Hints to Inventors
I nose around antique book stores from time to time hoping to find quircky old books on science. One I stumbled into a long time ago was "Hints to Inventors" by Robert Grimshaw (nope, I don't know anything about him) professing to to tell "what inventions are needed and how to perfect and develop new ideas in any lines". The year : 1907. It's a hundred years later now - 2007 - and the hot topic of our time must be energy. So let's see how we've done. Here are some hints to inventors in 1907:
1. "The production of electricity from coal without the use of steam; without the incidental production of light or heat." Grimshaw further writes,"whoever does this successfully should become rich beyond the dreams of avarice". I agree. This challenge is constrained beyond reason leaving only an electrochemical cell as that remaining option, and barring some improbable and counter-intuitive disovery, coal has no practical use in driving a purely electochemical cell. But, it's compelling that he's coming out and asking for a non-polluting way to use coal. Fast forward to today - same problem.
2. "If some scientist -or any one, in fact - will invent a way of storing up lightning and using it when and where it is needed, he will make for himself more than a mere name." To be fair, what he's really getting at is batteries, which were crude and messy at best in 1907. No, I don't know of any one trying to juice up batteries from lightning bolts, but we've done some good things with batteries. Still have a long way to go and I'm not sure that we've met the spirit of this call yet. My favorite part of this one is the line "...or any one, in fact...".
3. "In many houses now having electric lights a good device for cooking by electricity taken from the same wires which supply the light could very readily be introduced." Finally, here's one we've knocked out of the park!
4. "the practical utilization of peat has only just begun". See, they were thinking about alternative fuels in 1907! Grimshaw also laments the waste of millions of tons of sawdust every year and notes how combustible this is as well. Although peat, sawdust etc. would just contribute more carbon to the atmosphere and aren't very exciting right now, I respect the drive to develop diverse energy sources.