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The alleged kidnapping that may have thwarted early 20th century solar adoption
- rini17 3y agoWere these solar cells ever reproduced?
- derNeingeist 3y agoInteresting! If I understand this correctly the panels used the thermoelectric effect [1],[2]. 60W per panel of that size (see [1], PDF p.5, subtitle of image) would of course be rather low for today's standards. I guess one could build something like the mentioned panels with lots of peltier elements but I'd imagine that it would be quite a bit more expensive per generated power nowadays (otherwise someone would probably already do this). (As far as I know the thermoelectric effect is mostly used in RTGs for producing electricity.) [1] https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Modern-Electrics/Modern-Electrics-1909-09.pdf https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Modern-Electrics/M..., PDF pages 5,6 & 34 (content pages 243, 244 & 272) [2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/G._H._COVE%2C_THERMO_ELECTRIC_BATTERY_AND_APPARATUS%2C_APPLICATION_FILED_FEB%2C_15%2C_1905%2C_US824684.pdf https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/G._H._CO...