Estes is ‘interested’ too. There could be a breakthrough but the articles sound like a lot of fluff to me.
Nuclear power has already been used in spacecraft. Anything that goes to the outer reaches of the solar system or beyond can’t generate enough solar power to work properly.
And some of those are still going strong! Fission will be around for a while. Fusion cold or hot is still only a dream. Just hope the tech will be shared when it is available.
Mountainous Colorado, early 1900’s, nearly every small town with a small river or stream had its own hydroelectric power plant. Only served that one town, no connection town to town. Typically they’d build a small diversion dam upstream, then the water went into a pipeline that would run along a ridge 1/3 mile or so, then straight down to the building that contained the generator. Those small generators aren’t used now, but in many towns you can still see the remnants of their original electrical system. I always wondered who it was that ran the generator stations? How could the town find someone w/that sort of electrical engineering training in the early 1900’s?
Hopefully closer than 30 years. More than just a theory.
Developing widely distributed AC electric power lead to radio, sound recording, television, electronic management of data. Water power was very local and required water flowing and downhill drops. Electricity made lights possible so people could work 24 hours a day, air conditioning, elevators, factories wherever you want. No one could have manufactured cars in volume without electricity.
Some things you might want to consider on the list at this really are
Unions, the telephone, internet, radio, TV, the interstate highway system allowing people to go from New York to LA in less than a week instead of stagecoaches. Public libraries brought to you by Mr Carnegie. Public education for all regardless of need. I would also have to say one of the biggest changes no one else will think of is the anti-discrimination laws pass back by Congress, allowing People regardless of color need your religion to eat get on a bus and go to school where they want
Might also include discovery of the white blood cells in about 1908 that changed lives. (1908 Nobel Prize to a Russian for discovering cellular immunity.)
1 Like
The heat pump/refrigeration system to enable long term food storage and translportation
The electric grid was the biggest agent of change. Almost everything else mentioned would not exist without the electric grid. It is going to be a major player in the 21st century as well because most of the transmission grid (aka “long haul” grid) that connects the smaller local distribution grids and power plants together is in need of a major overhaul to DC instead of AC.
AC was designed for the distribution grid. Westinghouse and Tesla did not even envision that we would try to connect the distribution grids and power plants together. AC does not work well for that, DC is far more efficient. New design power plants will also be added in the 21st century, like metal cooled nuclear reactors and maybe even fusion reactors.