Wind turbine

A wind turbine is a rotating machine that converts the wind's kinetic energy into electrical energy.

James Blyth, inventor of the wind turbine, was born on April 4, 1839 in Marykirk, Scotland. In July 1887 he built a cloth-sailed wind turbine in the garden of his holiday home in Marykirk and used the electricity it produced to charge accumulators; the stored electricity was used to power the lights in his cottage, which thus became the first house in the world to be powered by wind-generated electricity.

Blyth was awarded a UK patent for his "wind engine" in November 1891. He later developed an improved model which served as an emergency power source at Montrose Lunatic Asylum for the next 30 years.

James Blyth's electricity-generating wind turbine, photographed in 1891

The Bahrain World Trade Center, a twin tower complex located in Manama, Bahrain, was completed on April 8, 2008. One of the most innovative features of the building is its integration of wind turbines into the design. The towers feature three large wind turbines, each 29 meters (95 feet) in diameter, which are mounted horizontally between the towers at a height of 95 meters (312 feet) above ground level. The turbines are designed to generate enough electricity to power about 300 homes each year, which helps to offset the energy used by the building. The incorporation of wind turbines into the design of the Bahrain World Trade Center was a pioneering effort to integrate sustainable energy solutions into modern architecture. 

After being forced to quit school at 14 due to poverty, the Malawian teenager William Kamkwamba taught himself to build wind turbines out of trash. Using books from a local library, he transformed his village with electricity and became an international celebrity.

The tips of the blades of wind turbines move at speeds of up to 200mph (322 kmph).

Early wind turbines all turned anti-clockwise (as viewed from the front). Since 1978, however, changes in design mean they all turn clockwise.

Wind turbines are painted white to help them both blend in and to stand out. White or light grey helps them ‘blend' into the background, when the sky is cloudy. From the air the white color helps them stand out to planes. The same colour has two strikingly opposed purposes.

Wave (ocean)

A wave is the formation of a ridge or swell in a fluid surface by wind or other causes.

Pixiebay

LARGE WIND WAVES

Large waves form under certain weather conditions at certain times of the year, travelling big distances in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. They become dangerous when they reach the shallow waters of the continental shelves at 200 metres/100 fathoms, especially when they meet currents, for example the Agulhas current to the east of South Africa and the Gulf Stream.

By Shalom Jacobovitz 

The highest wave ever recorded was 91ft (27m) — as tall as six double-decker buses — in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Ivan in September, 2004.

The highest wave ever detected by a buoy was 62.3 feet (19m) high and happened on February 4, 2013, in the  North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the United Kingdom at coordinates 59° N, 11° W.

ROGUE WAVES 

Rogue or monster waves appear without warning and are extremely huge and often steep (cliff like) with very deep troughs.

Rogue waves are distinct from tides, caused by the Moon and Sun's gravitational pull, waves generated by underwater explosions or the fall of meteorites or tsunamis that are caused by underwater earthquakes, landslides or volcanic eruptions—all having far longer wavelengths than wind waves.

A widely reported phenomenon among sailors for centuries the first rogue wave documented and witnessed with measurable equipment was recorded at the Draupner platform in the North Sea off the coast of Norway on January 1, 1995 and was 25.6m (84ft) tall.

Merchant ship labouring in heavy seas as a huge wave looms ahead, ca. 1940.

The Agulhas Current, off the coast of Durban, in South Africa, produces some of the biggest waves in the world. In this busy shipping area, rogue waves can reach heights of over 100 feet (30 meters).

Rogue waves are considered responsible for the sudden disappearance, without distress calls of many sound ships.

TSUNAMI

A tsunami is a series of fast-moving waves in the ocean caused by powerful earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

The typical length of tsunami waves is about 100 times the depth. As a result, the speed of travel of a wave in the ocean with an average depth of approximately 13,200 feet (4,000 meters) is of around 440 miles per hour (700 kilometers per hour), which means the speed of a jet aircraft.

The largest wave ever recorded by humans measured 1,720 feet (524 meters). It occurred on July 9, 1958 when Alaska's Lituya Bay was hit by a megatsunami triggered by an earthquake. The force of the wave removed all trees and vegetation from elevations as high as 1720 feet above sea level. Two occupants of a small fishing boat that was in the area surfed that wave and survived to tell the story.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history, with at least 230,000 people killed or missing in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

One of the few coastal areas to evacuate ahead of the 2004 tsunami was on the island of Simeulue. Due to island folklore recounting an earthquake/tsunami in 1907, the islanders fled inland following the initial shaking. Generational folklore saving the lives of the islanders 97 years later.

