Energy Solutions » 2008 » April » 26 http://blog.heliopower.com A Sustainable Energy Blog Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:30:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 At the Start of Solar Season…A Look at the History of Solar http://blog.heliopower.com/2008/04/at-start-of-solar-seasona-look-at/ http://blog.heliopower.com/2008/04/at-start-of-solar-seasona-look-at/#comments Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:40:00 +0000 Helio http://temphelio.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/at-the-start-of-solar-seasona-look-at-the-history-of-solar/ What's a "solar season?" The time of the year when the harvest of the sun ray's for powering our homes and other devices is the most abundant. Just how far back have we humans used the sun for our purposes? The U.S. Department of Energy provides a fascinating look at "The History of Solar" in a timeline perfect for solar enthusiasts of all ages.

Some fascinating facts:
In 7th Century B.C., the first record of our use of solar, we adopted magnifying glass to concentrate the sun's rays to make fire and burn ants!

By 2nd Century B.C., the Greek Scientist, Archimedes, used the reflective properties of bronze shields to focus sunlight and set fire to the wooden ships from the Roman Empire, who were launching a military seige on Syracuse.

By 1st to the 4th Century A.D. the Romans started to use the sun's warmth in ways reminiscent of what we see today. They used large south facing windows stream solar heat , thus warming up the water in their famous bathhouses.

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