The usage of solar cookers is very old. It was one of the first applications of harnessing and using solar energy. In ancient times, a Jewish sect called the Essenes used to cook food on rocks, heated by solar energy. From that concept, Horace de Saussure built a box-type solar cooker in 1776. This cooker was able to reach temperatures of about 190 degrees celsius. Then came the parabolic-style solar cooker built-in 1869 by Mouchot. French Colonial troops of Napoleon Three, used it in Africa. It was even displayed in an exhibition in Paris by cooking in twenty minutes. Later on in India, W. Adams developed a panel-style solar cooker to cook meat and vegetables. These were the three basic types that were made hundreds of years ago.