Lord Snow did you ever fry a bug with a maginfying glass? the same principal can be used to heat steel on a little bigger scale.But you would be limited to small dia. material say up to a 1/2 inch.

If you can get around the tendency to shed heat as fast as you put it in, you might get up to pocket knife blade size.

No I've never fried a bug with a magnifying glass. It would seem that while it is possible it's not practical. Unless you two wiser minds can convince me otherwise.

If you can do it on the big scale, why not?

You could improve on this he is melting glass the focal point gets up to 3000 deg.,but you would only be able to heat about 3/4 sq. inch at a time.



http://www.sundropjewelry.com/movies.php

Solar forge diagram and info


http://contest.techbriefs.com/machi...ipment-2010/327

Hmmmm....interesting. I'm still not completely convinced. However, I will concede this discussion and return quietly to my corner.

While the storm has moved past Baltimore, the wind remains a bit gusty.

Good to hear the main front's gone by.

Very VERY interesting, that solar forge. :D ......... and a very neat site. :thumb:

If Katrina didn't drastically change building codes, Irene's unlikely to break the cycle of destruction.

And if we let our politicians continue their bullshit instead of doing their jobs, we deserve it.:cool:

Interesting that you should mention Katrina; August 29 is the anniversary of its arrival at New Orleans.

It rained this morning, was so dark at 9am that the street lights came on.

And a year BEFORE it happened the scientists told 300 gathered bureaucrats exactly what would happen.

You only need watch less than 3 minutes of this account. Start it at about 4 min into the video.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1218652893

Afer 61 days of 100+ heat todays high 85 right now its 65 and it feels almost cold woohoo!!

We cooled off because of the rain last night, but that just means if it gets warm it's going to get steamy on top of it.

Warm and sunny again, after showers at lunchtime

23C to 33C, about 26C at the moment (74, 92, 79)

Temperature
75.3 °F (24 C)
Feels Like 76 °F (24.4 C)

Today
81 °F (27.2 C)

Chance of T-storms
90% chance of precipitation

Other than raining steadily, its a *sweet* 67°F!

Its 72 and suppose to hit 75 today. Beautiful day out. :)

Abysmal.

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. We need to ship some of this to Texas.

61F right now under cloudy skies. It's suppose to get up to 79F today with scattered showers and thunderstorms.

Suppose to get the first frost tonight. My sis brought her plants in yesterday and is covering up her vegi's right now. We hit 59 today. :)

It's 41F right now, but expected to drop to 38F or 39F by 7AM ... then rise to 64F today. The average for today is 77F ... so it's going to be a bit cool.

Wet. Mostly wet. Eitehr actual rain, or just a whole lotta humidity.

^^ Yep! ^^

Monday it was 102,today its 55 for the high with misting rain

^^^^ Bipolar Mother Nature

Thats a good one, never thought of it that way. :roflmao:

It was nice and cool this afternoon. This morning was kind of crappy though.

62F right now. Chance of morning showers, then, a high of 76F today with partly cloudy skies. Sounds pretty good once the rains pass (although we needed some).

:)

Raining.

Dark.







(Actually, it's on 3:30AM and I haven't looked out or at the Weather Channel yet.)

The sky is dark, but it was blue earlier.

it's sunny here :)

59F right now under fair skies. Suppose to reach 74F today with partly cloudy skies (and partly non-cloudy too. :) ).

sunny.... 70's.... fantastic!