Abel Pifre

Abel Pifre (1852–1928), was a French engineer who developed the first solar power printing press.

Pifre demonstrated his press at a meeting of the Union Francaise de la Jeunesse at the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris on 6 August 1882.

The device consisted of a concave mirror 3.5 meters in diameter centering on a cylindrical steam boiler, which powered a small vertical engine of 2/5 horse power, and then driving a Marioni type printing-press.

Even under semi-overcast conditions, the press operated continuously from 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm, producing approximately five hundred copies per hour of a journal which was produced specifically for the event with the appropriate name "Soleil-Journal".

Tissandier G. Utilization de la Chaleur du Soleil—Imprimerie Solaire.