Word: odeillo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Pyrenean citadel town of Mont-Louis, where the sun shines as many as 200 days a year, he has since built five larger solar furnaces. Now, in masterly style, he has created his piéce de résistance on a hillside in the nearby ski resort of Odeillo. Compared with similar devices in several other countries, such as the U.S. Army's 30-kilowatt stove at Natick, Mass., Odeillo's 1,000-kilowatt structure is easily the Mount Palomar of solar furnaces...
Delicate Adjustment. The furnace's appearance is as spectacular as its power. Its glittering eight-story-high parabolic reflector (roughly half the size of a football field) towers over Odeillo's centuries-old houses. Anchored against a reinforced concrete office and laboratory building, the huge concave mirror consists of 8,570 individual reflectors. For the furnace to operate efficiently, these small (18 inches square) mirrors must be precisely adjusted so that their light will converge exactly at the parabola's focal point 59 ft. in front of the giant reflector. Only half of the mirrors have been...
Initial Fears. Aside from the industrial and scientific benefits, the furnace has produced an entirely unexpected dividend. At first, Odeillo's villagers thought they might be blinded by the intense light from what they call le four solaire (the solar oven). Now they know that the light is concentrated at only one point and that there is no such danger. In fact, the villagers have become quite proud of the strange, shimmering edifice in their midst. And why not? The solar furnace is not only handsome in an other-worldly way; it is also a significant tourist attraction, bringing...