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"The trouble with too much genre SF is that it's so obviously the product of the conscious mind."
- William Gibson
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| Wind Power Generation | ||
| A very early description of the use of windmill 'farms' for generating electrical power on a large scale. |
| "The hollow masts of our ships -- to glance at another phase en passant -- carry windmills instead of sails, through which the wind performs the work, of storing a great part of the energy required to run them at sea, while they are discharging or loading cargo in port; and it can, of course, work to better advantage while they are stationary than when they are running before it. These turbines are made entirely of light metal, and fold when not in use, so that only the frames are visible. Sometimes these also fold and are housed, or wholly disappear within the mast. Steam-boilers are also placed at the foci of huge concave mirrors, often a hundred feet in diameter, the required heat being supplied by the sun, without smoke, instead of by bulky and dirty coal. This discovery gave commercial value to Sahara and other tropical deserts, which are now desirable for mill-sites and for generating power, on account of the directness with which they receive the sun's rays and their freedom from clouds. |
| From A Journey In Other Worlds,
by John Jacob Astor IV. Published by Unknown in 1894 Additional resources -
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