Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Plug

["Allan Gaines" <Allan_Gaines@yahoo.com>]

>On Thu, 10 Feb 2000, Paul Suds wrote:
>    I'm not sure of the efficiency, but you could electrolyze the sea
>water using solar power and capture hydrogen that way.   (Actually, you



    The problem with electrolyzing seawater is
that you have to desalinate it first.  [At least that's
how I understand it.]


>D. Blake <dblake@bright.net> wrote:
>Hey, get Dave Buchner busy designing a solar power system.  And what about
>fresh water?  Might have to get a still to condense some from seawater.


    I've got a paperback copy of THE COMING AGE
OF SOLAR ENERGY by D.S. Halacy (copyright 1963
and 1973).  In this book, he mentions a large solar
still built in Las Salinas, Chile in 1871 by an American
named Charles Wilson.  The still was in operation for
approximately 40 years, and produced 6,000 [six
thousand] gallons of freshwater a day.  This still
looked roughly like a large complex of solar water
heaters (like the ones on roof tops), and had "an
area of 51,200 feet".  [I presume that was square
feet.]

-Allan

BTW, I had a rough time finding a copy of this book.
I read a copy from the local library a couple of years
ago- I found it by accident, and because I'm interested
in alternative energy I checked it out and read it.  Last
year I tried to check it out again, but they no longer had
it.  I ended up using Amazon.Com (or one of the other
online book stores), and it took THEM a while before
they found a copy.  The one they found is paperback- I don't
think they would have ever found a hardback edition.