Sun’s Rays Harnessed to Run Steam Engine
One of man’s great ambitions— to harness the sun to a steam engine—has been achieved. Dr. C. G. Abbot, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, has developed a solar heater and demonstrated that it would operate a one-half horsepower steam engine with sufficient efficiency for commercial purposes.
It’s a giant space condom!
Inflatable Solar Collector
Rocketing into space in a canister the size of a teacup, a solar collector will billow out to a conical shape with a metalized Mylar reflector that is seven feet in diameter.
The sun’s rays striking the reflector are focused onto a collector. These rays will be transformed into heat energy which then may be used to power various electrical and mechanical instruments in space.
FLIGHT TO THE STARS ON SUN POWER
Designed for travel from earth satellite to the far reaches off outer space, this amazing “solar butterfly” uses an electrical jet exhaust.By Frank Tinsley
PRESIDENT EISENHOWER’S recent announcement of a federally-sponsored earth satellite project tears aside the curtain of secrecy that has long veiled our space travel research. To be launched sometime in 1957-58, Ike’s “cosmic basketball” will rocket to an orbit some two or three hundred miles above the earth’s surface and there circle the globe every 90 minutes at a speed of 18,000 mph. This tiny artificial moon, about two feet in diameter and weighing around 100 pounds, is the first of our space targets for tomorrow.
If they have a battery that powers the radio for eight months why would the solar cells be necessary?
Sun-Powered Receiver
An experimental pocket-sized radio receiver, powered by energy from the sun, weighs only 10 ounces and will work more than eight months in total darkness without recharging. Developed by General Electric, the set uses a miniature storage battery, four transistors, and seven solar cells. During the day, light rays hit the solar cells which convert the sun’s energy to electrical current. This current powers the transistors and, at the same time, charges the storage battery which takes over at night. Artificial light, such as an ordinary 100-watt bulb, may be substituted for sunlight.
ROOF-TOP HEAT TRAP STORES POWER FROM THE SUN
HEATING homes in January with the warmth of last summer’s sunshine —that is the exciting goal of research now under way at Cambridge, Mass. Not far from the Charles River, scientists of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently completed a white frame building, its sloping roof edged with a glistening battery of solar-heat traps.
It doesn’t seem like much of that light would actually hit each individual wire does it?
Contracting Wires Harness Sun’s Rays
THE long, exhausting search of scientists for a method of harnessing the rays of the sun has yielded the solar machine illustrated in the artist’s drawing above.
Operation of the machine is based upon the principle of contraction and expansion of tungsten wires. These wires are arranged lengthwise of a revolving drum, and the sun’s rays are directed against them by means of a parabolic mirror on each side.
SUN’S RAYS TO DRIVE Aerial Landing Field
RECENT experiments in the conversion of the sun’s rays into electric power have led to an unusual idea in aerial equipment. It is a dirigible that not only would get its power from the sun but also provide space for a landing field in the air.
The ordinary cigar-shaped dirigible would in effect have a slice taken from the upper half of the gas bag. This would provide a large deck on which could be mounted solar photo cells, an airplane runway, and a hangar. Planes could land on the dirigible, floating over the sea, to refuel for trans-ocean passenger service.
Refrigerator Uses Solar Energy
A REFRIGERATOR which requires no energy other than exposure to sunlight for two hours a day has been developed by Otto H. Mohr, California consulting engineer. Larger solar power units requiring up to four hours exposure can be used for heating or cooling entire homes, according to the inventor. A spherical lens catches the sun’s rays at all hours of the day.
This lens gathers the rays, and changes the light into heat which is transferred to the refrigerating liquid, usually ammonia. The cooling operation is similar to that of ordinary gas refrigerators.
SUN’S RAYS ARE HARNESSED IN SOLAR FURNACE
ARCHIMEDES, famous mathematician, is said to have set fire to the fleet of the Roman emperor, Marcellus, by the use of a series of concave mirrors concentrating the sun’s rays upon the fleet. John Ericsson, the designer of the Monitor, of civil war fame, constructed several engines having boilers provided with mechanical devices for effecting the necessary concentration of solar rays which, when collected from 100 square feet of surface, effected the evaporation of 489 cubic inches of water per hour, more than equivalent to one horsepower. This is, however, but a small proportion of the potential energy actually developed by solar heat hourly received upon an area of this size.
Putting Nature’s Power to Work
Methods of Harnessing Natural Energy Described by DICK COLE
Upward of 40,000 inventions a year are granted patents by Uncle Sam, but not one of these offers a practical solution of the problem which scientists agree is the most pressing of them all— that is, how to harness natural sources of energy for power. Mr. Cole does not profess to have solved the problem, but the methods he describes here point out the trend of probable development.
WHAT is the most needed invention? Not television—not new kinds of airplanes—not speedier automobiles. Men of science are agreed that what the world needs most is a motor which converts the sun’s rays and other forms of natural energy into usable power. Orville Wright, Lee De Forest, Elihu Thomson, and other leading scientists are among those who proclaim the need for a new motor.
Sunlight Powers Automobile
POWERED by the same kind of solar cells used in space vehicles, this car—a 1912 Baker electric— has a top speed of 20 mph.The 26 sq. ft. panel atop the car contains some 10,640 silicon cells which convert sunlight to electricity. The car was rigged with the cells merely to demonstrate the potential of solar power conversion, and the cells produce enough electricity in eight hours of sunlight to run it for only an hour.
The system was developed by Dr. Charles A. Es-coffery, technical assistant to the president of International Rectifier Corp., El Segundo, Calif. Cost of the solar cell panel is about $15,000. In mass production quantities of a hundred or so, it could be sold for $2,000 to $3,000, says Dr. Escoffery.
Make posted a few articles on solar furnaces yesterday. (link, link) Here’s a companion peice from 1954 with a few that get up to 8,000 degrees F. I particularly like the solar cigarette lighter on page two.
Sun Furnace Goes to Work
A man-made inferno tries out materials for jet and rocket engines—and shows one way to capture free solar power.By Alden P. Armagnac
ATOP a 6,000-foot mountain near San Diego, Calif., they’re harnessing the sun to help build airplanes. A solar furnace newly installed there focuses the sun’s rays, with a 10-foot-diameter mirror of polished aluminum, upon a spot smaller than a dime. It surpasses by far the temperature of the hottest blowtorch or electric furnace.
Researchers of the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation apply the sun furnace’s terrific heat to materials under trial for jet and rocket engines and for guided missiles. Aim of their experiments is to develop substances more resistant to heat and thermal shock than any yet known—stuff that won’t soften and flow, say, when a long-range missile screams back to the earth from dizzy altitudes.
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