Since the beginning of time mankind has wanted lights in the garden. There's something enchanting about walking in a garden at night. And it helps when you take the compost out to the bin.
With the current craze about things that don't belch smoke, and to celebrate the fact that I no longer light my deck with torches, I thought I would take a quick minute to look at the invention of the solar panel.
Charles Fritts was an American inventor, who, in 1883 created the world's first working solar cell. Amazing considering this is in an era when there are only a few electrical generating stations in the USA and most people rode horses to work.
The idea was simple: coat a chunk of selenium with gold and expose to the sun. They were very inefficient and cost a pile of money to make. It was easier to farm electric eels.
Jump ahead about 4o odd years and meet Russell Shoemaker Ohl. Another very clever American engineer whose tinkering with the solar cell led to the modern day version. In short, he got it right. He was a pioneer in semiconductor research and was at the very leading edge of transistor development.
While Ohl had the theoretical and scientific side down it would take until the 50"s before Bell Labs and their experiments with semiconductors led to the discovery of various coatings that caused the semiconductors to go wild with electricity. Well "wild" is a relative term. They succeeded in boosting efficiency to a whopping 6%.
It didn't take them long to connect the dots and use solar cell to charge batteries which could run interesting things like satellites. In fact Vanguard 1, launched in 1958 had solar panels powering its meagre electronics. Look closely at the picture above and you can see the panels. To give some perspective, the body is about 6.5 inches in diameter, and it is still up there.
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