WAVE POWER

Wave power is power obtained by harnessing the power of the waves.

The idea of turning wave energy into electricity first took place in Paris in 1799 when Monsieur Girard and his son patented a mechanism to drive wave power to activate pumps, mills, saws and heavy machinery.

Various schemes to harness the power of the waves were advanced in the mid-1970s when oil prices rose dramatically and the prospects of an energy shortage became serious.

Pelamis Wave Energy Converter on site at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), in 2008

The world's first wave energy farm was installed in September 2008. Three Pelamis wave-following attenuation devices were installed offshore near Póvoa de Varzim north of Porto in Portugal.

In theory, the wave energy potential of the United States is estimated to be of 2.64 trillion kWh, which means around 65 percent of all the electricity in the country in 2016.

FUN WAVE FACTS

Most waves we see coming in from the horizon are a product of wind that blows over large areas of the ocean. Length, height, period and speed are the main characteristics of a typical sea wave.

In the Southern Hemisphere, there is less difference in wave height between the warm and cold seasons, resulting in more consistent surfing conditions throughout the year.

The sound of a wave breaking is actually that of hundreds of millions of air bubbles bursting at the shoreline.

Sources Hutchinson Encyclopedia, Surfertoday

Stove

A stove is an enclosed space in which fuel is burned to provide heating.

Types of stove include the kitchen stove which is an appliance designed for cooking food and the wood-burning stove or a coal stove which is typically used for heating a dwelling.

Daruma stove, a traditional Japanese wood-burning stove

Early clay closed stoves used for cooking were known from the Chinese Qin Dynasty (221 BC–206/207 BC), and a similar design known as kamado appeared in the Kofun period (3rd–6th century) in Japan. These stoves were fired by wood or charcoal through a hole in the front. Such Far Eastern closed stoves did not spread to European countries until the end of the Middle Ages.

One of the first European closed stoves was built in Alsace, France in the late 15th century. It was made entirely of brick with porcelain tiles on the outside. They contained a small firebox at the bottom where wood was burned and a series of winding flue passages through which the smoke moved to the chimney.

The first rudimentary cast-iron stove, which further improved heat transfer from the fuel, was produced at Lynn, Massachusetts in 1642. This stove had no grates and was little more than a cast-iron box.

By the 1720s, such cast iron stoves were beginning to be made in quantity in North America and Europe. They were called Five-plate stoves and were fed by wood, charcoal, or coal. Used both for heating and cooking, they had an oven below and pot holes on top. However, because they gave off a large amount of heat, they made the kitchen an uncomfortable place in the summer.

A later cast iron wood stove in Massachusetts. By Victorgrigas 

On June 11, 1742 Benjamin Franklin, laid the foundations of modern stove design with his 'Pennsylvania Fireplace', which stood in the fireplace. It incorporated a grate and sliding doors that controlled the flow of air through the stove.

The grate of Franklin's stove extended out into the room, where it cast warmth in all directions, providing considerably more heat than the drafty open fireplace. It also enabled people to use less wood.

However Franklin's 'Pennsylvania Fireplace' was finicky and achieved few sales until it was improved by David Rittenhouse. Despite never catching on, many stoves continue to be referred to as "Franklin" stoves.

A Franklin stove

Jordan Mott invented the first practical coal stove in 1833. Mott's stove, which was called the baseburner, had ventilation to burn the coal efficiently.

In the USA by the 1850s, coal-burning stoves were replacing fireplaces.

The first gas stoves were developed as early as the 1820s, but it was only in the 1880s that the technology started becoming a commercial success in the Western World.

Early gas stoves produced by Windsor in 1851. From Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management,.

The Michigan Stove Company made the World's Largest Stove  a 15-ton replica their popular kitchen cooking stove. The stove was made for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, after which it was displayed for advertising for decades. The large replica was 25 ft (7.6 m) high, 20 ft (6.1 m) wide, 30 ft (9.1 m) long,

In America William Hadaway was issued the first patent for an electric stove in 1897. He was granted US patent # 574537 for an "Automatically Controlled Electric Oven".

In the 1920s gas stoves were found in most Western European and American households with top burners and interior ovens. However, by the end of the decade, electric stoves were beginning to compete with gas stoves.

A high-end gas stove called the AGA cooker was invented in 1922 by Swedish Nobel prize winner Gustaf Dalén. It was the first energy efficient stove that requires no adjustment during cooking and has an oven that is constantly hot.

