156 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915. 



opening. . On turning off the solar rays and examining tlie boiler it was found 

 to be dry. All the water had either been evaporated or l)lown out. 



When this boiler had been properly fitted up by professional fitters, a steam 

 pump was hired, said to be of 2i horsepower, and it was connected with the 

 steam pipe. At 7.30 a. m. fire was opened on the boiler from the whole battery of 

 16 mirrors at a range of 20 feet, the boiler containing 12 gallons. At 7.4.5, 1. e., a 

 quarter of an hour there was a pressure of about 2 pounds and at 8.30 a. m. 55 

 pounds. The steam was then turned into the cylinder of the pump, and the 

 pump was kept working at a uniform pressure of about 30 pounds to the square 

 inch. 



This pump, the first steam engine ever woi-ked in India by solar heat, was kept 

 going daily for a fortnight in the compound of my bungalow at INIiddle Colaba, 

 in Bombay, and the public was invited, by a notification in the daily papers, to 

 witness the experiments. 



Adams also made a solar cooker, the reflector of which was formed 

 of eight sheets of plane glass arranged so as to form a hollow truncated 

 octagonal pyramid 2 feet 4 inches in diameter at the larger end. The 

 food was placed in a cylindrical copper vessel, at the axis, covered 

 with an octagonal glass shade. With this he and others cooked many 

 meals, both stews and roasts, and he records that both he and Mouchot 

 found (p. 98) that animal fat — 



When exposed to the direct or reflected rays of the sun was converted into 

 butyric acid, a substance having such an offensive odor and taste as to render 

 the roast unpalatable. Mouchot then discovered that a sheet of red, pink, or 

 yellow transparent glass interposed between the roast and the reflector had 

 the effect of preventing this fermentation^ as those colors have the curious 

 property of absorbing, neutralizing, or eliminating the rays by which it is 

 caused. 



Adams also states (p. 36) that — 



When the sacred fire that burned in the Temple of Vesta ^ became extinct, 

 the ancient Romans used to rekindle it by placing a piece of dry wood in the 

 linear focus of the conical reflector * * * To bring fire from heaven, by 

 supernatural aid and a metal reflector was, no doubt, one of the most ancient 

 miracles of priestcraft." 



He suggested many uses for solar heat, among others (p. 96), " for 

 the cremation of deceased Hindus and others." 



Taking into account the facts that he did not expend much money 

 on his experiments, and that he did the whole of his solar work in 

 18 months, it will be admitted his was a most creditable piece of work, 

 especially as he was neither an engineer nor a physicist. To make this 

 amiDly clear, he says : 



I have neither the capital, the time, nor the practical knowledge required to 

 conduct any business in which steam machinery is used. I know now that the 

 " governors " of a steam engine are the two iron globes which revolve about it, 

 and not, as I had supposed, the two men who lubricate the machine and feed the 

 boiler with coals. This is nearly the extent of my knowledge of steam machinery. 



1 Vesta, the Goddess of the Ilearth. 



