{"id":253638,"date":"2023-04-19T10:40:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T08:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=253638"},"modified":"2023-04-19T10:40:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T08:40:44","slug":"solar-optimism-and-coal-alarmism-a-century-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=253638","title":{"rendered":"Solar Optimism and Coal Alarmism a Century Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From\u00a0Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Bradley Jr.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

\u201cThe supply of coal and oil, [Frank Shuman] opined, would eventually be depleted. <\/strong>\u2018One thing I feel sure of,\u2019 he wrote prophetically in a 1914 Scientific American<\/em> article, \u2018is that the human race must finally utilize direct sun power or revert to barbarism.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Energy history brings perspective and caution to the real-world prospects of dilute, intermittent energies becoming 21st century mainstays. The wisdom of history also checks the notion that solar (and wind) are infant industries in need of \u2018temporary\u2019 government subsidies. [1]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently encountered a history piece about an early solar entrepreneur, Frank Shuman, written by Christopher Dougherty nine years ago for a Philadelphia magazine. Excerpts from Frank Shuman: Finding The Future In Tacony, A Century Ago<\/a> follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly a century ago, Philadelphia solar energy pioneer Frank Shuman toiled in obscurity, dreaming\u2013and building\u2013a solar powered device he felt would change the way the world made energy and did work\u2026. Shuman\u2019s \u201cSun Engine\u201d is a poignant reminder that while humanity has been slow to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, we have certainly not lacked the technology, or foresight, to do so. On the expansive lawn between an ivy-covered house and workshop at Disston and Ditman Streets, Shuman integrated his deep knowledge of glass, optics, and convection heating to create a powerful array capable of doing actual work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shuman, a consummate inventor with 64 patents to his name, closely followed international developments in solar power. In 1906, he set the controls for the heat of the sun \u2026 he insulated boxes, built semi-convex reflectors around them to concentrate the sun\u2019s rays, put them on swivels to follow the sun\u2019s track, placed his water in a vacuum to lower its boiling point and\u2014in a major breakthrough\u2014attached a low pressure steam engine to the array.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 20th Century, Philadelphia was an unlikely seat of solar technology; arguably for most of the 19th Century, the city was an R&D hub for fossil fuel utilization as well as a primary consumer of coal and producer of refined oil products<\/a>. Beginning in the early part of the 19th Century the two seats of scientific wisdom, the American Philosophical Society and Franklin Institute popularized new techniques<\/a> and methods of burning the ever-abundant anthracite coal\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Shuman, to fail to embrace solar power was to invite social calamity. The problem was simply mathematical: there are finite resources like coal and oil whereas the sun\u2019s power was infinite. The supply of coal and oil, he opined, would eventually be depleted. <\/strong>\u201cOne thing I feel sure of,\u201d he wrote prophetically in a 1914 Scientific American<\/em> article, \u201cis that the human race must finally utilize direct sun power or revert to barbarism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the output of his device, he reasoned that an array covering 20,250 square miles<\/a> in an unpopulated portion of Africa\u2019s Sahara Desert would produce the same amount of energy as all of the coal mined in 1909. Displaying an understanding of the social value of solar, he urged \u201c\u2026all far-sighted engineers and inventors to work in this direction\u201d not only for their own profit but \u201cthe eternal welfare of the human race\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frederick Blount Warren, writing for Technical World Magazine<\/em> in 1907 after a visit to Tacony, was more expansive in tabulating the benefits of solar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

