Improved Apparatus for Making Industrial Use of the Heat of the Sun and Obtaining High Temperatures

16,181. Himalaya, M. A. G. Aug. 12. Reflectors.-Rentes to apparatus for making industrial use of the heat of the sun and obtaining high temperatures such as are required in chemical and metallurgical arts. The apparatus comprises a reflector derived from a paraboloidal or like surface, mounted to move about two or three axes and to bring the sun's rays to a focus within a furnace, crucible, water-heater or steam boiler, or a chamber for the production of nitrous acid. The reflector is made up of plane or curved silvered glass or metal elements, which may be of trapezoidal, circular, or other form, and which, when congregated, form a sector derived from the frustum of a paraboloid of revolution. Eight sectors may be mounted together, with movements about a horizontal and a vertical axis, or one sector alone may be employed, as in the apparatus shown in Fig. 4 for directing the rays within a crucible E. In this apparatus, the reflector is moved about the horizontal axis D by the gearing of pinions 4 with the vertical curved racks 5, and is moved about the vertical axis o by means of the rollers 8 and rails 2. A suitable framework for the reflector and a counterbalance are provided. The truck e carrying the crucible e, may be wheeled upon a track concentric with the vertical axis 0, and this form of supporting arrangement is arranged with two reflectors to give two diametrically-opposite heating foci, as shown in Fig. 7. An oblique axis of motion may be added to the movements of the reflector, and with two motions only the horizontal axis may be arranged parallel to the chord or tangent of the normal arc of the reflecting-surface.