Could Edison win the AC-DC war? : Non-ASB Scenario for early room-temperature pressure-ambient superconductor

[Googolbyte]

A preprint paper indicates that a fairly simple to make room-temperature pressure-ambient superconductor has been discovered:

https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/15a9bu4

The paper describes a material that needs materials & ceramic kiln which would be available to Thomas Edison, as well as a vacuum pressure that was first achieved by Thomas Edison himself: https://vacaero.com/information-res...347-a-brief-history-of-vacuum-technology.html

In the unlikely scenario that this research replicates (which should occur soon if it does given the ease of making the material), it would mean that Edison could have produced a useable superconductor with the materials & equipment available to him

A useable superconductor would have solved the issue of short-range power delivery that lead to his preferred direct current power losing the War of the Currents

The material in its current grainy impure state has a pretty low Telsa tolerance (not unlike Edison himself) so it wouldn't mean they'd be using railguns in World War 1 or anything though, modern refinement techniques might make it possible once they're available

So how does history change if Edison gets his hands on superconductors?

 

[karatachi]

Sweet merciful Nyarlathotep, it hasn't been verified yet.

 

[Googolbyte]

I know, but no one's going to care about this scenario once the basis has been falsified

This is only non-ASB in the liminal time between the pre-print & the replication attempts

 

[Hydra1234]

Even if this is possible in a Menlo Park lab, I have significant doubts on whether this process can scale commercially with the tech Edison has. Plus, that’s a lot of lead to be putting in people’s homes and workplaces. Even if Edison wins the war initially (which is also what happened OTL), chances are that the superconductor DC system head the way of asbestos and leaded gas once the risks become apparent.

 

[Alex Zetsu]

You can do all sorts of useful things with AC like transform the voltage.

Wait how does that even work? You just have two coils next to each other. The current essentially needs to jump past air which is a great insulator.

 

[Googolbyte]

Most homes weren't electrified in the US until 1925, so there are decades for figuring out how to scale it

And leaded wiring should be fine since it'd be insulated & kept away from any way that it could get into people's bodies, though electricians might see a lot of lead poisoning (though it's not a thing that happens handling lead solder AFAIK)

Maybe if it's used in kettles or something you could have situations where people are exposed to a lot of lead, maybe that means countries with high tea consumption would see massive spikes in lead poisoning, mental deterioration, & crime, while coffee-consuming countries would largely be spared.

It might prevent leaded gas from being a thing since people would notice the difference between countries much quicker than the effects of leaded gas were noticed (plus if all the lead is going into wiring, it might mean it's not available for fuel use resulting in less overall lead poisoning that way too)

You can do all sorts of useful things with AC like transform the voltage.

Isn't the use case of voltage transformation for grid efficiency? That'd be unneeded when superconductors are perfectly efficient at transmitting power

 

[ArtosStark]

Wait how does that even work? You just have two coils next to each other. The current essentially needs to jump past air which is a great insulator.

It’s magnetic induction. One set of coils with a current through them creates a magnetic field which induces a current in the other. The number and direction of the windings determines the strength and pressure (voltage and current) produced.

 

[Googolbyte]

Oh, early superconductors would be a good basis for non-ASB atompunk alt-history setting (skipping fission power quickly to fusion power might dodge the decline associated with anti-nuclear sentiments)

Though it'd require further improvement on superconductors, but that might be do-able just refining this type of superconductor to the point of single crystal extrusion
Maybe possible by 50's or a bit earlier since that's when optic fibres first became a thing

 

[Hydra1234]

Most homes weren't electrified in the US until 1925, so there are decades for figuring out how to scale it

Decades may be too short of a timeframe. There are plenty of examples of people synthesizing materials at the scale of personal laboratories, only for it to take centuries before those materials are manufactured at an industrial scale.
Also, there still is the fact that these superconductors involving pricey machinery like large-scale vacuums to manufacture will have to compete with a strip of copper for cost, while installing millions of miles of wires.

And leaded wiring should be fine since it'd be insulated & kept away from any way that it could get into people's bodies, though electricians might see a lot of lead poisoning (though it's not a thing that happens handling lead solder AFAIK)

It does happen with lead soldering: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30715599/
The EU has banned lead soldering, and the US issues heavy tax incentives to move toward lead-free soldering materials.

Exposed wiring is also everywhere. Insulation degrades with people none the wiser all the time, or people just do not replace frayed wires/appliances because of cost or convenience. Disposal of these superconductors could also lead to environmental contamination as well. Both electricians and average people will be far more exposed to these materials compared to the tiny amount of both time and lead for soldering.