"Jerry Pournelle - Extreme Prejudice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

it in Fahrenheit. Down at the bottom the waterтАЩs five degrees Centigrade.
 We take the warm water down to heat exchangers and boil propane with it. Propane steam goes
through the turbines. On the other side weтАЩve got condensers. They get cooled by another set of heat
exchangers with water pumped up from the bottom. Turbines spin, and out comes electricity. Works like
a charm, and no fuel costs.тАЬ тАЭSounds like perpetual motion.тАЬ тАЭIt is. ThereтАЩs a power source, of course.
The sun. It heats water pretty good in the Tropics. What it amounts to, Gideon, is that we have a
temperature difference with the same power potential as a ninety-foot water drop. Lots of dams with a
smaller pressure head than that. And weтАЩve got all the hot water we could ever want.тАЬ
тАЬYeah, OK.тАЭ We started up in the elevator. It sounded impressive as hell but there hadnтАЩt been
anything to see. тАЬJust a minute. The water by the airstrip was cold.тАЭ
тАЬRight. ThatтАЩs used cooling water. We dump it high because itтАЩs full of nutrients. Artificial up-welling.
You know, like Peru? Over half the fish caught anywhere in the world are at natural upwellings. WeтАЩve
made our own. Lot of profit in fish, fish meal, frozen fish, game-fish, you name it.тАЭ
I could appreciate that. With meat prices where they were in the US, weтАЩre getting to be a nation of
fish-eaters anyway, and Dansworth supplies a lot of the fish. тАЬBut where do you get the hot water, then?тАЭ
тАЬBring it in from up-current of the station, where there are black platforms below the surface to help
get it hotter. No problem. It has to be pumped anyway. With dolphin-hide liners 6n the pipes, itтАЩs about
as easy to pump the water a long way as a short.тАЭ ,
I gave him a blank look. тАЬI must be denseтАФdolphin hides? You kill them for that?тАЭ
He laughed. It was a real long laugh, hearty, and after a second I joined in because it was infectious,
even if it was obviously on me. тАЬWhatтАЩre we laughing about?тАЭ I asked him.
тАЬDolphin-hideтАЩs a process name,тАЭ Hank wheezed. тАЬYouтАЩll see. WeтАЩve got a way to duplicate the
effect that dolphins use to control water flow across their skin. They get true laminar flow, if that means
anything to you.тАЭ
I nodded. It did, just. тАЬSmooth water flow, no friction.тАЭ
тАЬYeah. We havenтАЩt got it worked out for boats yet, but weтАЩre trying. Easy to make it work with
steady flows, like pipes. YouтАЩll see tomorrow.тАЭ
We toured the station. Fisheries, where they used graded nets to catch fish at just the right sizes and
let the others through. There were dolphins involved in that too. They chased the fish into the nets. The
men in charge used little boxes with keys to play dolphin-sound tunes and direct their partners. The
dolphins seemed to be having more fun than the men, but nobody was .working very hard and I could
see a lot of grins.
In another place they had plant-research farms. Different kinds of kelp and other seaweeds, and
different creatures living in them. Shrimp, fish, shellfish-anything that might be edible, and some that
werenтАЩt. Everything grew like crazy, and Hank said it was because of the nutrients in the water they
brought up from the bottom. тАЬInfinite supply of that, too. All free since we need it in the power plants to
begin with.тАЭ
We took an elevator to the surface at the,downwind end of the airstrip, and watched the big ships
loading up at the floating docks. I asked how theyтАЩd survive in storms, big structures like that exposed to
the waves.
тАЬThey wouldnтАЩt,тАЭ Hank said. тАЬSo we sink тАЭem if thereтАЩs a big enoughтАЬ blow coming. Ships stay way
the hell away unless thereтАЩs good weather. We get good predictions from the satellites.тАЭ
It was a whole new world. Everything was bright and clean. The shops along the airstrip had no iron
bars or reinforced doors. I hadnтАЩt seen a policeman since I arrived. Hank told me the Navy Shore Patrol
did all the policing they neededтАФmostly drying out sailors whoтАЩd had one too many.
IтАЩd never known people could live like that.тАЬWhy canтАЩt we, back in the States? One day we will, if
we can hang on long enough.
We went through hydrogen plants, where they electrolyzed water into its parts and liquefied the
hydrogen and oxygen. The compression and electrolysis made heat, and they pumped that back into the
system with heat exchangers. No stage of the Dansworth operation was very efficient, but overall it was