Abstract
IT was mentioned in a recent number of this journal that a printing press worked by solar heat had been exhibited in the Tuileries Garden in Paris on the occasion of a fête. We are enabled to give some particulars of the contrivance from an account published in La Nattire, from which the accompanying illustration is borrowed by permission of the editor. The solar generator was one of those devised by M. Abel Pifre, who has improved in some points on the original invention of M. Mouchot. The insolator, shown in the middle of the picture, measured 3.50m. diameter at the aperture of the parabolic mirror. It was set up in the garden, near the large basin, at the foot of the flight of steps of the Jeu de Paume. The steam from the boiler placed in its focus was utilised by means of a small vertical motor (shown on the left), having a power of 30 kilogrammetres, which actuated a Marinoni press (on the right). Though the sun was not very ardent, and the radiation was hindered by frequent clouds, the press was worked with regularity from 1 p.m. till 5.30 p.m., printing on an average 500 copies an hour, of a journal specially composed for the occasion, viz., the Soleil Journal, This result, though not indicating a revolution in the art of printing, may enable one to judge of the services these insolators may render in climates with a radiation more powerful and constant.
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A Solar Printing Press . Nature 26, 503–504 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026503a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026503a0