Dr. Mária Telkes

American physical chemist and biophysicist

Mária Telkes, (born December 12, 1900, Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now in Hungary]—died December 2, 1995, Budapest), Hungarian-born American physical chemist and biophysicist best known for her invention of the solar distiller and the first solar-powered heating system designed for residences. She also invented other devices capable of storing energy captured from sunlight.

 

Born-December 12, 1900, Budapest, Austria-Hungary.

Died- December 2, 1995, Budapest

 

Telkes, daughter of Aladar Telkes and Maria Laban de Telkes, was raised in Budapest. She studied physical chemistry at the University of Budapest, graduating with a B.A. in 1920 and a Ph.D. in 1924. She became an instructor at the institution in 1924 but decided to immigrate to the United States after visiting a relative, who served at the time as the Hungarian consul in Cleveland. In 1925 she accepted a position as a biophysicist for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, where she worked with American surgeon George Washington Crile to create a photoelectric device that recorded brain waves.

Telkes became an American citizen in 1937. That same year she became a research engineer at Westinghouse Electric, where she developed instruments that converted heat into electrical energy; however, she made her first forays into solar energy research in 1939. That year, as part of the Solar Energy Conversion Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she worked on thermoelectric devices powered by sunlight. Telkes was assigned to the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II, and it was there that she created one of her most important inventions: a solar distiller capable of vaporizing seawater and recondensing it into drinkable water. Although the system was carried aboard life rafts during the war, it was also scaled up to supplement the water demands of the Virgin Islands. She remained at MIT after the war, becoming an associate research professor in metallurgy in 1945.

Until the end of her career, Telkes continued to develop solar-energy applications and received several patents for her work. Together with American architect Eleanor Raymond, she designed and constructed the world’s first modern residence heated with solar energy. The house was built in Dover, Massachusetts, in 1948. Boxlike solar collectors captured sunlight and warmed the air in a compartment between a double layer of glass and a black sheet of metal. Warmed air was then piped into the walls, where it transferred heat to Glauber’s salts (crystallized sodium sulfate) for storage and later use. She improved upon existing heat-exchanger technology to create solar stoves and solar heaters, receiving a $45,000 grant from the Ford Foundation in 1953 to create a universal solar oven that could be adapted for use by people living at all latitudes. She also worked to develop materials capable of enduring the temperature extremes of space. In 1980 she assisted the U.S. Department of Energy in the development of the world’s first solar-electric residence, which was built in Carlisle, Massachusetts.

Designed Several New Solar Projects

Telkes had been interested in solar energy since she was in high school, and in 1939, she joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solar Energy Conversion Project. There, she continued to do research on thermoelectric conversion devices, only in these devices, the heat energy came from the sun.

During World War II, the United States government, noting Telkes’s expertise, recruited her to serve as a civilian advisor to the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). They asked her to devise a portable method of converting salt water into clean drinking water. In the past, the salt water had to be heated until it turned to steam, leaving the salt behind, and then the steam was condensed back into pure water. Telkes designed a solar still, which used the heat of the sun to vaporize the salt water. The still was small enough that it could be used on life rafts to provide drinking water to people waiting for rescue at sea, and it saved the lives of many torpedoed sailors and downed airmen during World War II. The still was also able to be enlarged enough to provide large supplies of fresh water. This system was put into place in the Virgin Islands, which did not have a large, reliable supply of fresh water. For her invention, Telkes received the OSRD Certificate of Merit in 1945.

In 1948, Telkes researched and designed a new solar heating system, which was installed in a solar house built on the estate of sculptor Amelia Peabody in Dover, Massachusetts; the house was designed by architect Eleanor Raymond. This heating system was different from earlier systems, which had stored the solar energy in the form of hot water or heated rocks. Telkes’s system converted solar heat into chemical energy through the crystallization of a solution of sodium sulfate. In her system, sunlight passes through a large glass window to heat air that is trapped behind the glass. The heat from the air is then transferred through a metal sheet and into another air space. From this space, fans move the hot air into storage compartments filled with sodium sulfate; these compartments are located inside the walls of the house, so the walls themselves are the heating element for the home. This system proved to be very efficient and cost-effective, even in the cold Massachusetts winter. In addition, during the hot summer months, the chemical stored in the walls drew heat out of the rooms, making them cooler.

 

Continued to Invent Solar Devices

In 1958 Telkes began working for the Princeton division of the Curtis-Wright company, where as director of research for the solar energy lab, she researched solar dryers and the possible use of solar thermoelectric generators in outer space. During her time there, she also designed a heating and energy storage system for a laboratory building that Curtis-Wright built in Princeton, New Jersey.

From 1961 to 1963, Telkes worked on developing materials that could be used to protect temperature-sensitive instruments. These materials were also used in shipping and storage containers that would be exposed to extreme temperatures in space and undersea applications for the Apollo and Polaris projects. In 1963, she became head of the solar energy laboratory at the MELPAR Company, and again considered the problem of obtaining fresh water from sea-water.

In 1969, she joined the Institute of Energy Conversion at the University of Delaware, where she developed materials to store solar energy and designed devices that would transfer heat energy more efficiently. As a result, she received patents in the United States and in other countries for the storage of solar heat. Her methods were used in the construction of an experimental solar-heated building at the University of Denver, known as Solar One.

During the 1970s, Telkes also worked on devising air-conditioning systems that stored nighttime coolness so that it could be used during the heat of the following day. These systems were intended to reduce power demand during times of high heat and to reduce the incidence of power failures and brownouts.

In 1977, Telkes was honored by the National Academy of Science Building Research Advisory Board for her contributions to solar-heated building technology. This put her in the company of innovators such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller, who had also received the award. She was named professor emeritus at the University of Delaware in 1978, when she retired from active research. She continued to work as a consultant until about 1992.

Telkes died on December 2, 1995, while making her first visit to her hometown of Budapest, Hungary, in 70 years.