Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-11-27
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.
One of Washington's perennial
summer news stories Is that Of the
egg, fried upon our sizzling July
pavements, by an enterprising re-
porter.
But what would you think of
gingerbread, the best you ever ate,
baked to a turn by the rays of a
November sun with an information
ally known scientist, DR.. Charles G.
Abbot, secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, officiating as the chief
cook in this process of sun cookery?
Harvesting Old Sol to practical
domestic tasks is a frequent occur
renee with DR.. Abbot, world famous
astrophysicist, who for the past
quarter of a century has continu-
ously engaged in original researches
on solar radiation.
The present apparatus by which
DR.. Abbot achieves his sun cookery
here in Washington is compare
lively simple one. 1t is capable of
being easily lifted up and trans
ported at will to city street corner
or any other convenient spot, where
at a sharp angle, it can best focus
and collect the suns rays.
Its protype is similar but more
cumbersome device, invented by DR..
Abbot and put to practical use on
Mount Wilson. California, by Mrs.
Abbot during their. summer sojourns
there. Its heat reservoir contains
two cooking ovens, with insulation
holding the heat sufficiently for
night cooking to be done. The tenn
perature reached is high enough to
bake bread, and cook meat, or pre-
serve fruits.
Huge Source of Power.
Back of the expedient of baking
gingerbread by the suns rays, is a
great scientific objective for it is
DR.. Abbot's conviction that, wasted
solar energy in deserts is thousands
OF times greater than all the power
requirements in the world"
"If," he said, this energy could
be maintained constantly without
interruption, am convinced it could
be made to compete on equal terms
with coal at about 50 ton"
From DR.. Abbots executive head
quarters in the brown stone building,
Oldest of the three store houses of
mans progress, past and present,
which constitute the great Smith
Sonian Institution, went with him
to the little frame building in its
rear which he uses for a workshop.
Here for nearly 46 years he has con-
trived certain of the apparati which
have facilitated his internationally
known studies of the sun and its
powers.
Fascinated as I was by the general
atmosphere, I noted the celebrity and
dispatch with which DR.. Abbot
evolved the gingerbread mix.
noted, too, its smooth consistency
as he spooned it into the little square
baking pan which he had previously
carefully lined with wax paper.
Then I followed DR.. Abbot out of
his workshop up an open stairway
to a little wooden platform, upon
which for the moment the solar or
sun cooker is located. I buttoned
my coat about me in the brisk, cool
autumn air, secretly doubling the
possibility Of any satisfactory baking
being done by this particular No
vember sunshine.
Calculates Cooking Time.
It was lis pm. DR.. Abbot looked
at the thermometer attached to the
cooker, squinted at the suns rays
and Calculated" in good old New
England fashion, that the ginger
bread, "at the outside limit" should
be done at 2:15, possibly by 1855"
Quite matter-of- factly he stated
"You do not have to open the oven
door to determine whether sun
cookery products are done You
tell by the thermometer"