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Solar Energy History

The Evolution of Light: How Man Made Day (1960s) [DVD] List Price: $12.99 Sale Price: $9.99

How Man Made Day explains how man invented "artificial daylight". It presents the progress of man's use of light from bonfires to candles to gas lamps and finally to light bulbs and fluorescent lamps. The film starts with a scenic view of sunset and proceeds to show a man turning the lights on of his house one by one, giving emphasis to the importance of being able to see your surroundings, even at night...

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	The Invention of Light: Out of the Dark (1954) [DVD] List Price: $12.99 Sale Price: $9.99
	Out of the Dark shows how man got out of the darkness of the night. It presents the development of light from the use of fire to the use of electricity. The significance of light is emphasized by using a dark background with a fire or lamp lighting the center of the screen...

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	Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells---Our Ride to the Renewable Future List Price: $25.99 Sale Price: $12.87 Used From: $9.95 Average Rating:
	In the tradition of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Thomas L. Friedmam's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, prominent journalist Amanda Little maps out the history and future of America's energy addiction in a wonk-free, big-picture, solutions-oriented adventure story...

	Children of the Sun: A History of Humanity's Unappeasable Appetite for Energy List Price: $23.95 Sale Price: $14.00 Used From: $11.49 Average Rating:
	A master historian's spirited survey of humanity's strategies for tapping sun energy, past and future. We don't often recognize the humble activity of cooking for the revolutionary cultural adaptation that it is...

History of Earth's orbit and Solar flux?

I have a difficult question... The Sun has increased its light output by about 25% over the last 4 billion years. That light output is as a result of burning fuel at the rate of (currently) 4 million metric tons of matter a second - that is 4 million metric tons of matter a second is converted into pure energy. That means that the Sun is getting lighter by 4 million metric tons every second. I would assume that the decreased in mass of the Sun caused by burning fuel would cause the planets to move into larger orbits as time goes on.

I did the math once, and wish I still had that information on hand, because I do not wish to go through it again. But essentailly, the sun loses about 0.1% of it's mass over a 1 billion year timeframe at this rate. (I think that was the right percentage, it might have been 100 million years though, I don't recall the exact figures... I'm sure someone better at gravitational physics will correct my numbers if I am not recalling them correctly. This would create a very negligible change in a planet's distance from the sun, via Kepler's Laws, as the sun is nearly all of the mass in any planetary orbit around it.

The heating of the sun by far outweighs the ever so slowly increasing distance.

Although, something else that is interesting, slightly off topic, but loosely correlated...

"The increasing AU."

Perhaps we need a better model of gravity than Newton or Einstein?

http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0508047

The History Of Solar Energy

Throughout man's history the sun has always been a subject of speculation and worship. In fact, most ancient cultures have deified the sun, due to its life-giving and energy-giving qualities.

Thus, the subject of solar energy is one of the oldest subjects on Earth. It has gone through many evolutions and has been the subject of many schools of thought - starting with religion, and ending up in the field of science.

In fact, though not many people know this, a large portion of the western civilization celebrates the returning of the sun each year, just as the ancients did thousands of years ago.

I am, of course, referring to Christmas - which dates back to the celebrating of the winter solstice, the point in time when the Earth has reached its furthest point away from the sun, and starts returning.

Of course, the story of Christmas has radically changed from its original meaning. It has gone through its own evolution. Originally being a celebration of the sun's return, it then became the celebration of the birth of Christ, and eventually wound up with a friendly old man bringing Coca Cola on Christmas Eve. But this last point is simply modern marketing at work.

The First Uses of Solar Energy

It is almost impossible to exactly date the first uses of solar energy.

But we do know that the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, among others, made use of "passive solar energy" in their building designs.

Passive solar energy is the use of a building's architecture to capture the sun's heat and light.

In 200 B.C., the Greek scientist, Archimedes, used concentrated solar power technology, (now referred to as "CSP") by combining the reflective properties of many polished bronze shields, in order to focus sunlight and thus set fire to an invading Roman fleet while it was besieging Syracuse.

(In 1973, The Greek Navy recreated this scenario as an experiment, and succeeded in setting fire to a wooden boat 50 meters away.)

Socrates and the Romans

Even the famous Greek philosopher Socrates has commented on the benefits of facing one's house toward the south, in order to make use of the heat provided by the sun in the winter.

The Romans also used this technique, of facing their houses southward, but they took it a step further. They also installed more windows on the south side, allowing the heat and light of the sun to freely enter the buildings.

Throughout the first four centuries after Christ, Roman bath houses employed passive solar heating. The Romans built the bath houses with large, south-facing windows, to let the sun's warmth in. This aspect of passive solar technology is still used by architects today.

With these methods, they were able to reduce the amount of fuel they needed to heat their buildings. And considering that you had to go out and chop your own wood in those days, it was well worth it.

About the Author

Find out more about the history of solar power, at Solar Energy Part II.

The Evolution of Light: How Man Made Day (1960s) [DVD] List Price: $12.99 Sale Price: $9.99

How Man Made Day explains how man invented "artificial daylight". It presents the progress of man's use of light from bonfires to candles to gas lamps and finally to light bulbs and fluorescent lamps. The film starts with a scenic view of sunset and proceeds to show a man turning the lights on of his house one by one, giving emphasis to the importance of being able to see your surroundings, even at night...

DVD Information

Binding: DVD
Aspect Ratio:
Audience Rating:
Brand: Quality Information Publishers, Inc.
Manufacturer: Quality Information Publishers, Inc.
Original Release Date:
Actors:

	The Invention of Light: Out of the Dark (1954) [DVD] List Price: $12.99 Sale Price: $9.99
	Out of the Dark shows how man got out of the darkness of the night. It presents the development of light from the use of fire to the use of electricity. The significance of light is emphasized by using a dark background with a fire or lamp lighting the center of the screen...

DVD Information

Binding: DVD
Aspect Ratio:
Audience Rating:
Brand: Quality Information Publishers, Inc.
Manufacturer: Quality Information Publishers, Inc.
Original Release Date:
Actors:

	Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells---Our Ride to the Renewable Future List Price: $25.99 Sale Price: $12.87 Used From: $9.95 Average Rating:
	In the tradition of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Thomas L. Friedmam's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, prominent journalist Amanda Little maps out the history and future of America's energy addiction in a wonk-free, big-picture, solutions-oriented adventure story...

	Children of the Sun: A History of Humanity's Unappeasable Appetite for Energy List Price: $23.95 Sale Price: $14.00 Used From: $11.49 Average Rating:
	A master historian's spirited survey of humanity's strategies for tapping sun energy, past and future. We don't often recognize the humble activity of cooking for the revolutionary cultural adaptation that it is...

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