On Sunday April 22, I went to Waltham, MA for their Earth Day celebration at the old (and famous) Waltham Cooperative Extension Experiment Station. I assembled my portable solar show and took it on the subway to the train, got off in Waltham and then walked a mile or two to the Experiment Station. Portability test passed with flying colors.
Most of what you see on the two wheeler is the gear for the solar fountain, including the water. Unfortunately, when I assembled the fountain, it didn't work. During the course of the day, I took the fountain apart and fiddled with the pump impeller but it still didn't work. That is, not until I got home.
What I eventually set up included a solar oven and a parabolic dish and a simple hot water heater plus posters and some simple solar and hand crank products. I think it was enough to get the idea across.
This small parabolic dish collector was made by my friend Tim Harkness. It was one of a few he made to test another of his inventions, a hydraulic press for making large parabolics cheaply and easily. Tim died of cancer a few years ago. Too young. There's an award in his name for industrial design at Hampshire College, his alma mater, if you care to donate. The temperature on the thermometer in this picture is 200º F. I've gotten it past 600º F on a clear day. If not hotter. I've pinned that oven thermometer at least a couple of times.
This cardboard solar oven I've had for about thirty years. It still works. What you do is put your food in an oven bag, place it in the oven, and then point the reflectors at the sun. It generally gets to around 250º F. Last I looked these things cost about $50. You can make something just as effective with some cardboard, aluminized mylar, and clear plastic.
I love these reproductions of WWII posters. They show that once we were a serious country. Perhaps we can be again. I did a series of diaries on my favorite WWII posters last summer and fall if you want to see more of what I mean.
Solar is civil defense is finally a phrase that is beginning to get some traction. I've only been pushing it for a couple years now. Feel free to use it. I'd like to see buttons, bumperstickers, and t shirts with that motto but it is exceedingly clear that I am not a businessman.
A south facing window is already a solar collector is another phrase I'd like to see get some purchase. It's the truth. This poster shows you how to maximize the solar potential in any sunny window. I have an outline for a video series that goes into much greater detail, Your Southernmost Window. Anybody interested in helping me produce it?
This poster is an exploded version of Simply Questions, a "children's" book I wrote and my friend M Preston Burns illustrated. I have plenty of copies but nobody's buying. It's a simplified way of finding your ecological place.
For years, I've been saying that a determined group of people could change this country quickly by taking solar shows to such events as the 3700 farmers' markets that happen every week around this country during growing season. Once again, I appear to be the only one I know of saying it or doing it even in this very small way.
Wish there were more folk interested but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop doing that little bit that I already do. It is discouraging to me that so few have picked up on this idea after thirty years of doing solar shows.
Now that I have fixed the solar fountain, I'm planning on taking it out to Harvard Square for a test drive some sunny day. I'll probably diary that too.
Guess I'm just stuck in a rut.