Solar Energy and Its Many Uses Ever since the dawn of time, the sun has been a resource we cannot live or do without, so its not such a shock that man has come up with the Solar energy had many uses. Some can be dangerous andsome, a very valuable asset to the modern world.Solar energy is energy derived from the sun in a form of ultra-violet rays. Its was first applied to use in 212 B.C., by the Greek genius Archimedes. Solarenergy was used to defend the habor of Syracuse against the Roman fleet. Archimedes used a mirror or burning mirror as they had called it, to set fire tothe ships of the Roman fleets while standing on shore (McDaniels 83). It wasntuntil 1615 when Salomon de Caux constructed the first solar device; a solarengine. His device was made of glass lenses, supporting frame, and an airtightmetal vessel containing water and air. This produced a small water fountain whenthe air heated up during operation. This was considered to be more of a toy thana device, but it was the first published account of the use of solar energy since thefall of the Roman Empire (Cheremisinoff 1).Some other use of solar energy after that was the solar roof and the solaroven. The solar roof was thought up by Harold Hay. In a solar roof system, wateris contained in a clear plastic bag and it is placed on a black metal roof. Hay gotthe idea while traveling in India on a technical aid mission for the U.S government. While there, he noticed that many people were living in rusty, sheet metal shacks,which were hot in the day and cold at night. Hays plan was to remove theinsulation from the roof on winter days so that the roof would get hot, and Replacing the insulation at night to allow the shack to be warm through the night. Then in the summer, he would so the reverse of what he did in winter to let thehouse cool at night and replacing the insulation in the daytime to block out theheat. Then over the years, Hay and a man named John Yellott...
