Bell Labs Made The First Real Solar Panel. Nobody Wanted It

In April 1954, Bell Labs used a few slices of silicon to spin a toy Ferris wheel on nothing but sunlight. It was the first practical solar cell. The New York Times said it might mark "the beginning of a new era." Then nobody wanted it. In 1956, one of its inventors worked out that powering a house would take about 1.43 million dollars of solar cells. For years, the cells sold mostly in toys. What saved them was the space race, and a grapefruit sized satellite that is still circling the Earth today. This is the story of Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller and Gerald Pearson, the solar cell nobody wanted, and how it ended up on millions of roofs. In this documentary: Becquerel, Fritts and Einstein: a hundred years of almost Five reasons sunlight couldn't power anything useful Two engineers from Salem, Oregon, and a chemist from Chicago The gallium sample that made the ammeter jump The race with RCA's nuclear battery April 25, 1954, and the toy Ferris wheel 286 dollars a watt and "what to do with our new baby?" Sputnik, Vanguard 1 and the "grapefruit satellite" Telstar, Exxon, Swanson's Law and the price collapse Why most solar panels are no longer made in America Watch the story of the MOSFET, made at the same Bell Labs: https://youtu.be/4oyZiDfoNik?si=r1uzT8JrPv92G-q4 Would solar have taken off without satellites, or stayed a toy for another twenty years? Tell me in the comments. And if I got a date, a number or a name wrong, tell me there too. I read every comment and I pin corrections. Parts That Changed History tells the stories behind the chips, machines and parts that shaped the modern world, and the people who built them. Subscribe for a new story every day. #SolarPanel #SolarEnergy #BellLabs #SolarCell #Vanguard1 #SpaceRace #Silicon #Semiconductor #TechHistory #Invention #Engineering #Documentary #History #PartsThatChangedHistory