During the energy crisis of the early 1970s, wood stoves regained their popularity in some United States homes, especially in the North, where firewood was cheap. However, the dangers of fire, carbon monoxide poisoning from poorly working stoves or leaking flue pipes, air pollution, and the increasing cost of wood have since limited their use.

Solar energy

Solar energy is the energy that is in sunlight. As well as its traditional human uses in heating, cooking, and drying, it is harnessed today as renewable energy using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis.

The solar energy received by the Earth in just one hour delivers enough energy to power the world's energy demands for a year.

The Sun by By Jessie Eastland 

Socrates suggested a passive solar design for Ancient Greek houses. Roofs were angled north and all openings faced south. Houses remained cool during summer since the roof provided shade, and warm during winter since the roof deflected cold north winds and sunlight entered through the south openings.

Arab alchemists used solar distillation in the 16th century to make unpure water drinkable.

Swiss scientist Horace de Saussure is credited with inventing the first solar energy collector, or 'hot box', in 1767.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Solar House #1, built in 1939 in the U.S., used seasonal thermal energy storage for year-round heating.

MIT's Solar House #1

Estimates suggest that around 1.2% of the Sahara Desert's solar energy potential would be enough to meet the world's entire energy needs. The Sahara receives incredible amounts of sunlight, making it a prime location for solar energy collection.  While covering a vast area, studies indicate that a relatively small portion of the desert would be sufficient to generate enough clean energy for the entire planet.

There are some challenges to consider with this large-scale project, such as efficiently transporting the captured energy to populated areas. However, technological advancements and international collaboration are making this concept more feasible all the time.

The White House had solar heating panels back in 1979.

About 500,000 solar panels are installed each day worldwide..

In 1981, the Solar Challenger became the first entirely solar-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel.

On July 26, 2016, Solar Impulse 2 achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first solar-powered aircraft to complete a circumnavigation of the Earth. The journey took approximately 16 months to complete.

Solar Impulse 2 was a groundbreaking aircraft designed to be powered entirely by solar energy. It embarked on its epic journey in March 2015 from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and made stops in various locations around the world, including India, China, the United States, Spain, and Egypt, among others. The aircraft's flight path allowed it to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, covering a total distance of over 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers) during its remarkable journey.

Solar Impulse 2 at the Payerne Air Base in November 2014

The US solar industry employs twice the amount of workers than that of coal, oil, and natural gas combined.

The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum is powered by solar energy.

A solar plant in the Mojave Desert generates so much heat it incinerates birds in mid flight.

Steve Comisar of Beverly Hills, California ran ads in the national magazines offering a "Solar Powered Clothes Dryer" for only $49.95. His devices were described as “Uses no batteries or electricity” with “Free Shipping”. The National Enquirer was a favorite publication for his ads.
Unsuspecting customers would receive a length of clothesline.

California generates so much solar energy that it has to pay other states to take the excess so their power lines don't overload.

The tiny South Pacific island country of Tokelau’s electricity is generated entirely by solar power. However, when it is overcast outside, the island runs on generators powered by coconut oil.

Source Daily Mail

Siemens

German electrical engineer Werner von Siemens (December 13, 1816 – December 6, 1892) and Johann Georg Halske founded Siemens & Halske, on October 12, 1847. The company has been known as Siemens since 1966.

Today Siemens is the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe.

Werner von Siemens, co-founder of Siemens & Halske.

Siemens was internationalized soon after its founding. One the Siemens brother's represented the company in England (Carl Wilhelm Siemens) and another (Carl Heinrich von Siemens) opened a branch in St. Petersburg, Russia, each earning recognition.

Werner von Siemens played a crucial role in the development of the telegraph industry. In 1848, the company built the first long-distance telegraph line in Europe; 500 km from Berlin to Frankfurt am Main.

In 1879 Werner von Siemens demonstrated the first ever electric locomotive in Berlin.

First electric locomotive, built in 1879 by company founder Werner von Siemens.

A Siemens AC Alternator driven by a watermill was used to power the world's first electric street lighting in 1881 in the town of Godalming, England.

Werner von Siemens was so influential in the field of electrical engineering that his name was adopted as the unit of electrical conductance (the SI or siemens).

Werner von Siemens brother, William, became a British subject in 1859 and was knighted in 1883 as Sir William Siemens.

He was manager of the London sales office of Siemens & Halske, and perfected the open-hearth production of steel (now superseded). William Siemens was also responsible for the hot tube ignition system used on many of the early gas engines.

