ABSTRACT
Attempts to harness the sun’s energy for power production date back to at least 1774 (Trombe 1956) when the French chemist Lavoisier and the English scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen and developed the theory of combustion by concentrating the rays of the sun on mercuric oxide in a test tube, collecting the gas produced with the aid of solar energy, and burning a candle in the gas. Also, during the same year, an impressive picture of Lavoisier was published in which he stands on a platform near the focus of a large glass lens and is carrying out other experiments with focused sunlight (see schematic, Figure 8.1).
