What did Maria telkes invent?

Mária Telkes was a Hungarian-born American physical chemist and biophysicist who invented one of the first successful solar ovens, solar heating systems, and a solar water distilling system for making seawater potable.

Maria Telkes collaborated with architect Eleanor Raymond in the 1940s to create the first solar-heated home, the Dover Sun House.

The system was designed so that Glauber’s salt would melt in the sun, trap the heat and then release it as it cooled and hardened.

The system used sunlight to heat the air inside glass windows. This heated air was then passed through a metal sheet into another air space. Fans then moved the air to a salt storage compartment (sodium sulfate).

These compartments were located between the walls and heated the house as the salt cooled.

During WWII, she invented a solar distillation device, which was included in military emergency medical kits and saved the lives of downed airmen and torpedoed sailors.

It became one of her most famous inventions because it provided clean water to soldiers in difficult situations and also helped solve water problems in the US Virgin Islands.