Have you and a parent or teacher ever caught a beam of sunlight through a magnifying glass? Focus the light on a dry leaf. Spark! A flame ignites. 

People have used the Sun and magnifying glasses to make fires since the 7th century B.C. The Greeks and Romans used sunlight and concave mirrors to light torches in the 3rd century. 

A Swiss scientist named Horace de Saussure built the first solar oven in 1767. He tried many designs. The one that worked best was a box with layers of glass. He insulated it with black cork. The box trapped the Sun’s radiation. The temperature inside reached more than 200 degrees. 

August Mouchet was a French math teacher. He invented the first solar-powered engine in the 1860s. He took curved, shiny metal and made it into a trough. The Sun’s rays bounced off the trough onto a tube filled with water. The water turned into steam. That powered an engine!

Mouchet took his creation to the World’s Fair in 1878. He used solar power to run a refrigeration device. It made blocks of ice. 

He also ran a printing press with a solar-powered steam engine. He used another engine to pump water for irrigation. 

Several scientists in the 1800s found ways to make electricity with light. It was not until 1954 that researchers used silicon and the Sun to power an electrical device for several hours in a day. 

That same kind of technology now powers satellites in space. 

So check your solar watch. Pitch a solar tent and charge your phone while you camp. Run a solar water fountain in your yard. Thank God for the warmth, light, and energy of His Sun!