Energy at the Expositions Universelles: Solar, Biofuels, Coal

Speaker: Prof. Anne O’Neil-Henry (Georgetown)

Abstract: The expositions universelles in nineteenth-century Paris are famous for showcasing fossil fuels, especially coal. In this talk, I will examine two examples of renewable fuels tested at the expositions—exceptions to the rule. I study Augustin Mouchot’s “solar oven” at the 1878 Exposition and Rudolf Diesel’s peanut-oil-powered engine at the 1900 Exposition, alongside the reaction to these inventions in the press, jury reports, and industry publications. While there are notable differences between the two inventors and their fuels, both Mouchot and Diesel envisioned the larger-scale adoption of these early forms of alternative energy in the French colonies—but not in France. Together these two case studies serve as exceptional moments of alternative energy possibilities: returning to them helps us understand how the expositions set the stage for France’s passage from a nascent to a fully dominant fossil fuel economy. 

Speaker bio: Anne O’Neil-Henry is an associate professor of French and Francophone Studies at Georgetown University. She is the author of Mastering the Marketplace: Popular Literature in Nineteenth-Century France (U of Nebraska Press, 2017). Recent projects include guest-editing a special issue of the journal Dix-Neuf on the Parisian Universal Expositions (Fall 2020) and an Anthology of Popular Literature from 19th-Century France (MLA, 2020) which she co-edited and co-translated with Masha Belenky. She is currently working on a book that looks at energy production, popular culture, and the Universal Expositions.

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