The first solar motor was constructed in the year eighteen sixty by Auguste Mouchout. He was trying to replace coal with solar energy for heating steam. Mouchout placed water in a glass container and trapped the sun’s rays in the container, thus heating the water. After having received funding from Napoleon, he was able to power a water pump with the energy produced by his device. He produced one-half of a horse power with his device in Algeria. However, the French government decided not to buy Mouchout’s invention.
An Englishman named William Adams came to the conclusion that a device of the dimensions needed to produce a large amount of energy could not be made and would tarnish quickly. Adams constructed Mouchout’s device himself with the addition of mirrors. He was able to power a two point five horse power steam engine outside his home for two weeks.
A Frenchman named Charles Tellier built a device of his own in eighteen eighty five. He placed a dish on top of his roof and used it to produce solar energy. His device was filled with ammonia rather than water, which increased its efficiency. He was able to heat three hundred gallons of water per hour for his home. He increased efficiency even further in eighteen eighty nine, when he added glass to the top and insulation to the bottom of his device. He then abandoned his solar experiments and went on to invent the first refrigerator.
This work was later continued into the early twentieth century by other scientists, but was soon abandoned due to World War One. It was then rediscovered in the nineteen seventies during the oil embargo. This work still continues today in the new millennium.