The largest Solar Furnace is at Odeillo in the Pyrénées-Orientales in France, opened in 1970. It employs an array of plane mirrors to gather sunlight, reflecting it onto a larger curved mirror. The solar furnace consists of 10000 concave mirrors that reflect and focus the sun's rays on a square diagonal of 40 inches. The diameter of the mirror construction is 54 metres.
An array of mirrors acts as a parabolic reflector, concentrating light into focus. The temperature is in focus, as if 22,000 suns were sent to this place at the same time. It can reach 3500°C (it all depends on the position of the mirrors). Solar furnace used for industrial purposes. With its help, generate electricity, melt steel, create hydrogen fuel, and nano-materials.
The ancient Greek/Latin term "heliocaminus" literally means "solar furnace" and refers to a glass-enclosed sunroom intentionally designed to become hotter than the outside air temperature. During the Second Punic War (218 - 202 BC), the Greek scientist Archimedes is said to have repelled the attacking Roman ships by setting them on fire with a "burning glass", which may have been an array of mirrors. In 2005, a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology carried out an experiment to test this theory. It concluded that, although the theory was sound for stationary objects, the mirrors would not have been able to concentrate sufficient solar energy to set a ship on fire under battle conditions. In 1949, Professor Félix Trombe built the first modern solar furnace in France. It is now still in place at Mont Louis, near Odeillo. The Pyrenees were chosen as the site because the area experiences clear skies for up to 300 days a year. Another solar furnace was built in Uzbekistan as part of a Soviet Union "Sun" Complex Research Facility, inspired by Academician S.A. Asimov.
First Image credit: Florian
Image credit: Joseph Giral
Image credit: Joseph Giral
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Image credit: pluvialis
Source — Wikipedia
Mirror , mirror on the wall yours is the finest piece of technology of them all .
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