Object Details
user
Abbot, Charles Greeley
maker
Abbot, Charles Greeley
Description
Charles Greeley Abbot (1872–1973), the second director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the fifth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, spent his scientific career measuring the intensity of solar radiation and seeking to correlate solar changes with weather conditions on the earth. He was also interested in the practical use of solar radiation. This cooker, which he built in 1940, uses a cylindrical aluminum mirror that is mounted parallel to the earth's axis to collect solar energy and focus it on a pyrex tube that is filled with a chlorinated benzene ("arochlor"); the energy is then transmitted to a square oven in which cakes and cookies could be baked. Abbot obtained a patent (#2,247,830) on this cooker in 1941.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1940
ID Number
PH.334632
catalog number
334632
patent number
2,247,830
accession number
312088
Object Name
solar oven
Measurements
mirror: 20 in; 50.8 cm
thermometer: 7 7/8 in x 3/8 in; 20.0025 cm x .9525 cm
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
Energy & Power
Natural Resources
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1167126