Who calculated solar output?

[blazarwolf]

First post, I love science, always have. Im frustrated after 15 minutes of searching for a simple answer... Who was it that calculated solar output back appr. 1850's maybe? He used a watch, a block of ice, and the AU. Just a real neat story of the power of observation, i saw it on TV awhile back id like to know his name. Thank you.

[Martin]

This article says that the first measurment was made Langley, around 1881, from the top of Mount Whitney

 

http://astronomyhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/abbot_and_the_solar_constant

 

It could be that earlier rough estimates were made by other people.

 

Actually Langley seems to have made an error and the first reasonably accurate measurements were made by Abbot, who carried on Langley's work

 

==sample quote==

First Measurement of Solar Constant

 

In 1881 Samuel Pierpont Langley scaled Mt Whitney to get above as much of Earth's atmosphere as possible and measure the solar constant. Traveling to the thin high altitude atmosphere was an attempt to minimize the corrections needed for the amount of solar energy absorbed by the atmosphere.

 

Working as the secretary of the Smithsonian, Langley had, three years previously, invented a bolometer, an instrument used to very accurately measure the radiant energy at all wavelengths. Langley's bolometer was the instrument needed for this first attempt to measure the solar constant.

==endquote==

Edited September 17, 2008 by Martin

[blazarwolf]

Yeah it was the earliest, most crude method. I think he was a thermodynamics guy. Basically he used the AU (distance from earth to sun), the time it took for a fixed amount of ice to melt on a clear day, And his knowlege of thermodynamics and geometry to get a very rough estimate. This was in the days when people thought the sun was made of coal. Although there were many varibles unaccounted for (like a +/- %10), People craped there pants when the saw the number.

Ive refined my search strings dozens of times, its all clogged up with "little ice age" or "global warming". It is a real nice story though... How one can use a basic law, basic math, a known value (AU) and some creativity to get a unknown value (the ice) and make a very valuable contribution.

 

This is driving me crazy! Mostly becuase it seems so vague and unknown, and im so sick of looking... I even emailed Michio Kaku, I dont think he will respond. Soon im trying bill nye. I was originally going for that black guy from the science channel (he's seems infatuated by history) but I couldent deduce his name? Perhaps finding asmany emails of astrophysics professors around the county and sending mass emails might be best.

[blazarwolf]

I found it!... kinda. From wikipedia on Claude Pouillet "Between 1837 and 1838 he made, independently of John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871), the first quantitative measurements of the heat emitted by the Sun"

 

I messed up, I shoulda thought "heat" not output... Still cant find a direct link to the story, like I said "vague". There were alot of hits from google-books, but those crash my comp. Now I know where to go, if im ever a teacher. Great expirement for its time.