SteamPunk Solar: Solar Heat and its Industrial Applications. An English Translation of Augustin Mouchot's 1869 Classic, 'La Chaleur Solaire et ses Applications Industrielles

By Trent Tschirgi

This book is all about making devices that run on energy from the Sun. In 1869, the era of Jules Verne, there were no electronic components. There were no solar panels, no wiring, no plastic or high-end manufacturing techniques. Yet, the engineers of that era designed mechanical devices, often partly or fully automatic, to collect solar energy and use it to pump water up hill, melt metal, run engines, cook food and much more.
Different people will use this book in different ways, depending on what they want from it. If you are a maker or an engineer who wants to find diagrams of a variety of solar devices, or if you want to build these non-electrical steampunk devices, the last chapters of the book will be most interesting. If you are interested in the ancient history of solar engineering, the first part of the book is most important. If you want to learn the issues of solar engineering so that you understand how to develop and improve new solar devices, it is best to read the book straight through.

You will notice that M. Mouchot is obsessed with generating steam power– In his day, mechanical transport meant ‘steam trains,’ and most industrial equipment was run by coal-fired steam engines. Designing devices that could generate steam pressure with solar heat allowed him to connect to, and run, a wide range of ready-made equipment. If you want to make Steampunk devices that are authentically from the Era of Steam, and yet are fully grounded in green engineering, or if you are interested in Solar Energy and want to read about devices besides solar ovens that can run on solar energy, this is the book for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trent Tschirgi
• Release date: Feb 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9780995886407

Trent Tschirgi

Holistic Pharmacist living and working in British Columbia, Canada. Hobbies include exploring other languages, folk music, solar cooking, sailing, canoeing, and hiking.

Book preview

STEAMPUNK SOLAR

SOLAR ENERGY

AND ITS

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

-o-

TRANSLATED FROM

THE ORIGINAL FRENCH TEXT

WITH ADDITIONAL

COMMENTARY AND FOOTNOTES

BY

TRENT TSCHIRGI

Originally published in French as, LA CHALEUR SOLAIRE ET SES APPLICATIONS INDUSTRIELLES, by Augustin Mouchot 1869

This Translation Copyright 2016, 2017, 2018 by Trent Tschirgi. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-9958864-0-7

Steampunk Solar

An English Translation of Augustin Mouchot’s Classic 1869 text,

‘La Chaleur Solaire et ses Applications Industrielles,’

by

Trent Tschirgi

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016, 2017, 2018 by Trent Tschirgi

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Principles of Solar Heating

Chapter 2 History of Solar Engineering

Chapter 3 Measurements of Solar Heat

Chapter 4 Principles of Solar Mirrors

Chapter 5 History of Burning Mirrors

Chapter 6 Pumps, Cookers, Ovens and Distillers

Chapter 7 Steampunk Solar Engineering

Chapter 8 Pumps, engines and refrigeration

Conclusion Future Applications of Solar Engineering

Table of Summaries

Appendix I Original Title Page in English

Appendix II Original Title Page in French

Appendix III Translation Notes

Appendix IV Safety Equipment

Appendix V List of Devices

Footnotes

Foreword to the 2016 Translation

Every 2 years, the US Department of Energy sponsors the Solar Decathlon. Universities and businesses combine their skills and products to create houses powered entirely by sunlight. It is an impressive undertaking, and I recommend visiting a Solar Decathlon if you have the chance. At this writing, their website is;

https://www.solardecathlon.gov/2017/competition.html

If you can attend, you will see remarkable ideas and engineering, but there is not much historical depth. Many of the projects, in my opinion, rely too much on computer controls and the generation of electricity.

At one such event, I found myself wondering, Where and when did solar engineering begin in the modern era?

Years later, I came across the answer.

Even if solar energy is as yet a myth, we can pause in wonder before an old stone plaque, in bad condition and affixed to the front of the house at 4 Rue Bernard Palissy in Tours [France]: In this house, A. Mouchot built the first apparatus for the use of solar heat from 1864 to 1866."

http://archives.cg37.fr/Outil/AUGUSTIN_MOUCHOT-ADEY.html

One hundred and sixty-odd years ago, Augustin Mouchot and other engineers began to design machines that could get useful work out of sunlight. In addition to the usual solar hot water heaters and ovens, they made steam engines, water pumps, water desalinators, distilleries, and even ice makers. They did all these things without electronics.