Working at Siemens after the Second World War, Ernst Ruska, developed the first commercial transmission electron microscope and major scientific conferences on electron microscopy started being held in the 1950s.

Siemens is incorporated in Germany and has its corporate headquarters in Munich.

Siemens' headquarters, Munich (front) By Florian Adler 

Siemens and its subsidiaries employ approximately 372,000 people worldwide and reported global revenue of around €83 billion in 2017 according to its earnings release.

Today Siemens is organised into six main parts: Industry, Energy, Healthcare, Equity Investments, Siemens IT Solutions, and Services and Siemens Financial Services (SFS).

Refrigeration

Refrigeration is the application of cold for the preservation of food. The application is old, and cold caverns, cellars and where available snow have always been used for the purpose.

There is a 5000 year old refrigeration technique using only principles of evaporation and humidity that can be produced with basic pottery, sand, a rag, and water.

Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs made slaves fan their wine all night to cool it down.

By 400 BC, Persian engineers had mastered the technique of storing ice in the middle of summer in the desert.

Few colonial Americans used ice to refrigerate foods due to a lack of ice-storehouses and iceboxes. By the the 19th century these two things became more widely available, and individuals used axes and saws to harvest ice for their storehouses.

Ice became a mass-market commodity by the early 1830s in the US with the price of ice dropping from six cents per pound to a half of a cent per pound. This ice market further expanded further with the introduction of railroads to transport it.

Ice harvesting in Massachusetts, 1852, showing the railroad line in the background

Ice harvesting created a “cooling culture” as many used ice and iceboxes to store their fish, meat, dairy products and even fruits and vegetables. These early cold storage practices paved the way for many Americans to accept the refrigeration technology that would soon take over the country. 

American inventor Oliver Evans, designed the first closed circuit refrigeration machine that used vapor instead of liquid in 1805.

Another American inventor Jacob Perkins is known as the father of the refrigerator. He is credited with the first patent for the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle, assigned on August 14, 1835 and titled, "Apparatus and means for producing ice, and in cooling fluids." The idea had come from Oliver Evans' design, who never constructed his refrigeration machine.

Jacob Perkins was the first to describe how pipes filled with volatile chemicals whose molecules evaporated very easily could keep food cool, like wind chilling your skin after a dip in the sea. But he neglected to publicize his invention and its evolution was slow.

An American doctor, John Gorrie of Apalachicola, Florida was granted Patent No. 8080 for a machine to make ice on May 6, 1851. His design was based on the ones of  Oliver Evans and Jacob Perkins' and was intended to make ice to cool the air for his yellow fever patients. Gorrie sought to raise money to manufacture his machine, but the venture failed when his partner died.

James Harrison, the Scottish/Australian owner of the Geelong Advertiser became interested in refrigeration when whilst cleaning movable type with ether, he noticed that the evaporating fluid would leave the metal type cold to the touch. Harrison's first mechanical ice-making machine began operation in 1851 on the banks of the Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong, Victoria, Australia.

In 1855 James Harrison patented an ether liquid-vapor compression refrigeration system, which used a compressor to force the refrigeration gas to pass through a condenser, where it cooled down and liquefied.

A brewery became interested in Harrison's device and he was asked to adapt it so that it would cool beer. The result was the first practical use of a refrigeration machine. Harrison's system was almost immediately taken up by the brewing and meat-packing industries of Geelong.

The first industrial refrigeration system using gaseous ammonia dissolved in water was developed by Ferdinand Carré of France in 1859 and patented in 1860. His design was based on the gas–vapour system of James Harrison.

In 1862 Carré exhibited his ice-making machine at the Universal London Exhibition, producing an output of 200 kilograms (440 lb) per hour.

Carré's ice-making device

In early 1870s an engineering professor at the Technological University Munich in Germany, Carl von Linde, published articles in the Bavarian Industry and Trade Journal describing his research findings in the area of refrigeration.

Von Linde's first refrigeration system used dimethyl ether as the refrigerant and was built by Maschinenfabrik Augsburg (now MAN AG) for the Spaten Brewery in 1873.

In 1876 Von Linde patented equipment to liquefy air using the Joule Thomson expansion process and regenerative cooling. Von Linde's improved method of liquefying gases such as ammonia, sulfur dioxide and methyl chloride as refrigerants was widely used for that purpose until the late 1920s.

Ammonia is a poisonous gas and occasionally, one would leak, causing a minor emergency. Though the ammonia systems were too dangerous for domestic use, they could still be used in ship's holds, and within a decade of von Linde's discovery, refrigerated ships were carrying Australian, New Zealand and Argentinean exports to Europe. Ammonia is still in wide use as a refrigerant in industrial applications.

