In the first half of the 20th century, while the industrial world relied on coal and oil, a scientist worked with another energy source. Mária Telkes, a Hungarian-born biophysicist and inventor, centered her career on one goal: making solar energy practical for everyday use. Her legacy is embodied in milestones such as the first thermoelectric generator and the first house with solar heating.
The Dover House and the Solar Heating System with Salts 🔥
Her most famous project was the Dover House, built in 1948 in Massachusetts. Telkes designed a system that captured heat using metal and glass solar collectors. The key innovation was the use of Glauber's salts (sodium sulfate decahydrate) as a storage medium. These salts absorbed and released heat when changing phase, allowing the house to be heated during cloudy days. The system demonstrated that solar energy could be a technically viable solution.
When Your Heating Works with a Spell of Salts and Sun 🧪
Imagine explaining to a neighbor in the 1950s that your house is heated with magic crystals that trap the daylight. While others adjusted the coal thermostat, the residents of Dover House relied on a chemical compound in drums to perform the miracle. No smoke, no noise, just the silent (and sometimes seen as esoteric) process of salts melting and solidifying. Surely more than one thought it was modern witchcraft, not applied physics.