Jones sez: > No, not a misspell of 'dessert ice' (not this time anyway)...
... I loved this post! My first knee jerk reaction was to assume someone (who shall remain nameless) was trying to pull my leg, but then, after I pondered it for a chilling moment... hell, yeah, why shouldn't it work! EM radiation should go in both directions. It seems to me one could best maximize the dissipation of heat by making the parabolic reflective cone more deep set than average. Construct higher reflective parabolic walls than what one typically sees in a parabolic dish configuration such as those used for receiving radio signals from afar. The foci (the point of maximum heat dissipation) would be close to the base (or bottom) of this parabolic cone. A higher reflective wall arrangement should prevent random external heat radiation (originating near the surface of the planet) from sneaking in from the sides. That should reduce contamination of the foci as much as practically possible where one is trying to dissipate heat at close to 100 percent with no negative (er, I mean positive) feed back. Maximum heat dissipation is obviously best accomplished when one reduces as much as possible the sources of all external heat radiation from penetrating the inner confines of the parabolic dish configuration, and especially the foc! i. A deep set parabolic dish configuration out to do that nicely, quietly, and with no power needed. Assuming a parabolic dish arrangement was built large enough, and if you sat in the middle of this foci during a cloudless desert evening all you would see would be a few twinkling stars above and pretty much cold pitch darkness everywhere else. Be sure to wear a parka. ;-) I wonder if this parabolic arrangement (which uses no power) could be used to condense practical amounts of moisture out of the desert air. Collection tubes could be placed at the foci where condensed moisture would collect. Condensation might be possible if a passive but steady breeze were to flow through the foci point where the collection tubes reside. I also wonder if there could possibly be a practical way one could take advantage of this arrangement in order to increase a heat differential between hot and cold sources, with the idea of powering a device like a sterling engine. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com