The first attempt to ship refrigerated meat from the souhern hemisphere was made when the Northam sailed from Australia to England in 1876; however the refrigeration machinery broke down en route and so the cargo was lost.

In 1880 a Director of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company (NZALC), William Soltau Davidson convinced the owners of the Dunedin to refit the sailing ship with a Bell-Coleman compression refrigeration machine, cooling the entire hold. On February 15, 1882, the Dunedin left New Zealand with 4331 mutton, 598 lamb and 22 pig carcasses, 2,226 sheep tongues. 250 kegs of butter, chicken, hare, pheasant and turkey.

The Dunedin loading at Port Chalmers in 1882.

The Dunedin arrived in London a little over three months after setting sail. Carcasses were sold at the Smithfield market over the following fortnight by John Swan and Sons. The success of the shipment effectively launched the refrigerated meat industry.

World Refrigeration Day is an international awareness campaign to raise the profile of the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat-pump sector and focuses attention on the significant role that the industry and its technology play in modern life and society. Held annually on June 26, it was established by the World Refrigeration Day Secretariat in Derbyshire, England.

The day was chosen to celebrate the birth date of William Thomson on June 26, 1824. Thomson formed the first and second laws of thermodynamics and was made Lord Kelvin in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics. Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honor. The existence of a lower limit to temperature (absolute zero) was known before his work, but Lord Kelvin found its correct value as approximately −273.15 degree Celsius or −459.67 degree Fahrenheit.

Sources Europress Encyclopedia, The Independent

Petroleum

HISTORY

Ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society.

Petroleum was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859 leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America and around the world quickly grew.

Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas

The first petroleum pump was invented by Sylvanus Bowser in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1885. It was used to fill kerosene lamps and stoves.

The American industrialist and philanthropist John D Rockefeller (1839-1937) dominated the petroleum industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at one point controlling 90 per cent of all oil in the U.S. As a private individual, his fortune accounted for more than 1 per cent of the entire American economy.

In the early days, automobile drivers pulled into almost any general, pharmacy or hardware store, or even blacksmith shops in order to fill up their tanks.

The world's first purpose built gas station was constructed in St. Louis, Missouri in 1905 at 420 S. Theresa Avenue.by Automobile Gasoline Co., a subsidiary of Shell of California. The shopkeeper filled a five-gallon can from behind the store and brought it to the customer's car to fill it.

A Shell gas station near Lost Hills, California (U.S.) Wikipedia

Reighard's gas station in Altoona, Pennsylvania, opened in 1909. It is the oldest U.S. gas station still in operation,

The first American drive-in automobile service gas station was opened by Gulf Refining in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 1, 1913. The first station specifically designed to sell fuels and other related products, it sold 30 gallons, at 27 cents each on its first day.  It was also the first architect-designed station and the first to distribute free road maps.

In 1919 gasoline surpassed the sales of kerosene and became the top petroleum product sold in the United States.

Britain's first dedicated petrol station opened in November 1919 in Aldermaston, Berkshire. Before this, motorists had to buy fuel in two-gallon cans from chemists, hardware stores, or blacksmiths. The opening of the Aldermaston station marked the first time drivers could pull off the road specifically to "fill up" from a dedicated pump. It was opened by the Automobile Association (AA). Motorists were served by AA patrolmen in full uniform. Initially, the station only served AA members and was run as a non-profit venture.

Oregon placed a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline in 1919, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.

The 1957 Monte Carlo Rally was cancelled because of a worldwide petrol shortage following the Suez crisis.

FUN PETROLEUM FACTS

The word petroleum is from Greek: petra: "rock" and oleum: "oil".

Even though crude oil can last millions of years underground, gasoline can spoil—it's chemically very different than the original crude oil.

Petroleum. Wikipedia Commons

A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock and subjected to both intense heat and pressure.

Petroleum is the most traded physical commodity in the world.

Petroleum supplies 38% of the world's energy and is also used to make petrochemicals.

Proven world oil reserves, 2013. Wikipedia Commons

It is used in manufacturing a wide variety of materials, and it is estimated that the world consumes about 95 million barrels of petroleum each day.

Gasoline was once sold as a cure for lice.

The average U.S. commuter wastes $713 annually on gasoline while sitting in traffic.

If you follow an 18-wheeler closely while driving and utilize its slipstream, you can decrease your fuel consumption by 11%.

