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From: rkn@ORNL-MSR.ARPA (Roger E. Stoller 576-7886)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re:  Warm superconductors
Message-ID: <8710301312.AA26625@ORNL-MSR.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 30-Oct-87 08:12:43 EST
Article-I.D.: ORNL-MSR.8710301312.AA26625
Posted: Fri Oct 30 08:12:43 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Nov-87 07:14:17 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
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The relatively near-term 'life-changing' potential of these materials 
is probably very limited.  Their use in electronic devices (an area I
know little about) is the one that seems most practical.  Their ability
to be used in an application is limited by the massive engineering 
problem of moving 10-100's of thousands of miles of transmission lines 
underground and > reliably < keeping them cooled.  Probably even more 
significant is the problem of fabricating the necesary wire.  The 
so-called 123-superconductor is a ceramic and as such has very little
ductility.  Wire cannot be drawn in the conventional manner. A few 
tricks have been employed to make 'wires' in the laboratory to prove 
it could be done, but these techniques do not lend themselves to 
economic, large-scale application.  These new materials are of
significant scientific interest, and the longer range implications
of their discovery are not necesarily clear - but the life-changing
business is largely hyperbole.

  ---------------------------------------------------------
  Roger Stoller, rkn@ornl-msr.arpa, (615) 576-7886
  Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN.  37831-6376
  ---------------------------------------------------------