Solar CookersJewish families celebrate Passover to commemorate the freedom and exodus of the Israelites (Jewish slaves) from Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II. When Pharaoh Ramesses II freed the Israelites, they fled so quickly that they didn't have time to bake bread. Instead the Israelites packaged the raw dough, which they quickly baked under the hot sun into hard crackers called Matzoh as they fled across the desert. The exodus of the Israelites took place more than 3,000 years ago, but the Israelites were not the first to harness solar energy for cooking, nor were they the last. Solar cooking has a long and rich history and has important implications for the future. Solar cooking is an important link in understanding the sun's energy, it is a reservoir of innovation and technology, it is widely applicable around the world, it has social, economic and ecological benefits, and it is the answer to some of the greatest natural resource shortages of the world. Although solar cooking is an industry that has yet to be revolutionized to become an efficient home appliance, there are therefore many avenues for innovation and technological advancement to be explored. Horace de Saussure created the first solar cooker by coincidence, as cooking food was not his goal: to revolutionize the solar kitchen as an efficient home appliance. Horace de Saussure, “set out to determine how effectively glass heat traps could harvest the sun's energy.” Horace de Saussure placed five consecutive open-bottomed glass boxes inside each other on a black table, in which he placed a fruit. When this miniature five-walled greenhouse was exposed to the sun, each consecutive glass chamber trapped warm air and thermal radiation, which are the products of light energy transformed into heat. As a result, the innermost glass box became the hottest, with a recorded temperature of 189.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and Horace de Saussure successfully cooked fruit inside this box. The kitchen was just an experiment used by Horace de Saussure to understand his larger goal, which was how effectively glass heat traps could harvest the sun's energy. However, Horace de Saussure realized the practical application of his heat trap. Horace de Saussure stated: “one day we will be able to derive some use from this device. . . [because] it's actually pretty small, cheap, [and] easy to make. Horace de Saussure was right that the solar cooker is useful, but contrary to his advice, the solar cooker has failed to transform itself into an efficient household appliance.