Mumbai: An animated Google Doodle in honor of solar energy scientist Maria Telkes is visible on the homepage of Google Doodle today. Today i.e. 12th December is the 122nd Birth Anniversary of Maria Telkes. (Maria Telkes Birth Anniversary). She was born on this day in the year 1900 in the Hungarian city of Budapest.
Maria Telkes
Maria Telkes is also known as The Sun Queen. Maria was fully educated in science, including a Ph.D. in 1924 from the University of Budapest. Let us tell you that The Sun Queen had worked with MIT for some time. At that time, Maria participated in a project to keep the house warm during the winter, but due to the failure of her experiment, she was removed from the solar energy team.
Oven innovation
Even after this, Maria did not give up and Maria started to find a solution to this problem. Not only this, but in the year 1948, she collaborated with architect Eleanor Raymond to create a system that could keep the walls warm with the heat of sunlight. Along with this, he also prepared an oven that ran on solar energy.
That’s why it is called The Sun Queen
Significantly, Maria also prepared a new oven for the farmers. Farmers could easily dry their crops with the oven made by Maria. Let us tell you that after so many innovations, Maria Telkes came to be known as The Sun Queen. Which is known even today because of its innovation.
She also played a role in the war efforts of the United States as she developed several solutions for the problems faced by the allied soldiers. She developed a device that could distill water using the sun’s energy, saving the lives of several soldiers. She also created a device that could evaporate sea water and then condense it, providing drinkable water. She was one of the founders of solar thermal storage systems that earned her the nickname The Sun Queen. After the war, she became a teacher at MIT.
She is also credited with inventing the first solar-heated house in the world. For this invention, she had teamed up with her partner Eleanor Raymond, an architect by profession. For this, she received a $45,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. In 1953, she created a solar oven.
She also invented a miniature desalination unit (solar still) for use on lifeboats.
