(1858-1920) established the workability of
internal-combustion prime movers (using a
flame-ignition and compression-ignition system
respectively); by the 1880s, such "gas engines" were in
quite common use in Europe, mostly as single-cylinder
factory engines, especially in steel plants where they
could be run on blast-furnace gas. The German General
Stall's Transport Section, in conjunction with Diesel,
made the first serious application to transportation,
with a compression-innition system for their
experimental dirigibles of the mid-to late-1880s.
Meanwhile the French were perfecting the lighter
spark-ignition engine, leading to the first practical
heavier-than-air flight by Edouard Sancerre in 1898.
Once alerted to the possibilities, the Domination's
armed forces and Institutes quickly eliminated the
Europeans' early lead in piston-action internal
combustion engines. By the 1890s, Diesel-type engines
(largely of aluminum-alloy construction and running on
a mixture of kerosene and hydrogen gas from the lift
cells) had become the standard engine for dirigible
airships worldwide. The spark-ignition engine was
largely limited to airplanes; there were experimental
applications to automobiles, but the industrial inertia
of 60 years kept the steam engine dominant on the
road, especially considering its greater range of fuels,
ease of manufacture and maintenance, and greater
reliability. However, the greater power-to-weight ratio
of the internal combustion engine did maintain a
certain degree of interest for ground applications,
particularly in armored fighting vehicles.
The next step was obvious, by analogy from the
progress of steam engines: a gas turbine. The
Domination's researchers first attempted (by about
1900) a "pure" turbine, with a rotary compressor
delivering air to a combustion chamber, whence the
gases exited through an expansive power-turbine. This
proved to be a monumental engineering task, and the
speeds and especially temperatures involved were
beyond the manufacturing technology of the
day—particularly when the corrosivenature of the
combustion gases was considered. Developing an axial
compressor that did not consume more power than it
generated also proved frustratingly difficult. A further
analogy suggested itself, however: the steam
piston-compressor, air-turbine combination which had
always been the mainstay of the Domination's
industrial machine. Using a conventional
compression-ignition cylinder as the gas-generating
unit, a high-pressure gas of moderate temperature
could be obtained, and then delivered through a power
turbine. This gave many of the torque advantages of a
turbine engine, an excellent power-to-weight ratio plus
the fuel efficiency of Diesel's engine. This
"turbocompound" engine was demonstrated on a trial
basis in 1914, and was first applied to war dirigibles in
1917, and to armored fighting vehicles in 1917-1918.
While easier to make than a pure turbine, the
turbocompound was still a formidable proposition;
American and European manufacturers continued to
develop the reciprocating 1C engines, until pure
turbines became available in the late 1930s.
Electricity:
By the 1840s, the basic technology of Draka
19th-century industrialization—reciprocating steam
engines, with direct or more commonly pneumatic
transmissions to various machines and
machine-tools—had been established. The next two
generations saw a continuous refinement, increased
efficiency, and vast expansion of scale; installed
horsepower in the Domination probably surpassed that
of Great Britain in the 1850s, and by 1910 it was equal to
that of the United States, or equivalent to Germany,
France, and Russia combined.
In the meantime, experimentation had shown itself
to be a paying proposition, and the overlords of Drakia
were nothing if not practical men; accordingly, they
subsidized research lavishly. Furthermore,
developments in mechanics and especially in industrial
chemistry were obviously moving beyond the
inspired-tinker stage. Drawing on the partly Germanic
educational tradition of their ancestors, both the
regular universities and the Technological Institutes
(which had originally been craft training centers and
lending libraries) increasingly emphasized direct,
systematic research in well-equipped laboratories. The
largely illiterate and unskilled nature of the industrial
workforce paradoxically reinforced the drive for
efficiency; by mass-production, assembly-line methods
and by "building in" skills into specialized machine
tools, it was possible to substitute rote-trained machine
tenders for the all-around skilled craftsmen of
European countries.
The next major development in power systems was
electricity. The initial interest was for communications
purposes, and secondarily for electrochemical and
electro metallurgical work. Copper-wire telegraphs
were introduced in the 1820s, and spread quickly, in
the Domination as elsewhere. Long-distance
transmission and underwater cables, however,
required more theoretical work. The University of
Archona [Pretoria, South Africa] succeeded in acquiring
the services of Michael Faraday (born 1791, Newlington,
Surrey, died 1872, Archona, Archona Province) in 1824.
As Director of Electrical Research, he made a number of
discoveries, including the basics of electromagnetic
induction, and the first electric dynamo and electric
motor (1830-33); students under his supervision
perfected the lead-acid storage battery. During the
1830s and 1840s, fresh discoveries included electrolytic
refining of a number of metals (principally copper and
magnesium), electric arc-lights, improved
direct-current motors, and electromagnets. In 1838 a
new industrial firm, the Faraday Electromagnetic
Combine, was established to manufacture and market
the new discoveries; Faraday himself was granted 10%
of the capital gratis, the remainder being supplied by
the government, the Ferrous Metals and Trevithick
Autosteamer Combines, and the Landholders' League
and individuals.
The combination of dynamo/motor and storage
battery made many applications common, although
pneumatic-transmission systems remained
predominant in most industrial use for several
generations. The dynamo was usually powered by
axial-flow air turbines, which gave the steady
high-speed rotation needed. Carbon-arc lamps quickly
took over the high-intensity outdoor and factory
lighting roles, and by the 1860s incandescent bulbs had
been developed. At roughly the same time small electric
generators became common on autosteamers and
trains, mainly for lighting purposes. Initially, electric
power was generated on the spot in plants, factories
and mines via the existing pneumatic transmission
methods; there was little incentive to develop
central-plant distribution systems until home-lighting
became common, or until electric motors began to
supplement or replace pneumatic transmission—the
latter awaiting the perfection of alternating current
motors in the 1870s.
