Frank Shuman
A Philadelphia inventor who built the world's first large-scale solar thermal power plant, proving the sun could run industrial machinery decades before the modern solar age.
1862–1918 (age 56)·American inventor, engineer and solar energy pioneer·Birthday: January 23·The Gilded Age
Biography
Frank Shuman was a man captivated by a simple, powerful idea: harnessing the desert sun to do the work of coal. A practical inventor from Pennsylvania, he first made his name with innovations in wire glass and concrete. But his true passion was solar thermal energy. In 1907, he demonstrated a small solar engine in his backyard. Undeterred by skeptics, he pursued his vision on an industrial scale. In 1913, in Maadi, Egypt, he unveiled his masterpiece: a parabolic trough solar system that used mirrors to heat water, create steam, and pump 6,000 gallons of Nile water per minute to irrigate a cotton field. It was the first working example of concentrated solar power (CSP). Shuman dreamed of vast 'sun power plants' in deserts to power the world, but his plans were dashed by the outbreak of World War I and the subsequent glut of cheap oil. His pioneering work, however, laid the direct technical foundation for the CSP plants built a century later.
The Gilded Age
1860–1882
Born during or after the Civil War, they built industrial America — the railroads, the steel mills, the first skyscrapers. An era of massive wealth, massive inequality, and the belief that the future belonged to whoever could build it fastest.
Frank was born in 1862, placing them squarely in The Gilded Age. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Frank Was Born
The biggest hits of 1862
Frank's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1862Born
President: Abraham Lincoln
1867Started school
President: Andrew Johnson
1875Became a teenager
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1878Could drive
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1880Could vote
Edison patents the incandescent light bulb
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1883Turned 21
President: Chester A. Arthur
1892Turned 30
President: Benjamin Harrison
1902Turned 40
The eruption of Mount Pelee kills 30,000 in Martinique
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1912Turned 50
Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage
President: William Howard Taft
1918Died at 56
World War I ends; Spanish flu pandemic kills millions
President: Woodrow Wilson
Key Achievements
- Designed and built the world's first large-scale solar thermal power plant in Maadi, Egypt, in 1913, using parabolic troughs to produce steam for irrigation.
- Patented the 'Shuman solar engine', an improved low-pressure system for converting solar heat into mechanical power.
- Founded the Sun Power Company to finance and develop his large-scale solar energy projects.
- Advocated globally for solar energy as a solution to replace coal, presenting his plans to the British government and in scientific publications.
Did You Know?
His 1914 article in Scientific American was titled 'The Most Rational Source of Power: The Sun'.
He initially funded his solar experiments with royalties from his invention of a safer wire-glass manufacturing process.
His solar plant in Egypt used over 1,300 square meters of reflecting mirrors.
He proposed a grand scheme to the British to build massive solar stations in the Sahara Desert to power the British Empire.
“One thing I feel sure of… is that the human race must finally utilize direct sun power or revert to barbarism.”
