ABSTRACT
The history of solar energy stretches back into the dim recesses of prehistory, perhaps as far as the clay-tablet era in Mesopotamia, when the temple priestesses used polished golden vessels to ignite the altar fires. Work using solar energy in the last part of the 17th century gave impetus to a number of achievements centred in France. Solar engines of the 1880s worked only at the convenience of the sun. In 1893, M. L. Severy obtained a patent for a solar engine operating in conjunction with wet storage batteries to enable the user to have 24-hour electrical power. Significant developments were occurring at the dawn of the 20th century. Already in 1893 and continuing up to 1909, the patents issued to M. L. Severy gave evidence of new ideas for combining solar steam-powered devices and storage batteries for possible power systems. The 1930s saw a remarkable increase in interest in solar energy, but along rather different lines of application.
