guy named Billy Adams and his student Dick Day discovered that the material Selenium reacted to sunlight by producing the mystical stuff Electricity.....The worlds top electrical expert at the time, Werner Von Siemens reacted with a sorta, "That's cool boys, That is really cool!"...And that was mostly the end of it...Yup, fini for the most part......Funny how Mr. Siemens sorta ignored the discovery yet still became the guy who somehow propelled the world of electrical control devices to the present pentacle it stands today, huh?...And good old Albert Einstein agreed and said it proved out based on his Math....LOL...Good old Albert went on to help the inventors understand exactly how what they discovered actually worked..Yup, Albert explained it in a paper and won the Noble prize...That guy kinda stole their glory, maybe?...Yup....They discovered it, but he explained it, so he gets the prize....Hmmm.
Well anyway, solar power after that was almost totally ignored until the early 1950's where it was discovered that Silicone (one of the most abundant materials on this planet) also reacted to sunlight to produce electricity....Wow, it took over 75 years for scientist to wake up and knuckle down nuff to discover such a simple thing as the photovoltaic characteristics of simple Silicone!...Yaknow, it's a miracle we walk up right today, maybe?...Hmmmm....BUT at least it happened even tho very late, it finally happened.
...And Friends when it finally happened, it set in motion a huge new science and a new technology and an ever increasing and ever transforming effort that is now expanding at stellar speeds...In it's path, we put Men on the Moon....Yes because of solar power and many other advances in science and tech, men actually left Earth and walked on the very moon....They even came back with Moon rocks!...And they did so just 16 years after the discovery of Silicon based solar power....LOL, and when we examined those rocks we discover that the Moon consists of over 30% Silicone....Yuk, yuk...
We guys sitting here on Earth are just now starting to realize and enjoy the bennies of Silicone based solar, whereas those up in Space are riding a much more advanced form of solar power too expensive for us sand crab Earth dwellers...So far...so far....Yep those space cadets are enjoying well over 40% solar efficiency in the clean vacuum of outer space while we here on Earth are happy with maybe 20% efficiency on a bright sunny day....Kind sucks yaknow, but I like gravity and I don't think I want my turds floating around...Nope, those thangs need to stay deep in the toilet and from there go downhill.