Liquid Metal Technology, Ancient and Modern

Here's the video I was endeavouring to bring to the attention of the Teignbridge District Council planning committee yesterday. As I pointed out to them:

In it an MIT professor spends 15 minutes going over many of the vitally important issues in a way I will be unable to do in 5 minutes at Forde House.

As you will hopefully discover, Professor Donald Sadoway enjoys explaining the benefits of grid level storage in general, and liquid metal batteries in particular, to all and sundry. Here are a few choice quotes from his presentation:

The need for grid level storage is compelling, but the fact is that today there is simply no battery technology capable of meeting the demanding performance requirements of the grid. Namely uncommonly high power, long service lifetime and super low cost. We need to think about the problem differently.

Perhaps overlooked, [Alessandro] Volta's invention of the battery for the first time also demonstrated the utility of a professor!

With a giant battery, we'd be able to address the problem of intermittency that prevents wind and solar from contributing to the grid in the same way that coal and gas and nuclear do today.

If we're going to get this country out of its current energy situation, we can't just "conserve" our way out. We can't just "drill" our way out. We can't "bomb" our way out. We're going to do it the "old fashioned American way". We're going to "invent" our way out, working together.

Whilst in general I agree wholeheartedly with those points, I would like to take this opportunity to point out to Prof. Sadoway that perhaps "inventing" is in fact the even older British way. I live in one of the few places in these parts that retains a Celtic name. Dunchideock apparently means "wooded hill fort". A few miles away is the city of Exeter, better known as Isca Dumnoniorum to the Romans around 2,000 years ago. According to Wikipedia:

The Latin name for Exeter, Isca Dumnoniorum ("Water of the Dumnonii"), suggests that the city was of Celtic origin. Isca is derived from a Brythonic Celtic word for flowing water, which was given to the Exe and, elsewhere, to the River Usk (Welsh: 'Afon Wysg) on which Caerleon near Newport, South Wales stands. The Romans gave the city the name Isca Dumnoniorum in order to distinguish it from Isca Augusta, modern Caerleon, the name may have been suggested by a Celtic adviser to the Romans, rather than by the original inhabitants of the place.

There's still a lot we don't know about local technology at that time, but it's possible we might find out a few more things in the not too distant future. Plans are afoot to perform further excavations of a Roman "site of major importance" somewhere between here and South Brent, and according to Stephen Reed of Devon County Council's Historic Environment Service the archaeological findings at Gold's Cross Hill suggest that since:

We know there is a prehistoric or Roman settlement site in the eastern part of the site then it is likely that there are associated or earlier archaeological sites within the rest of the application area.   The survey also suggests that there is some sort of industrial activity going on here that may be associated with iron smithing or smelting and the site of this activity could be in the areas yet to be surveyed.