This year, Morocco opened the largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the world which will generate enough electricity to power the homes of one million people. CSP plants typically use 12m high parabolic mirrors that reflect sunlight onto pipework that contains a heat transfer fluid (HTF), typically thermal oil. Credit: TORRESOL ENERGYĬrafty old man, indeed, but did it really happen? The ability of mirrors to concentrate the sun and obtain high temperatures is no myth, as any kid who used a magnifying glass to burn scraps can attest. The ‘Gemasolar’ CSP plant situated near Seville in Spain. Thus the old man baffled Marcellus, by means of his inventions. The rays being reflected by this, a frightful fiery kindling was excited on the ships, and it reduced them to ashes, from the distance of a bow shot. He placed it amid the rays of the sun at noon, both in summer and winter. He placed at proper distances from the mirror other smaller mirrors of the same kind, which were moved by means of their hinges and certain plates of metal. When Marcellus had placed the ships a bow shot off, the old man constructed a sort of hexagonal mirror. The earliest account of Archimedes’ ancient death ray was written in the 12th century by Zonares and Tzetzes who were quoting an earlier, but now lost work called The Siege of Syracuse. The story is extremely controversial, and even to this day historians and engineers alike debate whether this is a fact or myth. Such is the case with his “burning mirrors” – a system of large mirrors placed on the walls of the city that concentrate d s olar power in order to burn any ships foolish enough to sail against Syracuse. Th roughout his career as an inventor, Archimedes would frequently be commissioned by the rulers of Syracuse to invent war machines to protect their fair city. Burning mirrors Wall painting from the Stanzino delle Matematiche in the Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence, Italy). Credit: Popular Mechanics (April 1980, page 62). One of eight 12-ft.-diameter Archimedes screws in Texas CIty, Texas, USA. The SS Archimedes was a ship named after the great inventor, which was the first steamship to come with a screw propelle r. Each screw is powered by a 750-hp diesel engine and can pump up to 125,000 gallons per minute. Since 1980, Texas City, TX, USA uses eight 12-ft.-diameter Archimedes screws to manage rainstorm runoff. It can also be applied for handling light, loose materials such as grain, sand, and ashes. To day, the same principle is used in modern machinery for drainage and irrigation, and also in some types of high-speed tools. ADVERTISEMENT A model of Archimedes’ screw, probably of the late Ptolemaic period, has been found in Lower Egypt.Credit: The New York Times, June 18, 1898
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