In New Jersey and Oregon you cannot pump your own gas because it must be done by a gas station attendant

A 106-mile portion of I-70 in Utah has no gasoline or exits. It is the longest portion of the US Interstate system without services. A station at one end sells about 30 gas containers a week to people who run out on the highway and walk to the station.

Source Nacsonline

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation that forms in wetland bogs, moors, mires, and swamps. It is composed mainly of marshland vegetation: trees, grasses, fungi, as well as other types of organic remains, such as insects, and animal remains.

Peat hags at the start of Allt Lagan a' Bhainne tributary on Eilrig. By Sarah McGuire,

The formation of peat is often the first step in the geological formation of other fossil fuels such as coal, particularly low-grade coal such as lignite.

There are about 4 trillion m³ of peat in the world with Canada, Finland, Ireland and Russia all having large deposits. Peatlands between 2-3% of the land surface of Earth, but are thought to contain twice as much carbon as all the world's forests.

Peat gatherers at Westhay, Somerset Levels in 1905

The Congo Basin peatland is a 56,000-square-mile swamp — an area larger than New York State — and is considered to be the world's largest tropical peatland.

The Congo Basin peatland has accumulated around 30 billion metric tons of carbon over the last 11,000 years, , the equivalent of 20 years worth of U.S. fossil fuel emissions.

Most modern peat bogs formed in high latitudes after the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age some 9,000 years ago. They usually grow slowly, at the rate of about a millimetre per year.

Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in some countries, including Ireland and Scotland, where it is traditionally used for cooking and domestic heating.

Peat fire

Peat fires are used to dry malted barley for use in Scotch whisky distillation. This gives Scotch whisky its distinctive smoky flavour, often called "peatiness".

Ireland has three peat fired power plants. Using peat taken from Irish bogs, it's more polluting than coal and is so inefficient it is subsided by the state.

Although peat has many uses for humans, it also presents problems. When dry, it can be a major fire hazard, as peat fires can burn almost indefinitely (or at least until the fuel is exhausted).

Olive oil

Olive oil is the juice made by crushing olives. It is considered to be healthier alternative to sunflower oil.

Olives in olive oil

Archaeological evidence shows that olives had been turned into olive oil by 6000 BC in the Middle East..

One of the earliest evidence of the use of olive oil in the Middle East, was unearthed in December 2014, when  organic residue on pottery shards excavated in the Lower Galilee, was found to be olive oil. The vessels were dated around 5800 BC, indicating that it was a diet staple 4,000 years before the time of the biblical patriarchs.

Olive oil in biblical times was made by shaking the olives shaken from the tree then trampling them into the press. The oil was then drained into vats and jars and allowed to settle.

Olive oil was prized for anointing the body in Greece during the time of Homer.

Ancient oil press Turkey By Georges Jansoone  Wikipedia

Olive oil has traditionally been used as fuel and was even used to light the earliest Olympic torch.

There is an artificial hill in Italy, over 100 feet tall, made entirely of empty olive oil pots, carefully placed over a period of 250 years by ancient Romans.

The Italian Calabrian Mafia’s Piromalli clan pulled an elaborate heist involving olive oil, using adulterated and chemically treated oils and labelling their containers as extra virgin. The profit margin of this heist was said to have "three times the profit margin of cocaine."  33 suspects were arrested in February 2017.

Spain became the world’s largest olive oil producer in 2014 taking over from Italy.

Christianitytoday.com

Oil

Oil is a greasy, inflammable chemical substance that usually does not mix with water and has a high carbon and hydrogen content.

Some oils are made from plants and used in foods and for cooking. Plant oils that people use include African oil palm, maize (corn), olive, peanut, soy, and sunflower. There are also animal-based oils such as butter and lard.

Other kinds of oil are made from crude oil (petroleum) which comes from under the ground. Oil wells are used to bring the oil up to the surface. The oil is then transported to refineries where it is distilled into fuel for heating or transportation. Oils from crude oil are also used to make lubricants.

Archaeological evidence has been found of olive oil being used for cooking near Nazareth in present day Israel back in 5800 BC, indicating that it was a diet staple 4,000 years before the time of the biblical patriarchs.

Olive oil was a most important product in the economy of the ancient Hebrews. It was used for cooking, lighting, medicinally and after bathing, the body was anointed with oil.

Olive Oil

The ancient Egyptians used sesame oil, one of the first oil to be used for cooking purposes.

Oil lamps of a crude sort have been known since pre-Roman times.