This is the book that started solar engineering--in the age of steam! M. Mouchot designed it to make the reader familiar with the engineering issues and thought processes that allow a person to design solar devices. If you design solar devices or are interested in the history of solar engineering, this book will help you.

While the original French version is available to read online, I was unable to find an English translation of the book. I finally did it myself, adding footnotes to explain obscure or archaic measurements and concepts. Page numbers that appear between dashes, like this -12- mark the page breaks in the original French text. If you read French, you can find the French text for any part of the book, and see if you think I did a good job on it!

Disclaimer: This translation is for informational purposes only. If you decide to make any of the devices described in this book, you do so at your own risk. Many of these devices are dangerous, or VERY dangerous! Steam under pressure can maim or kill. The reflectors described in this book can make an invisible point or line in mid-air capable of making wood burst into flame, melting metal, burning you or blinding you. If you decide to make or use them, use safety equipment (see appendix IV)! Adult supervision (and behavior) is required. Some of the devices described in this book, such as the solar brandy still, may also be illegal or may require special licensure in your area. Check your local laws and regulations first.

Note that, while the copyright on the original French text is long expired, I have copyrighted this English translation, the revised diagrams, and all notes and commentary. I am making it available at a reasonably low price, so please respect the copyright and buy your own copy. Thank you for your interest! I hope you will enjoy Steampunk Solar!

–Trent Tschirgi – British Columbia, Canada, 2017

-vi-

Foreword from 1869

This book reviews a new branch of applications which could have their greatest influence on the future of particular countries.

To find a practical means to directly recover and utilize the rays of the Sun for the benefit of agriculture and industry in the hottest regions of the globe– Such is the problem that the author proposes to resolve. At the same time that he makes known the principles upon which the solutions rest, and the experiments done in this field from antiquity until the present day, he will reveal the results of his own experiments of the last ten years, results that he knows to be decisive.

These experiments date from 1860. The author was granted the privilege of a patent, given the 4th of March 1861, under the number 48,622.[1] Because, however, he did not want to make this patent the object of [financial] speculation, he abandoned it in the year 1862 after the positive reception that was received upon its initial testing at the Imperial Research Facility at Meudon.

His Majesty the Emperor[2] who, with his encouragements and

-vii-

his illustrious example, gives such a strong impetus to scientific research, has deigned to take an interest, almost from the beginning, in the newest applications of solar heat. The author would not have been able to properly complete his experiments without [the Emperor’s] complete support, of which he was the object in this circumstance. May the efforts he has made to show himself worthy, and the important results he believes he has obtained, testify both to his recognition and to the utility of the applications that he has proposed!

At the same time, the author would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the numerous benefits which he has received from the Honorable Commandant, [Jean-Baptiste] Verchère de Reffye, Director of the Meudon Research Facility. I am equally thankful to the following for their amicable conversation and their good advice; M. Jules Mariette and M. Victor Jacquot, attachés in the same establishment; M. Coquet, head draftsman at the Orleans Company; M. Maillot, fabricator at the University, to whom I owe details of historical information; and finally most of the science professors with whom these activities placed me in communication.

In diverse trials, journals frequently publish new articles relative to the employment of solar heat. In the session of 17 September 1864, M. Faye, a member of the Institute, kindly called about the communication of M.

-viii-

Babinet on an experiment that the author had conducted under his supervision in 1861. Several Journals reported favorably about this first trial. This was an encouragement for the author, who was actively involved in the construction of solar boilers. Later, about the end of 1868, news arrived that the celebrated engineer Ericsson had invented solar-powered steam- and hot-air- machines in the United States. The claim of the author was again favorably received by most of the larger Journals of Paris.

Finally, under the care of M. S. E. M., the Minister of Public Instruction, the results of trials relative to the applications of solar heat were submitted to the Institute. The Redactors of Scientific Reviews were almost all favorable to the author’s views. [The author] hopes that he will be permitted to thank these enlightened defenders of the cause of progress for their encouragement.

