Let It Shine: Making Fire from the Sun

Reader Contribution by John Perlin
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The following post summarizes the author’s selection from his book Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy.

Like an “Indiana Jones” adventure, Chinese archaeologists have recently found the oldest solar device – a bronze concave mirror – capable of almost instantaneously making fire from sunlight. The discoverer called the 3,000-year-old apparatus “a world-class marvel…one of the great inventions of ancient Chinese history.”

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