WHAT APPEARS to have been our first article about solar energy, in 1955, largely handled water heaters, cooking stoves and the like. Nevertheless it additionally famous, “among the many extra ingenious low powered gadgets…the Bell Firm’s photo voltaic battery”—which is to say the primary silicon-based photo voltaic cell, unveiled by AT&T’s Bell Labs the earlier 12 months. Certainly we have been sufficiently impressed by this “simple-looking equipment, consisting, in essence, of skinny wafers of silicon, specifically handled” (and pictured above) that in 1956 we featured it in an encomium to America’s remarkable research record: “Even an account of such numerous achievements because the Salk vaccine, the photo voltaic battery, the invention and synthesis of the “miracle” medicine, the atom-powered submarine and the breeding of Santa Gertrudis cattle, would give solely a small trace of labor in progress.” (Fairly how Santa Gertrudis cattle made it into this corridor of fame stays a thriller.)
