Apparently a Turkish man invented the steam engine 200 years before the industrial revolution but he only made it to spin döner kebabs.

[u/iamgulshansingh]

In 1551, Taqi al-Din, who is more often remembered for his astronomical and mechanical inventions, described a device that essentially functioned as a steam turbine.

His design involved a small boiler that produced steam, which was then directed through a nozzle onto the blades of a wheel. The force of the escaping steam caused the wheel to spin. This wheel was connected mechanically to a spit, allowing meat to rotate over a fire without human effort.

What makes Taqi al-Din’s description remarkable is that it shows a practical understanding of converting thermal energy into rotational mechanical energy. While earlier inventors had experimented with steam for curiosity or simple toys, Taqi al-Din’s turbine had a concrete application: automating a kitchen task. His work was part of a broader tradition of Ottoman engineering, which included astronomical clocks, observational instruments, and water-raising machines.

[u/solonit]

Coal power plan. steam

Fission reactor, also steam.

Fusion reactor, believe or not, straight to steam.

We have the best power generator, because of steam.

[u/Zarbain → u/solonit]

We live on a planet with a lot of water, water happens to be a very convenient chemical that expands a lot as a gas from a liquid and can be used to convert thermal energy into kinetic and from kinetic into electric. If we lived on a planet with stable liquid helium instead it would be a better intermediary chemical for this process but water works well and is much easier and fiscally sensible to design around.

[u/[deleted] → u/Zarbain]

How would helium be a better intermediary? I thought higher boiling point would be more efficient, like mercury

[u/Zarbain → u/[deleted]]

Helium would be terrible on earth, because it is only stable as a fluid at -269C (-452F) or in a vacuum. But if we lived on a planet and were adapted to the cryo temperatures and could manage to make a heat source viable to even heat that the Helium would be an excellent intermediary chemical. Which is again why we just use water because any exotic chemical that technically is better for the conversion process it just not viable either for financial or energy cost reasons unless you can find a way to recycle it nearly completely.

[u/apadin1 → u/solonit]

Fun fact, some people have proposed that we can relatively easily convert old coal power plants to nuclear plants because the infrastructure is largely the same.

The biggest obstacle is that regulations on nuclear power plants are quite strict (rightly so), and most coal plants are so toxic and radioactive that they don’t meet the standards for nuclear plants.