Trailer | The Sun Queen
Preview: Season 35 Episode 5 | 1m 29sVideo has Closed Captions
Unsung scientist Mária Telkes dedicated her career to harnessing the power of the sun.
Scientist Mária Telkes dedicated her career to harnessing the power of the sun. Though undercut and thwarted by her male colleagues, she persevered to design the first successfully solar-heated house in 1948 and held more than 20 patents.
Corporate sponsorship for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Carlisle Companies. Major funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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Trailer | The Sun Queen
Preview: Season 35 Episode 5 | 1m 29sVideo has Closed Captions
Scientist Mária Telkes dedicated her career to harnessing the power of the sun. Though undercut and thwarted by her male colleagues, she persevered to design the first successfully solar-heated house in 1948 and held more than 20 patents.
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The sun's energy is absorbed and transported into heat.
She was vivacious and she was a tremendous promoter.
She's not just a scientist.
She's glamorous.
She's entertaining.
She's fun.
She was ahead of her time and asking the right questions.
Dr. Maria Telkes has designed a model house in which solar heat is distributed throughout the whole house.
Everything about that house was unusual and radical.
Nothing else would even get close to the Dover Sun House in terms of media coverage.
The modern insulating window, delivers year round comfort.
It was this age of all this talk about solar.
She really imagined this as revolutionizing the way that people lived.
Telkes knew you can't just wait for society to be ready.
You need to sell them on this idea.
Telkes is seen as too aggressive and pushy.
This was not something that would have been easy as a woman.
The men at MIT are furious that she is getting attention for this.
She was a groundbreaker in so many ways.
She's laying a foundation for pretty much everything now that we do with solar.
The first modern house to be heated by nothing but the sun was designed by Mária Telkes. (3m 39s)
Explore off-grid life in a one-bedroom cabin in the Northern Minnesota woods. (6m 1s)
Find out what modern off-grid living looks like at a 25-acre homestead in New Mexico. (6m 9s)
Find out how one family lives on a one-acre off grid market farm in Vermont. (5m 32s)
A Solar Pioneer’s Challenge to Women
Inventor Mária Telkes wanted women scientists to reach for the sun. (2m 17s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
Corporate sponsorship for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Carlisle Companies. Major funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.