Hysterical Journey to Historic Places

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KNOXVILLE

The Department of Energy got underway as a branch of the Tennessee Valley Authority beginning in about 1940. The Manhattan Project, in which we developed the atomic bomb, originated at the Oak Ridge Laboratory outside of Knoxville. Science and Energy have always been a big deal around those parts, and the locals quietly take a good deal of pride in it.

The engineers at Oak Ridge started out using carbon as the primary source of energy to drive the burgeoning nuclear program. In due course of scientific trial and error they deduced that carbon, as coal, did not produce the rapid release of energy needed for the nuclear trigger to detonate an atomic bomb. Carbon did, however, perform admirably enough as a source of power in dry cell batteries. It has provided a cheap, reliable energy source that has been in common use for decades, but dry cell cells are not renewable in current technology.

Renewable power resources, such as solar generators and wind turbines are coming into wide usage as a source of clean energy to reduce carbon emissions that are harmful to the atmosphere of the planet. In order for clean energy to work large rechargeable batteries are required. As it turns out those batteries are not cheap, and no more sustainable than fossil fuels are.

Moving forward perhaps what we need is a return to coal and the development of a more concentrated power source for larger batteries. Coal resources are still plentiful, but they too are not forever sustainable even if they could be made rechargeable. The use of improved coal batteries might see us through to the development of cold fusion technologies and electrical devices that use less power like light emitting diodes do. Thirty years, or so, back the University of Utah claimed to have discovered cold fusion but it turned out that what they really had was an increased demand on the traditional power grid so no new energy was produced and their cold fusion project died. In the meantime what we are facing is an emerging energy crisis in which we cannot produce enough electric power to meet our demands. California has already reached the crisis level. What has already happened there is that wide sections of the power grid have simply been shut down. Hopefully engineers at Oak Ridge, or perhaps at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California, are close to finding a solution to the energy problems confronting all of us. It does not much help that Congress continues to piss away our dwindling resources in foolish programs.

Anyway, if you ever find yourself bored and at loose ends in Knoxville go out to Oak Ridge and visit the Science and Energy Museum. Bring your imagination. Start your day downtown at the James White Fort. It was a trading post where Knoxville was founded in 1780. White named the community that sprang up around the trading post after Henry Knox, who was George Washington’s chief of artillery, and the best dressed of his officers. He never did much for Tennessee though. When you visit White’s Fort do not forget to bring your camera like I did.

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Photos

SCIENCE AND ENERGY MUSEUM
The museum has a gift shop. and all manner of intriguing exhibits to startle your imagination. Sorry I do not have any pictures to share of White's Fort.

MUSICAL SCULPTURE
As the breeze passes through this sculpture it activates a series of reeds that cause vibration and produce music for your ears. You could go out there and dance to the music if the breeze happened to be blowing. The music changes in pitch depending on which direction the breeze is blowing from and how much vibration it produces.

3D PRINTED JEEP
Of all things. This is a Jeep produced by a three dimensional printer. Dunno if it is made from plastic, or rubber, or paper, and I doubt it will pull itself out of a mudhole, but it sure tickled my imagination.