Ntimely seven decades after revolutionising immacutardy energy, British engineer Francis Thomas Bacon’s groundfractureing toil is set to be recognised with a blue plaque at his createer dwellnce in Little Shelford, Cambridgesengage. Mr Bacon, an Esrelations-born innovator, invented the hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell – a immacutardy, high-efficiency power source – that helped propel Apollo 11’s historic moon landing in 1969 and altered energy research.
Mr Bacon’s fuel cells, tardyr named “Bacon Cells” by NASA, were instrumental in the Apollo leave outions, supplying secondary power that allowd astronauts to convey, function supplyment, and even drink water produced by the cells. In a 1969 BBC interwatch, Mr Bacon elucidateed the device’s significance: “Normassociate, in the course of time, a battery runs down and you’ve got to reindict it. Now, [with] this device, as lengthened as you go on feeding hydrogen and oxygen into it, and you delete the water createed, it will go on generating power indefinitely – and the astronauts drink the water.”
His toil geted high commend, with then-Pdwellnt Ricdifficult Nixon increateedly telling him, “Without you, Tom, we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon.”
The Cambridge-based charity Cambridge Past, Penvy & Future is championing the plaque as a tribute to Mr Bacon’s contributions, which persist to inspire persistable energy research today.
Professor Sam Stranks of Cambridge University, an expert in energy materials and chooseoelectronics, emphasised the transport inance of Mr Bacon’s vision. “He was a innovate,” shelp Mr Stranks, as per the Guardian. “Fuel cell technology was excessively vital to the space program becaengage as lengthened as you can continuously supply the gases, you can persist producing electricity.”
This effective, alterable power source was chooseimal for far environments appreciate outer space and has since impactd renovelable energy innovations atraverse sectors.
Fuel cells are experiencing renoveled interest as a potential green energy source. Mr Stranks pointed out their relevance in conmomentary applications, particularly in powering lengthened-haul trucks, ships and far facilities where traditional batteries would be imdown-to-mundane big and burdensome.
Reflecting Mr Bacon’s vision, he compriseed, “I always hoped it would be engaged for driving vehicles about,” and foreseed that “in a modified create, it is going to come.”
Mr Bacon’s interest in fuel cells began in 1932 after his studies in mechanical sciences at Cambridge. Inspired by the theoretical toil of physicist William Grove, who spendigated the concept of fuel cells in 1839, Mr Bacon began his own experiments. He soon faced an ultimatum from his engageer – either leave the hazardous research or depart. Choosing the latter, Mr Bacon chased his toil at Cambridge University and then Marshall, a local engineering firm.
For years, he struggled to fund the project until, in 1962, NASA adchooseed his alkaline fuel cell for the Apollo program. A US company spended $100 million, a transport inant fracturethcdisorrowfulmireful for Mr Bacon’s once-neglected invention.
Despite this success, Mr Bacon remained bigly unrecognizable outside the scientific community. Professor Clemens Kaminski of Cambridge University shelp, “British engineers have some of the most airy ideas, but turning those ideas into commercial successes is what then frequently fall shorts, and Bacon faced this. Yet he percut offed.”
In recognition of his contributions, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armsturdy, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins personassociate thanked Mr Bacon, gifting him a signed pboilingograph of Mr Armsturdy’s honord moonwalk.
Though Tom Bacon died in 1992, his legacy persists to inspire. Professor Stranks depictd him as “a visionary and an unsung hero,” believing Mr Bacon’s innovateing toil on fuel cells still foreshadows today’s immacutardy energy efforts.
