Experimental solar cell module
date: label: date made
content: 1955
name: label: maker
content: Bell Laboratories
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Scientists and inventors in the 19th century recognized that some materials respond electrically to exposure to light. Alexander Graham Bell, for example, demonstrated in 1880 a “photophone” that could transmit voices using the action of sunlight on selenium. In the 1930s, Daryl Chapin studied magnetic recording at Bell Labs but later shifted to research on generating electricity with sunlight. In 1954, building on earlier work done by colleague Russell Ohl on fused silicon, Chapin, Calvin Fuller and Gerald Pearson invented a practical solar cell. In 1969 Chapin donated two of his experimental solar cells to the Smithsonian. He also donated a module used in a test installation in Americus, Georgia, to power a rural telephone relay.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Energy & Power
label: Exhibition
content: Inventing in America
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Bell Telephone Laboratories, thru Daryl M. Chapin
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.330094
label: catalog number
content: 330094
label: accession number
content: 285748
objectType: label: Object Name
content: photovoltaic module
label: Object Name
content: solar cell
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silicon (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 3/8 in x 3 1/4 in x 1 1/16 in; 8.5725 cm x 8.255 cm x 2.69875 cm