Superconducting DC transmission line trial in Manhattan

Half-mile trial in Manhattan because underground is crowded. Tom doesn't know if anything went beyond the trial.

But it has found a niche — actually two niches. They've tried to put a DC transmission line in the center of New York City. It has to be DC because superconductors don't work well with AC, that's another story. There's not a lot of room underground in New York City, it's all kinds of wires and pipes and everything else, and things are very crowded in Manhattan. So they put in half a mile or something as a trial, a number of years ago. I don't know if they've ever done anything beyond that trial. All the technology that had to go with that was horrendous. And there are applications for looking for submarines from space — superconducting quantum interference devices. But most of the great promises of high-temperature superconductors have not held up.