The “Solar Metal Smelter”, a magnifying glass producing 1000 Celsius heat @pomeranian99
Jelle Seegers, a grad student at the Design Academy Eindhoven, has created a fascinating piece of sustainable technology: The “Solar Metal Smelter”. It’s a massive magnifying glass that can generate temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius, melting up to 20 kilograms of zinc or five kilograms of aluminum at a time.
“By making this thing manual, it really changes the casting craft from one where you just have endless energy coming into your workshop to one where you personally cooperate with the sun in order to melt the metal,” he told Dezeen. [snip]
“We’re now in this energy transition,” said Seegers. “We’re going more towards wind power, solar power, all these things but we’re not changing our mentality on how we use energy.”
“I really advocate for using energy when it’s there and in the shape that we get it,” he added. “For example the sun’s heat, we can use it as heat and as light during the day.”
See more in item 7 in Clive Thompson’s weekly Medium post.
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