Ice Formed from a Bursting Solar Water Heater, 1937 Photographer unknown; Anaheim, California Photograph; 5 x 3 in. 38507 Gift of Miss Muriel Anderson

Today, solar technology is at the forefront of the “green” energy movement, but it may come as a surprise to many that solar energy has been used by families for over a hundred years. Solar water heaters were used during the 19th century by farmers and frontiersman as a simple solution to the high cost of using fuels like coal and lumber to burn fires. Instead of having to purchase coal or chop down large quantities of wood, they quickly learned to heat their water by leaving it outside in a large metallic tank that would be painted black. Unfortunately, this method took many hours to heat the water, and the heat would be lost quickly at night. In 1891, a man named Clarence Kemp, who lived in Baltimore, Maryland, patented a design for a solar water heater that would begin a new industry. Kemp’s design involved placing the metallic tank inside a “hotbox,” which is simply an insulated box that has been painted black on the inside and has a glass lid. The glass allows light to pass through easily, but it retains heat energy.  Kemp also added a system of pipes to his device, which he called “The Climax,” so that the heater could be placed on the roof of homes and the water easily accessible. This design was particularly appealing to Californians, who had an abundance of sunshine and high fuel costs to pay. The design was further improved upon in 1911, when a man named William Bailey patented his take on the solar water heater. Previous designs like the Climax stored the water inside the hotbox, and so the water cooled off during the night. Bailey’s design separated the tank from the heater. He ran thin pipes through the hotbox that ran up to a tank stored on the roof of the home. The water in the thin pipes heated up very quickly, and since hot water is lighter than cold water, it naturally flowed upward into the tank, as cool water flowed back down into the hotbox. The tank could also be kept warm by the home’s furnace at night or on cloudy days.  Though the Solar water heaters proved to be very useful to home owners in temperate states, like California and Florida, they could not survive the intense cold freezes of other areas. Unfortunately for the Anaheim residents of 1937, the normally temperate area they lived in experienced an uncharacteristically cold period in January of that year, which became known as the “Big Freeze of 1937.” Large portions of the crops in the area failed and numerous pictures show scenes of frozen fountains and icicle-ridden plants. This picture in the Bowers’ collection depicts why solar water heaters never gained much popularity in states like Missouri or Minnesota. It shows a plant that has been covered in water that burst from the home’s water heater, and then froze. Solar heating fell out of vogue after cheap electricity was made available by competing gas and electricity companies in the wake of WWII, but modern improvements have made it a viable technology once again. Though the times have changed, Californians are still searching for the cheapest way to heat their water. Cheap and renewable energy sources are timeless indeed.   All text and image under copyright. Please contact Collection Department for permission to use. Information subject to change upon further research.