I doubt if you could have built one 150 years ago. The heater requires pipes which require quite a bit of technology to produce.
150 years ago?
civil war years!!!
pipes date back much further than 150 yeas ago!
the romans used metal pipes.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/leadpoisoning.html Readily abundant, easily malleable, and with a low melting point (low enough, in fact, to melt in a camp fire), lead (plumbum) was ideal for the production of water pipes, which were fabricated by plumbarii (plumbers) from fitted rolled sheets in a variety of diameters (Vitruvius, VIII.6.1ff; Frontinus, XXXVIIff). Such pipes were used extensively by the Romans but also known to be a potential source of soluble lead. How then to reconcile the two realities?
and since they would be using the metal pipes for heating
purposes this lead pipe could be used today if desired.
you dont need a electric motor to circulate the water in the pipe system as the heat from the sun will cause the warm water to rise and circulate throughout the system.
We aren't really all that dumb. We just need time to observe what is happening and figure out a way to change. And that involves continuing to use the energy we have available until we develop new energy sources. That doesn't mean we can just sit around and wait for things to fall in our lap, we do need to keep working on it. And we can keep on being as smart as we already are.
solar cells that produce electricity from sunshine have been around ever since the 1800's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_solar_cells its already been over 124 years , are we really so dumb that it is going to take longer than 124 years to figure it out?
YES , we really are that dumb !!!
lets hope we dont continue to be as smart as we already are.
because when energy is concerned our smartness has suffered from stagnation on an almost unbelievable scale compared to
everything else we have gained smartness in.