The first large-scale electric power development
project was the Quattara Depression Scheme. Located
about 120 kilometers west of Alexandria, much of this
area of salt marsh was hundreds of meters below sea
level. Studies from the 1850s on had reviewed the
possibilities of digging a canal through to the
Mediterranean and tapping the resulting hydraulic
energy, but the distances involved made pneumatic
transmission impractical. In 1878 a hydroelectric
format was selected, and construction began in the
same year; by the mid-1880s, a yearly production of 250
megawatts was reached, climbing to 500 MW by 1890.
Initial applications were mostly electro metallurgical,
particularly aluminum refining by the newly discovered
cryolytic process; large-scale plants were set up on site,
and underground DC power cables were laid to
Alexandria itself. The discovery of natural gas and oil
beneath the half-flooded Quattara, and the growth of
chemical plants associated with the evaporation of
brine, led to further expansion; in the end, to the
explosive growth of the Alexandria connurbation
westward, a solid block of factories, refineries, artificial
harbors and residential developments along the shore
from the Delta to El Alamein.
With the discovery of the alternateing current motor
and generator (1870s, largely in the US and Germany),
the mercury-arc rectifier for easy conversion of AC to
DC power (Alexandria Technologica] Institute, 1880),
and the Tesla transformer (Archona University, 1891),
large-scale use of electrical power as a general power
source became possible. The concurrent development
of steam turbines provided another suitable prime
mover.
Developments in the Domination followed a rather
different path than those in Europe and the US. As
usual in Draka practice, a central agency was
established for power generation; the Electricity
Supply Combine, in 1890, with financial backing from
most potential industrial consumers. Distribution
systems within urban areas were mostly AC from about
1895 on. Africa proved to be supera-bundantly supplied
with hydroelectric potential—the Inga falls on the lower
Congo alone had 10% of the potential of the entire
planet—although it was often rather inconveniently
placed.
The period from 1880-1910 saw continuous
investment in hydroelectric and
hydroelectric/irrigation projects, and continuous
improvements in transmission efficiencies and range of
uses (e.g., electric trains, 1890, fluorescent lighting,
1903, arc furnaces for alloy steel production, 1893).
Comprehensive basin projects for the Orange River
(1884), the Nile (1889), the Chad/ Benue (1893), and the
Congo (1900) were launched, with radical innovations
in high-dam and large-scale water-turbine technologies.
These were long-term projects; the Zambezi-Cunene
scheme, which supplied water for the central Archona
Province industrial zone, irrigated 9,000,000 hectares,
provided deep-lift barge traffic as far inland as Kariba
and generated over 2,000 MW, was started (piecemeal)
in the 1880s and not completed until the 1930s.
Nevertheless, by 1914 the Domination produced over
half the world's electricity, 80% from hydropower, and
had a commanding lead in electrochemical and
metallurgical technology—producing approximately
90% of the world's aluminum and aluminum alloy
production, for example. Supplementary sources of
electrical energy included coal- and natural-gas-fired
steam turbines; North Africa in particular proved very
rich innatural gas, which came on stream in increasing
amounts after the discovery of the Libyan and Saharan
petroleum fields in 1880-1900. Along the Great Rift,
experimental development of geothermal power began
in the last decade before the Great War, and theoretical
studies of deep-ocean convection taps and oceanic
currents as power sources were launched.
One notable feature of the Domination's power-grid
was the use of compressed-air storage systems to even
out demand. This grew naturally out of the central
compressed-air delivery systems which had preceded
electric power, and which had left a complex of
underground ferroconcrete tanks around most of the
Domination's cities. Since demand for electric power
was irregular on both a daily and seasonal basis, costly
excess capacity had to be kept idle during "off" periods
to meet peak demand. The Draka used the power
generated in the off hours to pump air into the storage
tanks in highly compressed form. When demand rose,
the hot dense air was released through pneumatic
turbines to generate power; there were frictional losses
in the system, but it still allowed savings of up to 25% in
comparison to the cost of keeping additional fossil fuel
plants on standby, and it was more flexible as well.
Immediately after the Great War of 1919, these
storage systems also proved an ideal way of making
solar-powered electricity generation practical. Solar
water-heating systems had been in operation in the
Domination and the US since the 1860s, and the
constant sunlight of the arid tropics was an obvious
energy source. It was also frustratingly irregular. In the
period 1910-1916, researchers at the Kolwezara
Institute developed a new sun-powered generator:
black-painted insulated pipes, running above parabolic
steel mirrors that were moved by electric motor's to
keep the pipe at the focal point. With a suitable working
fluid, this was an economical method of power
generation, and one that was extremely suitable for
automatic operation and required no nearby water
source. Adding compressed-air storage made it possible
to even out the power flow, and mass-production
brought the cost of the equipment down to levels
competitive with any but the lowest-cost fossil fuel and
hydropower plants; the flexibility of location was an
added advantage. Large areas of low-value desert land
in the tropics and subtropics were available, and long
stretches of remote railroad and many isolated mining
settlements were so equipped. By the 1920s, remote
plantations without suitable hydropower sources were
buying prefabricated units through the Landholders'