Reading the original article written in the early 1900s, it’s fascinating that scientists believed that the sun’s nearly infinite energy came from the slow compression of its gasses. (Obviously nuclear fusion wasn’t known back then.) It seems like a reasonable explanation, if we didn’t know better today.
I mean…. Given that fusion is the combining of atomic nuclei it is kind of compression of matter into denser atoms.
It’s a very crude but surprisingly accurate description.
I think they still would have, fossils fuels are the perfect commodity to make money off of and I don’t think capitalists would have let that go without a fight. By their very nature using fossil fuels for power destroys them, requiring a constant source, and demand has only increased over time. If solar had been gaining ground in a serious way I feel like the oil cartels of the day would have had something to say. Who knows, maybe they were involved in the kidnapping
So we’re essentially 40 years behind in solar development. Cool.
Yes.
