Wayback Machine: Solar Powered Refrigerator (in 1935!)
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 07.23.07
We keep looking for the perfect solar powered appliances, and keep finding them in Modern Mechanix. The Crosley Icyball was close; In 1935 California engineer Otto Mohr proposed combining an ammonia absorption cycle refrigeration unit (like the Icyball) with a spherical lens.
"Larger solar power units requiring up to four hours exposure can be used for heating or cooling entire homes, according to the inventor. A spherical lens catches the sun’s rays at all hours of the day. This lens gathers the rays, and changes the light into heat which is transferred to the refrigerating liquid, usually ammonia. The cooling operation is similar to that of ordinary gas refrigerators."
::Modern Mechanix
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