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Electricity Consumption

⁨879⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨fossilesque@mander.xyz⁩ to ⁨science_memes@mander.xyz⁩

https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/64aa75eb-dafd-4158-a83a-cde4e5b9d3fc.jpeg

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Comments

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  • RobotZap10000@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This map is very inaccurate, as it neglects those who had consumed electrical energy through lightning striking them. That cooked flesh didn’t come for free!

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    • x00z@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It also neglects rubbing on some fabrics and shocking friends and family with the charged static electricity.

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      • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Those people were condemned as witches. Best not to think about it.

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      • reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        We have a bit of electricity in our nervous systems too, yes?

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      • Bloomcole@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Ancient civilizations, including the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, used electric fish for medical treatments.

        Thales of Miletus discovered static electricity (600 BC) by rubbing amber and observing its ability to attract light objects.

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    • Coolbeanschilly@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      They just took the aggregate population, and rounded down based on kWh.

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    • ladicius@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s not consumption, that’s agony.

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  • tallricefarmer@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    it is not completely useless as it seems to give an accurate portrayal of geopolitical boundaries at the time.

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    • jayemar@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Agreed, I just wish they’d labeled that countries, or whatever the equivalents were

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  • merc@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It would be interesting (if the data was available) to see the energy consumption in Europe at that time: windmills, horses drawing carts, cooking fires, etc.

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    • addie@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Visited a traditional water-powered flour mill recently. Very cool, beautiful building, and the end product makes really delicious bread and pasta. Wholemeal, not too fine, nothing in it but grain. Perfection.

      From the water flow, drop and wheel turning rate, I made the maximum possible power as about 5 kW. Probably optimistic to think you’d get a quarter of that in practice. Still, that’s a huge amount compared to what a person can produce, and it’s ‘on tap’ 24 hours a day. That kind of thing does explain why, in the days before electrification, that having ‘the right landscape’ made some areas really wealthy and some others not. Exploitable renewable energy, what a concept.

      So yeah, your proposed map would be really interesting. The Romans burned down whole forests to make steel - you simply couldn’t refine it in a place without. It would be fascinating to see the map of “power resources” and the resulting industries, even if it would be very hypothetical.

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      • merc@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking about. I think in the modern world we underestimate how much “power” was being used on a daily basis before the industrial revolution. The main thing the industrial revolution gave the world is the potential to have constant, predictable power in a location that was convenient.

        Windmills and water mills could be pretty powerful. But, as you said, location was everything. And, in the case of wind, it wasn’t always predictable. And in map form, it would be really cool to know where that power was being generated, and what effect that might have had on another kind of power: political power.

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    • Bloomcole@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      You forgot the various forms of slavery

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      • tetris11@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Aren’t those metrics tied more to economic output than anything that could be converted to KWh?

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  • Eq0@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Somehow, the fact that it’s set in 1507 instead of 1500 really tickles me! Like, you wouldn’t believe how much changed in those 7 years!

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  • hanke@feddit.nu ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yeah, cool and all, but what are the blue areas?

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    • ladicius@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Eel.

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    • tetris11@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      if yellow is electricity consumption, then blue is water consumption.

      Fascinating that it’s remained constant even till today

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  • Phineaz@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Also great: A heads-per-capita count of every country!

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  • nexguy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It would be useful to see electricity consumption by source. A breakdown by hydro, fossil fuels, nuclear…etc would be more useful.

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  • ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    i dunno. with all those carpets and tapestries, there must have been some static sparks somewhere!

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  • vale@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Image

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  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Western Sahara with the rare reporting in.

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  • iamdefinitelyoverthirteen@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This is fake. I’ve seen maps from that time, and they looked a lot different than this one.

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    • Jankatarch@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Image

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  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Rabbit hole time.

    So there actually was some electrical research being conducted in 1705, but it was all static electricity. It could be argued that there was a non-zero amount generated and consumed, but it’s really, really small. ChatGPT threw out a value of “20 milliwatts” for this, citing that it was “about the power of a dim LED”.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Hauksbee

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  • x0x7@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This reminds me of the classic. What did communists use before candles?

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  • buttnugget@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I think it really depends on how much eel they were eating.

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Does it count if the Earth consumes lightning strikes in that area?

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  • MourningDove@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’d love to see that slipped into a history book!

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  • Zerush@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    What about China?

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