Next Great Thing (Paperback)

~ Shelton Mark (Author)
Key Phrases: turning money, magnet paddle, piston gas spring, The Next Great Thing, William Beale, Neill Lane (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sunpower Inc., founded in 1970 by William J. Beale, is a bootstrap engineering research company with a Holy Grail mission: to harness Stirling heat engine technology to applications that could save the world from carbon fuel pollution and could eliminate ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons from the atmosphere. In Shelton's lively account, Beale and his fellow engineers in Athens, Ohio, attempt to rob the second law of thermodynamics to give the world nearly free energy for basic heating, cooling and pumping operations. Also joining Beale, who emerges as a sort of second generation Buckminster Fuller, are the company's machinists and support staff--all dedicated to the cause and the process of their R & D effort. In this depiction of Sunpower's research and its ever more time absorbing and not always productive search for funding, freelancer Shelton captures the sheer sense of joy that powers these workers at technological frontiers and proves himself a technology writer on a par with Tracy Kidder.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In a college town in southern Ohio, a small company is battling the odds to develop a solar-powered Stirling engine, an alternative energy source that could revolutionize the way the world makes and uses energy. While this technology has been around since the 19th century, practical application has been elusive. Shelton, author of Working in a Very Small Place: The Making of a Neurosurgeon ( LJ 6/1/89) and an LJ reviewer, records here the time he spent with Sunpower, Inc. and its people, relating their struggles to accomplish the dreams of the owner, William Beale, a tireless visionary enthusiast who is much more engineer than businessman. There is also a great deal of information about energy production, solar thermal energy technology, and the politics and frustrations of dealing with the Department of Energy and potential corporate sponsors. While the book is written for a general audience, its technical matter gets a bit heavy at times for the uninitiated. For larger science and technology collections. (Illustrations not seen.)-- Donald Marion, Science & Engineering Lib., Minneapolis
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. (January 1, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393334031
• ISBN-13: 978-0393334036
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,140,135 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars To Change the World, June 11, 2002

By	Robert Tso (So. SanGabriel, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Next Great Thing: The Sun, the Stirling Engine, and the Drive to Change the World (Hardcover)

An amazing and inspiring story of a small, driven R&D engineering company that struggles to convert theory into working hardware, make the bridge from doing "research" to "building products", that eventually pulls itself out of operating on the brink of bankruptcy, while offering the world a clean, renewable source of energy, the Solar Heated Free Piston Stirling Engine. Shelton does a great job in conveying the personalities, the financial and technical challenges overcome, and the dramatic events that allowed Sunpower to survive through some very trying times.