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Born #OTD 1900 solar energy pioneer Mária Telkes - during her lifetime she was known as “The Sun Queen”, but today not many people have heard of her: http://scihi.org/maria-telkes-and-the-power-of-the-sun/
Telkes was a chemist, born in Budapest. She was from a wealthy banking family, and became interested in solar energy at school. She joined the Chemistry-Physics School at the then University of Budapest where she completed a BA in physical chemistry in 1920, then a PhD in 1924
In 1925 she emigrated to the US to work as a biophysicist with surgeon George Washington Crile at the Cleveland Clinic. There she conducted research on the energy processes in cells and developed a photoelectric device to measure and record brain waves.
In 1937, Telkes became a US citizen and joined Westinghouse Electric as a research engineer working on thermoelectric materials to turn waste heat into electricity.
It was in 1939, when Telkes moved to @MIT to join the Solar Energy Conversion Project, that she developed her thermoelectric research, but this time using the Sun’s heat, not waste heat, to generate electricity. During this time she also worked on early designs for a solar oven.
In WW2, inspired by the tale of Eddie Rickenbacker & his crew who were left adrift in life rafts without water, she designed a solar still to produce drinkable water. http://www.historynet.com/eddie-rickenbacker-and-six-other-people-survive-a-b-17-crash-and-three-weeks-lost-in-the-pacific-ocean.htm
Her solar still was based on old technology, but used new plastic materials meaning it was more compact and could float alongside a life raft in emergencies.
It was basically a large clear plastic balloon, in the middle was a black absorbent pad on a shallow plastic tray. You inflated & let it float alongside the raft. A tube let the salt water in to fill the tray. The black pad collected solar heat and the salty water evaporated.
The salt stayed on the pad while the drinkable water condensed on & trickled down the walls. It could produce about 2 pints water per day. Enough to keep sailors alive, and it became standard US Navy issue in the Pacific conflict.
The distillator could be scaled up to provide larger supplies of water for isolated communities. After WW2 the plastic balloons were sold as beach balls. 
As part of the @MIT Solar Energy Conversion Project, Maria and her team of researchers received a private funding from the sculptor and heiress Amelia Peabody to build an experimental solar-heated home. Much comment was made because the house was entirely designed by women.
The Dover House was designed by Boston architect Eleanor Raymond (R), shown here standing with Telkes and you an read more about it in @techreview here: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/419445/the-house-of-the-day-after-tomorrow/
Maria designed the heat storage system based on the conversion of solar heat into chemical energy through the crystallization of a solution of sodium sulfate decahydrate (Glauber’s salt.)
The Sun heated the air which was circulated around bins of salt which melts easily at about 33 ℃. At night, the temperature fell, the salt recrystallized and released the absorbed heat, a little bit like these oh so useful sodium acetate handwarmers
The heating system could store enough heat to last 10 days. The house was completed in 1948 and Telkes’ cousin and his family moved in, but after three winters the heating system failed (corrosion, leakage, all typical issues when working with salts) 
Throughout the 40s and 50s Maria published many popular articles on solar energy, solar heating and storage, including this far-reaching one on the future uses of solar energy in @bulletinatomic in 1951 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0A0AAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA217&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&
In 1952 Telkes, by now known as “The Sun Queen”, received the inaugural Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award for her work in solar energy @SWEtalk http://reuther.wayne.edu/node/1380
In 1953, Maria moved to @nyuniversity to establish a solar energy laboratory to continue her research on solar devices, and with funding from @FordFoundation she worked on the development of solar ovens which are still used today
Then she moved to become Director of Research at the Curtiss-Wright in Princeton. Here she worked towards the development of solar dryers and water heaters, and in developing new materials to protect sensitive instruments in the empty coldness of SPAAAAAACE.
After this she moved to @Udelaware and worked until her retirement in 1978 developing novel solar heating and cooling systems in a new experimental house, Solar One. https://www1.udel.edu/iec/SolarOneHouse.html
In 1977 she received the Charles Greeley Abbot Award @ASES_solar and after leaving @udelaware Maria continued as a consultant on all things to do with solar energy. Her last patent was granted in 1990 when she was 89 https://patents.justia.com/patent/4954278
Telkes died in 1995 during a visit to her native Hungary, her first since she left 70 years earlier. Her @nytimes obituary is here: http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/13/us/maria-telkes-95-an-innovator-of-varied-uses-for-solar-power.html
In 2012 Maries Telkes' life and achievements were recognised by her posthumous induction to the National Inventors Hall of Fame alongside holography pioneer Dennis Gabor, and Steve Jobs https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/national-inventors-hall-fame-announces-2012-inductees
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