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THE SOLAR PYROSPHERE:

One sunny afternoon, as he reached into the jug to wipe off the lens, he accidently burned his hand in the focused rays of the sun.

Next, he poked a 2 x 4 board into the jug, and when it immediately burst into flame, Bailey realized that he had discovered a powerful solar death ray gun machine.

From this accident, was born the idea of the Pyrosphere in 1992. The Pyrosphere is a solar data gathering instrument which records sunlight as a burned line in a 2" X 12" board. (See below)

A large 9" magnifying lens focuses the sunlight into a concentrated point which burns a thin, deep line across a 2" X 12" wood plank each day. Each day the new line is burned just above or below the previous day's line, as the sun's path across the sky raises or lowers with the changing of the seasons.

A sunny day is represented by a continuous burned groove across the plank; a partly cloudy day by an intermittent groove, or one of varied depth. Rainy days leave a ridge of unburned material in the recording medium.

The wood plank is replaced twice a year, on each solstice.

No practical use for this solar data has yet been found, but Dr. Gladstone has collected data since 1992 with his unique Solar Pyrosphere and with the Solar Pyrograph.

It has been suggested that the pyrosphere could also be used as solar fired salmon smoker.

In addition, a Pyrosphere could be utilized as a solar camera, because a tree or other large object, when standing in front of the lens, leaves its unburned shadow image on the plank.

However, it takes six months for the entire image to appear, and the exposure must begin on the solstice.