Mária Telkes(1900 — 1995)
Maria Telkes
Hongrie, États-Unis
8 min read
Hungarian-American biophysicist and inventor (1900-1995), nicknamed the “Queen of the Sun.” A pioneer of solar energy, she designed the first solar heating system for a home and a solar distiller used by the US Navy.
Key Facts
- 1900: born in Budapest, Hungary
- 1937: joins MIT and begins her research on solar energy
- 1948: designs the first passive solar heating system for the Dover House (Massachusetts)
- 1952: invents a portable solar distiller used by the US Navy during World War II
- 1995: dies in Budapest, leaving a foundational legacy in the field of solar energy
Works & Achievements
An inflatable device using solar energy to produce fresh water from seawater, adopted by the United States Navy and deployed on survival rafts during World War II. It represents one of the first operational military applications of solar energy.
Built with architect Eleanor Raymond in Dover, Massachusetts, this house was entirely heated by solar energy during the winter of 1948–1949, thanks to a thermal storage system using Glauber's salt integrated into the walls. It is considered a founding milestone of modern solar architecture.
A cooking appliance operating solely by concentrating solar radiation, developed at New York University. Telkes aimed to provide an affordable tool for populations without access to electricity or fossil fuels.
A body of patents and publications defining the use of phase-change materials to store solar heat. This foundational work forms the basis of modern thermal storage technologies in construction and industry.
Participation in the design of a fully solar experimental house integrating advanced thermal storage and photovoltaic panels. This project demonstrated the maturity of the solar technologies Telkes had been developing since the 1940s.
Anecdotes
During World War II, Telkes designed a foldable solar still for US Navy survival rafts. This ingenious device used only the sun's heat to convert seawater into drinkable water, and was adopted by the US Navy as early as 1942. It was fitted on numerous inflatable rafts and helped save shipwrecked sailors in tropical waters.
In 1948, Telkes took on a challenge that many considered impossible: heating an entire house solely on solar energy through a Massachusetts winter. Working with architect Eleanor Raymond, she designed the Dover House, whose walls held tons of Glauber's salt, a mineral salt capable of absorbing solar heat by melting during the day and releasing it by solidifying at night. The house made it through the winter of 1948–1949 without any other heat source.
Telkes earned the nickname “Sun Queen” from her colleagues and the scientific press, so total and exclusive was her commitment to solar energy. While other researchers worked across multiple subjects, she devoted more than fifty years of her career to a single conviction: the sun could heat, cook, distill, and power all of humanity.
Frustrated by the MIT solar energy committee's refusal to fund her research on phase-change thermal storage, Telkes left the institute in the 1950s and joined New York University. There she developed a solar oven using concentrating mirrors that reached temperatures high enough to cook food, intended for populations without access to electricity or fossil fuels.
In the 1970s, as the oil crisis struck the world, Telkes's work — ignored for decades — suddenly became urgently relevant again. She was invited to the University of Delaware to take part in the Solar One project, a new experimental solar house. At over 70 years old, she contributed her expertise in thermal storage, proving that her vision had been well ahead of its time.
Primary Sources
The storage of solar heat is the most critical problem in solar house heating. Fusion heat materials, particularly sodium sulfate decahydrate (Glauber's salt), offer a heat storage capacity several times greater than water or rocks per unit volume.
An apparatus for distilling water by solar energy comprising an inflatable transparent enclosure, a black absorbing surface at the base, and channels for collecting condensed distillate along the inner walls, suitable for use on life rafts.
Tests conducted on inflatable solar stills demonstrated a production rate of approximately one quart of potable water per hour under full tropical sunlight, sufficient for minimum survival needs of shipwrecked personnel.
Phase-change materials provide latent heat storage at constant temperature, making them ideally suited for solar thermal applications where heat must be collected intermittently and released continuously on demand during sunless periods.
Key Places
Birthplace of Mária Telkes, where she grew up, pursued her higher education, and earned her doctorate in physical chemistry in 1924. She returned there later in life and passed away in Budapest in 1995.
Telkes's first position in the United States, starting in 1925, where she worked as a biophysics researcher and began developing her early ideas on converting solar energy into electricity.
The institution Telkes joined in 1939 as part of its solar energy research program. There she designed a solar distiller for the U.S. Navy and developed her first phase-change thermal storage systems.
The first modern house heated entirely by solar energy, inaugurated in 1948 and designed in collaboration with architect Eleanor Raymond. Telkes put her concept of Glauber's salt thermal storage into practice here, proving the feasibility of solar heating in a temperate climate.
Site of the Solar One project (1973), to which Telkes contributed during the 1970s. This university initiative integrated photovoltaic panels with advanced thermal storage, demonstrating the maturity of solar technologies in the context of the oil crisis.