In 1780 a Genevan physicist and chemist known as Ami Argand devised a much-improved oil lamp. They were first adopted by the well-to-do, but soon spread to the middle classes and eventually the less well-off as well.

Snake oil was introduced to the US by Chinese laborers who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad. Derived from the Chinese water snake, snake oil was rich in the omega-3 acids that help reduce inflammation and was quite effective, especially when used to treat arthritis and bursitis.

Clark "The Rattlesnake King" Stanley, sold "100% Snake Oil" in the late 19th and early 20th century. It did not actually contain any snake oil. Hence the term "Snake Oil Salesman".

On August 27, 1859 petroleum was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.

The March 18, 1967 Torrey Canyon oil spill off the south-west coast of the United Kingdom, was at the time the world's worst oil spill. The estimated 25–36 million gallons (94–164 million liters) of crude oil that spilled into the ocean gave lift to the emerging environmental movement.

On June 3, 1979, the oil rig named Ixtoc I, owned by the Mexican government-operated oil company Pemex, suffered a blowout and began leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The exact cause of the blowout was a failure in the drilling equipment, which led to the uncontrolled release of oil and gas from the well.

The wellhead remained uncapped, and efforts to stop the leak were initially unsuccessful. It took almost nine months to fully cap the well and stop the flow of oil. During that time, an estimated 3.3 million barrels (140,000 metric tons) of crude oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico, making it one of the largest oil spills in history at the time.

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, owned by Transocean and leased by British Petroleum (BP), experienced a blowout while drilling an exploratory well called Macondo in the Gild of Mexico.

The blowout caused a massive explosion on the rig, resulting in the loss of 11 crew members' lives and the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon two days later. The incident led to the release of an estimated 4.9 million barrels (approximately 210 million gallons) of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of 87 days. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is considered to be the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry

The Deepwater oil spill had devastating environmental, economic, and social consequences. The oil contaminated large areas of the Gulf of Mexico, affecting marine and coastal ecosystems, including fisheries, coral reefs, and wetlands. It caused the death of numerous marine animals, including birds, dolphins, sea turtles, and fish, and harmed their habitats.

Americans spill 180 million gallons of used oil per year, most of which ends up in waterways.

Whale oil was such an effective lubricant that within three years of the 1972 US whale killing ban, yearly automotive transmission failures had climbed from under 1 million, to over 8 million.

The word "essential" in "essential oil" doesn't mean "important," but rather "the essence of". So oil of clove smells like clove, capturing the "essence" of the plant, and therefore can be called an essential oil.

"Oil" is the favorite word of people building online dating profiles in the U.S. states of Texas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota.

In Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, oil is cheaper than water.

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Nuclear power

Hungarian-born physicist Leo Szilard conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, London on September 12, 1933.

German chemist Otto Hahn discovered the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy on December 17, 1938. The decisive experiment was named "radium-barium-mesothorium-fractionation."

Nuclear fission experimental setup By J Brew - originally posted to Flickr 

On December 2, 1942 a group of scientists achieved the first self-sustaining chain reaction and thereby initiated the controlled release of nuclear energy. Leo Szilard, who had emigrated to America was among the observers.

The nuclear reactor that achieved this was known as Chicago Pile-1. It was built by the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory on a squash court at the University of Chicago. Many reactors were built in the U.S. during World War II for the Manhattan Project.

Drawing of the reactor

The Manhattan project was so secret, vice president Truman wasn't even debriefed on it until he assumed office after Roosevelt's death.

The first European artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated within Soviet nuclear reactor F-1 in 1946.

The EBR-1 at Argonne National Laboratory-West in Arco, Idaho was the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs on December 20, 1951.

The first light bulbs ever lit by electricity generated by nuclear power at EBR-1

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his "Atoms for Peace" speech on December 8, 1953, which led to an American program to supply equipment and information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.

The world's first nuclear power station was opened at Obninsk near Moscow. It began producing electricity on June 27, 1954. The plant remained in operation between 1954 and 2002, although its production of electricity for the grid ceased in 1959; thereafter it functioned as a research and isotope production plant only.

Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant Museum. By RIA Novosti Wikipedia

On July 17, 1955, the town of Arco, Idaho became the first town in the world to be powered entirely by nuclear power energy. The power plant was a 3,500-watt experimental reactor called the BORAX-III, and it was operated by the Argonne National Laboratory. The reactor was only turned on for an hour, but it was a major milestone in the development of nuclear power.

USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, put to sea for the first time in 1955. It travel led from Groton, Connecticut, with the message, "Underway on nuclear power."