A. MOUCHOT, Professor at the University of Tours, Tours, June 2, 1869

-1-

SOLAR HEAT

CHAPTER ONE

Summary.- The sun is a source of intense heat; experimental proof – Role of solar heat on the earth’s surface; It maintains movement and warmth of life there. – Transformation of work into heat; mechanical equivalent of heat. - Solar heat is the only natural source of work that man has been able to gather thus far. - Possibilities for direct storage of solar heat; benefits that may result in certain countries. - A new solar collector; the principles on which the theory is founded; An easy and inexpensive way to rapidly produce high temperatures on various surfaces with sunlight – Plan of the book.

Despite the valuable clues they provide with respect to the constitution of the sun, the most recent observations are far from sufficient in this respect to fix the opinion of scholars. Deluca could, however, (towards the end of last century) maintain with some appearance of reason that solar rays are not warm by themselves and do not generate heat by impacting the lowest parts of the surface of the Earth. There is no doubt today that the sun's temperature is very high. Here is another of the facts that come to support this opinion. When solar rays are received behind glass, we feel the heat almost the same as in the open air. But windows have the singular property of almost totally intercepting dark heat,[3] and even that of an ordinary wood fire, while they allow the passage of rays emanating

-2-

from an intense source of heat, such as molten iron. The analogy leads us to equate the temperature of the sun with that of our hottest furnaces. If it is further observed that despite its prodigious distance, this vast orb still delivers rays of energy to the Earth, feeble though they are, one can only wonder at the heat source capable of producing these effects at such a distance.

At a time like ours, when the progress of physics has allowed us not only to accurately assess the intensity of solar radiation at the Earth's surface, but also to appreciate better than ever the role of heat in machines, it was natural to examine whether it would be possible for residents of certain countries to store the energy of sunlight for the benefit of their industry and to manage this free resource with collectors that are inexpensive and easy to build. That is the question we propose to examine in this work by sharing both the details that we have collected and the results of our own experiments. We hope to demonstrate in this way that if the transparency of glass, which does not allow the passage of different species of light to the same degree, has already helped to concentrate the sun's heat in glass frames, we can, with a few changes, make a simple device that harnesses sunlight for very important services in those fortunate areas where the sky long remains clear. For clarity, we will start with a quick review of the role of solar heat at the surface of the globe.

The earth is, indeed, nothing but a vast hothouse

-3-

relative to the celestial spaces. The air that surrounds all its parts forms an atmosphere similar in transparency to a huge glass enclosure. It has been proven that the gas behaves like glass against calorific rays[4] – that is to say that it simultaneously allows passage of heat from the sun while it opposes radiation from the ground. However this airy envelope, obviously designed to protect the existence of living beings on earth, is not sufficient by itself to fulfill such a task.

In effect an atmosphere of extreme purity, while weakening solar radiation to some extent, cannot properly restrain its ardor. Furthermore, it would not preserve the earth's surface from cooling unless the conditions were motionless and stagnant. Such a quiet atmosphere would be incompatible with the effects of insolation.[5] The lower layers of air, heated by contact with the ground in equatorial regions tend to rise continually then drop off in colder regions, while the dense, heavy air in the latter regions flows to the torrid zone in order to fill the gaps formed there. These continual disturbances of atmospheric balance are the immediate cause of winds. Thus, air that is extremely clear has a dual disadvantage. It neither guards against the extreme heat of the day, nor the bitter cold of night. These would be excessively unfavorable conditions for the existence of living beings. To combat these pernicious influences it is necessary to have an intervention, like a sail, always ready to deploy or disappear as needed. This is where water begins to

