My unsung hero of science: William Adams, the Bombay bureaucrat whose vision of a solar future was dashed by colonial conservatism

3 months ago by poputchik to c/solarpunk

William Adams was convinced that solar energy could change the world. The problem was, he needed more sun to demonstrate it.

dontgogettingtooclever 14 points 3 months ago

sounds like we've been in the wrong timeline for a while

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Eheran -3 points 3 months ago

It was just not feasible back then.

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benjirenji 8 points 3 months ago

Sometimes I wish we could reach back to them and let them know we finally started adapting their ideas.

Now we have huge fields of mirrors in the desert heating up molten salt on top of towers.

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NoneOfUrBusiness 6 points 3 months ago

Important background the article doesn't mention: British policy in India had always (since the East India Company days) been about deindustrialization. It's not just about vague conservatism or even not bothering; turning India into a manufacturing hub like Adams wanted would've stood again everything the British Raj stood for. From here I'm speculating, but arguably this consequences of this policy (in place for generations by this point) meant there was no infrastructure for adopting this invention.

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inari 4 points 3 months ago

That was a fascinating read, thanks for sharing

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