Steve Baer — Zomeworks Corporation, Albuquerque, New Mexico — June 1975
Illustrated by Criss-Cross Art Workshop. Library of Congress: 75-20779. Dedicated to Theodore Baird.
Baer's third book, after Dome Cookbook (1968, Lama Foundation, out of print by 1975) and Zome Primer (1970, Zomeworks). Eleven chapters mixing factual solar science with interleaved solar fiction — the fiction pieces are titled distinctly and set in italics in the original. It is the earliest dense primary source in the archive.
Editions: The archive holds the 1975 first edition (Zomeworks Corporation, subtitle "Collected Facts and Solar Fiction"). A 1977 Zomeworks Corp. printing (same subtitle) is confirmed by the LBL Appropriate Energy Technology Library Bibliography (Hannah R. Clark, August 1979, LBL-9391) — placed in the DOE-funded AET library before the Cloudburst reissue. Page count discrepancy: LBL cites 146 pages; a physical copy in the Joule Heist collection is 115 pages. Possible causes: different printings, incomplete copy, or differing counting conventions. A second edition was published in 1979 by Cloudburst Press (ISBN 0-88930-061-3, subtitle "An Exploration of Solar Energy Through Fact and Fiction", 127 pages) — in collection, not yet ingested. Nick Pine's 1995 Usenet post quotes pp. 62–66 on Air Loop Rock Storage Systems from this edition. The 19-page difference between the 1977 Zomeworks printing (146pp) and the 1979 Cloudburst edition (127pp) indicates content was reorganized or cut; which material differs is unknown until both are compared.
Chapter 1 — The Sun: Orbital mechanics for builders. Earth is closest to the sun in January (91,350,000 miles) and farthest in July (94,455,000 miles) — 3.4% difference, ~7% intensity variation. Earth spends 186 days in the Northern Hemisphere, 179 in the Southern. Orientation table: heat interception at 0°=100%, 25°=90.6%, 45°=70.7%. The Antarctic heat collector calculation appears here first — a south wall in Albuquerque is parallel to the horizon at a point 700 miles north of the Antarctic.
Chapter 2 — Energy: Analogies as pedagogy. A car crash at 60 mph = 311 BTU = one solar hour per square foot. Boulder Dam is not tall enough to warm its water 1°F on impact. A 3×4 ft south-facing window admits as much energy per winter day as the food needed to feed a man (12,000 BTU/day). These images recur in the 1973 Tribal Messenger serialization.
Chapter 3 — Basic Technology: Ice ranch proposal — at least 6 feet of ice per year can be harvested from Albuquerque ponds; $0.01/lb ice from ponds vs. $0.15/100 lbs electrically produced. Yis-sol pump, demonstrated at the 1968 Solar Energy Convention — a solar-powered pump similar to Savery steam engines, exploiting liquids with different thermodynamic properties.
Chapter 9 — Engines: Gravity engines (not perpetual motion — they use gravity as a spring). The diving engine: air pistons in water with a regenerator, low temperatures (under 160°F), easy repair. Published in Coevolution Quarterly, Summer 1974. Section 9.9 is the archive's first explicit description of building cooling by convection:
A house is a shade sandwich — the roof on one side, the earth on the other. Loop of tubing through house and onto roof, filled with liquid. At night after roof cools below interior temperature, convection begins: house gives heat to fluid, fluid rises to roof, radiates to sky, returns cooled. A combination engine-refrigerator.
This is the thermosiphon in embryo — 27 years before the Cool Cell brochure formalized it. Section 9.10 describes "reverse juices" (water below 39°F sinks when heated) as a freeze-prevention mechanism for collectors.
Chapter 10 — Skylids: The first full technical documentation of the Skylid — US Patent 3,884,414. Full specifications: 22" louvers, Refrigerant 12 canisters (2½" × 16½"), R factor ~5, opens 95% of Albuquerque winter days. DrumWall data: each drum holds 450 lbs of water. Outside reflectors: a simple aluminum reflector increases solar gain by more than 30% at no additional glazing cost. Nightwall: rigid foam pressed directly against windows, cheaper than Skylids, automatable using the same canister principle.
Chapter 11 — Solar Energy Conferences: Firsthand accounts. First solar conference: Palo Alto, October 1968, ~65 people. 1973 Washington DC NSF meeting: Harry Thomason (three solar houses at $1-2/sq ft) was kept in the audience while Alcoa and Texas Instruments sat at the table. Industry comment: "The worst thing in the world to do would be to rush ahead and build solar houses prematurely—before all the bugs are worked out."
NSF grant success for Zomeworks: "0 — actually less than 0 figuring the time wasted writing proposals." Two metaphors that reappear in Sunmen and the archive's recurring policy argument:
Policy recommendation: "Let the government promise to buy, at a high price, power from new power generating stations that use solar, wind, tides, and geothermal energy." Promise a market; don't subsidize research.
Six pieces across the eleven chapters:
Sunspots is the bridge between Baer's counterculture geometry work (zomes, 1968–1970) and his thermal engineering period (Cool Cell, 1999–2004). Written before any of the archive's main engineering sources, it establishes the voice, the analogies, and the policy stance that run through the entire body of work. The gravity engine / convection cooling passage (9.9) is the conceptual origin of the thermosiphon cooling that the 2002 Cool Cell brochure describes as a product. The NSF critique prefigures the Sunmen manifesto by 29 years.
It is also the primary source for the Skylid technical specifications and the DrumWall drum weight.