-4-

fulfill the important role it plays in the global economy. One is tempted to believe at first that there is a sharp line between this liquid and the purest air. It is not so, however. Air, without even needing to change its state, is constantly dissolved in water in order to sustain life, and water is always mixed with air, spreading through it as vapor. But the mere presence of water vapor in the atmosphere suffices to maintain thermometer changes at the earth's surface between suitable limits. Indeed, even when it is invisible, this vapor already decreases the heat transparency of the air to make the heat of the sun tolerable and reduces nocturnal radiation from the ground. But it is especially when the cold condenses vapor into clouds that it carries energy with double influence. Because on one side the clouds reflect back to earth the heat they receive, and on the other they intercept solar radiation until it returns to the state of invisible vapor, or they cool and precipitate [water]on earth. We say again that, while making the earth safe from large differences in temperature, humidity in the air is essential to the existence of animals and plants whose organs wither if deprived of their private atmosphere of water vapor. The phenomena that seem to concur in producing these important results elsewhere also constitute one of the most admirable harmonies of nature, since it is necessary that water reduced to vapor by sunlight rises in the air under its relative lightness; that it condenses into clouds from effects of cooling; then it falls to earth as rain or snow, and that it

-5-

returns at last by streams and rivers to lakes and seas, soon to repeat the course of its peregrinations.

In summary, the movements of the atmosphere and the circulation of water in this gaseous envelope, as well as electrical phenomena resulting from such vicissitudes, are the work of the Sun. However, this is only one phase of the struggle between our star and gravity. For if gravity somehow connects these ponderable bodies to the surface of the earth, the Sun by dilating them subtracts from its own power and constantly tends to set them in motion. We can even say that with the exception of the tides, largely produced by the moon, and a few other phenomena caused by heat from the center of the globe, any observed movement on the earth is a result of the influence of the sun. But leaving aside superficial or underwater currents that our star produces in the ocean, magnetism that develops in the earth's crust or the changes it brings to the mountains whose glaciers plow chasms[into them] and whose rivers flush debris to the bottom of the sea, let us merely recall what a supreme transformation it maintains in the movement of animals.

The sun’s rays not only provide for our globe’s light and heat, they even drive chemical processes without which organic beings could only wither and die. We know in fact that, without the sun, plants lose the ability to process the nutrients they draw from the air or soil and cannot assimilate the building blocks needed for

-6-

their increase. As for animals, if they do not seem to depend to the same degree on solar radiation, they need its salutary influences from time to time to reach their full development. Without it, moreover, they could not continue their existence here for long. The reason is that, similar to machines driven by fire, they constantly exhale into the air a gas, similar to smoke, that would finally asphyxiate them if plants did not ceaselessly decompose it under direct sunlight. The animals have, in fact, the special function of movement, and like any thermal machine, they manage to produce movement by burning fuel. Also, their food is exclusively organic and the carbon that enters them in large part is carried through digestion into their veins where it burns slowly, releasing much (or a little) heat. Then it is exhaled in the form of carbon dioxide gas–not a proper gas for the maintenance of animal life! Plants decompose it under the influence of solar radiation, in order to appropriate carbon and to release oxygen, the principle substance of combustion. The plants in turn become food for herbivorous animals. These become prey to carnivores, and so it is that the sun circulates life on the globe like a whirlwind. One can therefore characterize its dual influence on organic beings; It allows the storage of fuel in plants and enables animals to convert this fuel into movement. It is good to add, however, that carbon absorbed by plants is not exclusively assigned to be the

-7-

food of the animal kingdom, and still serves to constitute wood, the combustion of which preserves us through the harsh winter by restoring to us in another form the beneficent heat of the sun. Recall also that humans were able to add a new wealth to this fuel for supplying its industry, recovering through coal mines the debris of the lush vegetation that preceded them on earth.

These are the major influences which we have thought to review in order make the upcoming discussion more intelligible.

The various properties that we recognize in sunlight have contributed more than a little to alter the views of physicists on heat, light and electricity. Since Newton, the general trend was to regard these imponderable agents as distinct fluids. But we ended up with the view, in accord with the opinion of Descartes, that particular movements are imposed on the aether [6], a highly subtle fluid, which fills space and penetrates all bodies, in the same way that any movement of matter represents some form of work. Put another way, work can be defined in terms of the vertical elevation of a

Reviews for SteamPunk Solar

[Trent Tschirgi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Augustin Mouchot was the first engineer to assemble and integrate all of the information on Solar Energy Engineering available at his time. He is the first modern solar engineer. His book is still quite useful to gain an understanding of the mechanical engineering of solar energy. This is a translation of the 1869 First Edition. There is an English translation of the Second Edition available (print format only), and also a translation into German.