1911 Illustration of Fessenden's "Plant" for exploiting the sun's radiation and wind-power

[Fessenden, Reginald Aubrey]

[RENEWABLE ENERGY IN 1911]. "The Commercial Utilization of Solar Radiation and Wind Power" [large illustration of the "Fessenden System" by Jill B. Robinson, with accompanying text, published in Scientific American]

New York: Scientific American, 1911 (Jan. 21). First Edition. Single sheet (398 x 275 mm), with large illustration reproduced from the Illustrated London News (two short tape repairs to outer margins, not affecting text); clippings of the accompanying text (2 columns) loosely inserted. Preserved in mylar sleeve with lig-free board. Very good. Item #3825

LARGE AND EVOCATIVE ILLUSTRATION OF FESSENDEN'S "RENEWABLE ENERGY PLANT" FOR UTILIZING SOLAR RADIATION AND WIND-POWER, EACH WORKING IN TANDEM.

R.A. Fessenden (1866-1932) was one of the most prodigious inventors of the late 19th- and early 20th-century, a tireless researcher of renewable energy, radio transmission and wireless telephony. Over the course of his career, Fessenden published more than 150 scientific papers and patented some 230 inventions, mostly in electromagnetic signaling but also in fields as diverse as solar energy, book and leather production, and even the parking of automobiles. Indeed, his interests were unusually broad: a freemason since 1899, he studied in great depth the history of the biblical world -- and beyond.

This 1911 "Scientific American" piece was accompanied by an unillustrated article in the Supplement (not present here). It was anticipated by Fessenden's article in "The Electrician" (16 September 1910) which concerned energy storage, writing: "The problem of the commercial utilization, for the production of power, of the energy of solar radiation, the wind and other intermittent natural sources is a double one. The energy of the sources must first be charged so as to be suitable in form, it must next be stored so as to be available in time."

In his 1907 Patent on a System of Storing Power (U.S. Pat. Off. Serial No. 377,834) Fessenden wrote: "It has long been recognized that mankind must, in the near future, be faced by a shortage of power unless some means were devised for storing power derived from the intermittent sources of nature. The amount of power capable of being derived from such natural and intermittent sources is substantially unlimited." Incidentally, the above cited patent was referenced as recently as 8-24-2021 (Norbert Sack: Construction of pumped storage power plants in the slopes of open-cast lignite mining).

Literature: Frederick Seitz, "The Cosmic Inventor: Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (1866-1932)" in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 89, No. 6, 1999). For Fessenden's report on the benefits of "intermittent natural sources of energy, see his "Natural Energy: Power from Sun and Wind" in: The Times of India, Oct. 14, 1910, p. 10.

Price: $250.00