Build Your Own Solar Panel

I recently discovered an article written by Tesla. It summarizes his thoughts on solar power and it reviews some of the early attempts to harness it. For the most part it is a curiosity. We are talking about the days when the steam engine was the default power supply for industry.

Here is a quote from 1916.  When you read it, keep in mind that PV solar cells weren’t discovered in a practical way until several decades later.

Tesla says of this matter that his own experiments and observations have led him to the conclusion that such sources of radiant energy as the sun throws off with great velocity, minute particles of matter which are strongly electrified, and are, therefore, capable of charging an electrical conductor, or, if not so, may at any rate discharge an electrified conductor either by carrying off bodily its charge or otherwise. His patents in this direction are based on alleged discovery by him that when such rays or radiations are permitted to fall upon or impinge against an insulated conducting body P connected to one terminal of a condenser, such as C in Fig. 2, while the other terminal of the condenser is made by independent means to receive or carry away electricity, a current flows into the condenser so long as the insulated body P is exposed to such rays; so that an indefinite, yet measurable, accumulation of electrical energy in the condenser takes place.

Tesla was marginalized in part do to his own personality and behavior, but he was also the victim of contemporary geniuses who were savvy and vicious in the realms of  PR and Marketing.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

No related posts.

Comments are closed.