In 1901, inspired by the inventions of Augustin Mouchot, Emile Zola published “Travail” (“Work”). This anticipation novel is about social progress and industrial developments. Emile Zola had observed and admired with great fascination the technical progress that was being displayed at the previous Expositions Universelles in Paris. He particularly remembered Mouchot’s solar collector exhibited in 1878. In “Travail”, the hero of this messianic novel, wanting to improve the human condition, creates a city of happiness, an utopian city in which: “his work would be completed […] the day he would have given to the new City free and infinite electricity”. The hero imagines all kinds of devices, first using fossil fuels, but “the possible depletion of coal” terrifies him. Zola is completely in line with Augustin Mouchot’s vision. The hero of the novel then thinks about extracting energy from the water, rivers and tides, and finally the sun appears as the only source of energy able to emancipate humanity: “so the sacred sun was the solution to collect heat and transform it using special devices […]. His dream had already held other brains, scientists were able to imagine small devices to collect solar heat and transform it into electricity […]. And thanks to the solar energy the city of happiness will remain […] under the benevolent sun, father of us all”.