The world's first commercial nuclear power plant opened at Calder Hall, near Sellafield in Cumbria, England in 1956. The first power station to generate electricity on an industrial scale (four 60 MWe reactors) from nuclear energy, it was first connected to the national power grid on August 27, 1956 and officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on October 17, 1956.

In its early years, the main task of Calder Hall was to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Generating electricity was a secondary task.

Calder Hall was closed on March 31, 2003 after 47 years in use.

Calder Hall, United Kingdom - The world's first commercial nuclear power station. 

The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Shippingport, Pennsylvania was the first commercial reactor in the USA and was opened in 1957.

The Windscale fire in Cumbria, England, the world's first major nuclear accident, took place on October 10, 1957. John Cockcroft, the director of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment had insisted that the chimney stacks of the Windscale reactors be fitted with high performance filters. His caution had been mocked as Cockcroft's Folly until the core of one of the reactors ignited and released radionuclides during the Windscale fire. The filters trapped about 95% of the radioactive dust and arguably saved much of norther England from becoming a nuclear wasteland..

Karen Silkwood worked at The Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site, a nuclear fuel production facility located near Cimarron City, Oklahoma, where she made plutonium pellets.  On November 13, 1974, she set out to meet a reporter to go public with evidence of extensive safety violations. Silkwood was later found dead; her car appeared to have been run off the road and the documents she had with her were missing.

The China Syndrome was a 1979 American film that explored the potential dangers of nuclear power. The movie tells the story of a television reporter and her cameraman who witness a near-meltdown at a nuclear power plant in California. The film was released on March 16, 1979, and just 12 days later, on March 28, 1979, a real-life nuclear accident occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown that occurred in the Unit 2 reactor at the plant. The incident led to the release of radioactive gases and raised concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants. The timing of the accident, which happened so soon after the release of The China Syndrome, added to the public's fear and interest in the movie, and it became a box-office success.

After visiting the Three Mile Island nuclear plant's accident in 1979, Jimmy Carter, who was trained in nuclear power from the US Navy, told his cabinet that the incident was minor. The president did not say so in public, however, to avoid offending fellow Democrats who opposed nuclear power.

An explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine on April 26, 1986,  released large amounts of radioactive particles into the atmosphere in what was then the worst nuclear disaster in history.

The abandoned city of Pripyat with Chernobyl plant in the distance.

The Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan was much closer to the epicenter of the 2011 Earthquake than the Fukushima Power Plant, yet it sustained only minor damage and even housed tsunami evacuees. It's safety is credited to engineer Hirai Yanosuke who insisted it have a 14m (46FT) tall sea wall.

Despite not having a nuclear engineering program (no engineering programs at all) Reed College in Portland, Oregon is the only liberal-arts school to have a nuclear reactor. Manned by a staff of 40 undergraduate students, the Reed College Research Reactor has more female reactor operators than all other nuclear reactors in the world combined.

11 per cent of the world’s energy requirements are now produced by nuclear power.

France is the country most reliant on nuclear power generating 71.6% of the country's total electricity, a larger percent than any other nation. It turned to nuclear in response to the 1973 oil crisis. The situation was summarized in a slogan, "In France, we do not have oil, but we have ideas."

France produces so much nuclear energy that it actually exports energy and makes a profit.

Canada's nuclear reactors are designed to use decommissioned nuclear weapons as fuel and can be refueled while running at full power. They're considered among the safest and the most cost effective reactors in the world.

The Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona is the only nuclear plant in the world not near a major body of water. Instead its 20,000 gallons/ minute of cooling water comes from local wastewater.

Oklo in Gabon is the only known location in the world capable of experiencing self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions. A natural nuclear fission reactor is a uranium deposit where self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions have occurred.

Oklo consists of 16 sites at which self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions took place two billion years ago, and ran for a few hundred thousand years, averaging probably less than 100 kW of thermal power during that time.

There are "nuclear divers", people who dive into nuclear power plant cooling systems to perform maintenance on them.

Nuclear reactors have caused the lowest number of fatalities per unit of energy generated when compared to the other major energy producing methods.

Since modern civilizations and languages likely won't exist 10,000 years from now, signs warning about nuclear waste (which will still be dangerous then) have to be designed to be understood by anyone, without the use of language. These tools include pictographs and hostile architecture.

To solve the problem of communicating to humans 10,000 years from now about nuclear waste sites one solution proposed was to form an atomic priesthood like the Catholic Church to preserve information of locations and danger of nuclear waste using rituals and myths.

Source Daily Express