Abel Pifre (1852–1928), was a French
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...
who developed the first
solar power
Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...
printing press. He was initially an assistant to
Augustin Bernard Mouchot who developed the first solar engine, but later developed solar technologies independently of his mentor.
Pifre demonstrated his press at a meeting of the Union Francaise de la Jeunesse at the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris on 6 August 1882.
The device consisted of a concave mirror 3.5 meters in diameter centering on a cylindrical steam boiler, which powered a small vertical engine of 2/5 horse power, and then driving a
Marioni type printing-press.
Even under semi-overcast conditions, the press operated continuously from 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm, producing approximately five hundred copies per hour of a journal which was produced specifically for the event with the appropriate name "Soleil-Journal".
References
La Nature JournalGaston Tissandier, 26 August 1882, p 193
Tissandier G. Utilization de la Chaleur du Soleil—Imprimerie Solaire. La Nature Journal 1882 Aug 26; No. 482, pg.193
http://cnum.cnam.fr/PDF/cnum_4KY28.19.pdf Note: scroll to page 198 of the CNUM PDF.
External links
Metal Type - Solar Powered Printing PressThe Beautiful PossibilityPaul Collins, 2002
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Énergie solaire (in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pifre, Abel
French engineers
1852 births
1928 deaths
People associated with solar power