And now, suppose a moment is given to contemplation of the changes that will have been wrought when solar-power has been developed as fully as the steam engine is at the present time\u2026 Mankind might then begin to receive its birthright of an uncontaminated atmosphere, health and purity would once more find a foothold in the constitutions of future generations\u2026.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Engineering News<\/em> profiled Shuman in 1909, Nature<\/em> magazine did so in 1912, and in a 1911 feature, the New York Times<\/em> proclaimed [a] \u201cMethod to Harness the Sun is Found; Engineer<\/em> says that Frank Shuman of Philadelphia has solved the problem.\u201d \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Comment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope springs eternal. The notion that the sun\u2019s energy can be converted into electricity because it is just there to be concentrated is naivete. There is such a thing as physics to explain how the sun\u2019s work over the ages has created a dense, reliable stock<\/strong> of potential energy versus a dilute, intermittent flow<\/strong> from the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/strong> As Milton and Rose Friedman warned: \u201cThe infant industry argument is a smoke screen. The so-called infants never grow up.\u201d Free to Choose<\/em> (1979), pp. 5\u20136.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Energy history brings perspective and caution to the real-world prospects of dilute, intermittent energies becoming 21st century mainstays. The wisdom of history also checks the notion that solar (and wind) are infant industries in need of \u2018temporary\u2019 government subsidies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":253640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818076,691818690,691818688,691818154,691818691,691818689],"class_list":["post-253638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-co2","tag-coal-alarmism","tag-energy-history","tag-net-zero","tag-shuman","tag-solar-optimism","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-13YW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":386589,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=386589","url_meta":{"origin":253638,"position":0},"title":"The First Solar Power Plant: 1916","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/03\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cWe have proved the commercial profit of sun power in the tropics and have more particularly proved that after our stores of oil and coal are exhausted the human race can receive unlimited power from the rays of the sun.\u201d \u2013 \u200aFrank Shuman, quoted in \u201cAmerican Inventor Uses Egypt\u2019s Sun\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"discovery of cheap oil\"","block_context":{"text":"discovery of cheap oil","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=discovery-of-cheap-oil"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0AQNHKOeyeCJKBBhxtNp7ZYYXeAgTktpsPzIqsH4H-wcRBuEZ6oGGtpt9-5Ic1hhTeI8emmEgpeX1JHvzjf9Nn69otZlaqjTs_7OsFUrp0ohcA6U-EC9LiKcyJg5qLtMzOksv30wHPZwAYb11-QdSJTFshS7Oww-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0AQNHKOeyeCJKBBhxtNp7ZYYXeAgTktpsPzIqsH4H-wcRBuEZ6oGGtpt9-5Ic1hhTeI8emmEgpeX1JHvzjf9Nn69otZlaqjTs_7OsFUrp0ohcA6U-EC9LiKcyJg5qLtMzOksv30wHPZwAYb11-QdSJTFshS7Oww-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0AQNHKOeyeCJKBBhxtNp7ZYYXeAgTktpsPzIqsH4H-wcRBuEZ6oGGtpt9-5Ic1hhTeI8emmEgpeX1JHvzjf9Nn69otZlaqjTs_7OsFUrp0ohcA6U-EC9LiKcyJg5qLtMzOksv30wHPZwAYb11-QdSJTFshS7Oww-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0AQNHKOeyeCJKBBhxtNp7ZYYXeAgTktpsPzIqsH4H-wcRBuEZ6oGGtpt9-5Ic1hhTeI8emmEgpeX1JHvzjf9Nn69otZlaqjTs_7OsFUrp0ohcA6U-EC9LiKcyJg5qLtMzOksv30wHPZwAYb11-QdSJTFshS7Oww-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0AQNHKOeyeCJKBBhxtNp7ZYYXeAgTktpsPzIqsH4H-wcRBuEZ6oGGtpt9-5Ic1hhTeI8emmEgpeX1JHvzjf9Nn69otZlaqjTs_7OsFUrp0ohcA6U-EC9LiKcyJg5qLtMzOksv30wHPZwAYb11-QdSJTFshS7Oww-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":388693,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=388693","url_meta":{"origin":253638,"position":1},"title":"Green Lobby\u2019s Dishonest Crusade for Solar and Wind","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/14\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"You wake up to an alarm, flick on the light, brew coffee, and drive to work. 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