Around 1860 he began experimenting with ways to drive steam engines using only sunlight. Mouchot’s big breakthrough came when he combined two technologies–box like solar collectors and mirrors used to concentrate the sun’s rays on the collectors. The combination worked, allowing Mouchot to generate temperatures high enough to boil water to power a good sized steam engine. Crowds at the Paris World’s Fair in 1878 were amazed by Mouchot’s solar motor. Running on nothing more than sunbeams, it generated enough power to pump thousands of gallons of water and run an ice maker. Mouchot had invented a way to make ice using the heat of the sun. In the end, Mouchot’s solar machine couldn’t compete with coal powered engines. But it paved the way for the high tech solar technologies of today.