How we get our morning bean juice every day.

[Bill, KD0HG]

;-)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaSSoRxI8RQ

[Ed KB1HVS]

Great for field day.

[k4kyv]

I have the approximately 24" diameter parabolic mirror taken from an old WW2 antiaircraft beacon.  On a bright clear sunny day I can instantly ignite a piece of wood.

As for roasting coffee, I used to make espresso by roasting coffee beans in the skillet.  This was before the days when cappuccino, latte and espresso had caught on, and back then you couldn't find dark roasted coffee beans anywhere around here locally.  So I would buy a bag of regular cheap unground light roasted coffee, put some in a skillet and roast it, sort of like popping popcorn an a pan.  You have to keep shaking it around to avoid burning it.  When it just begins to start smoking, and the beans are dark and shiny, it is fully roasted.  The aroma is like incense, but it can be overwhelming.  It will probably set of any smoke  detector nearby.

The finished product always made good espresso and cappuccino.  Now dark roast is available everywhere, so the only time I ever do this is when we run out of dark roast and happen to have some light roasted whole beans on hand.

That contraption reminds me of a story that supposedly in ancient times an army was confronting a maritime invasion somewhere in the Mediterranean.  The soldiers on the beach had highly polished shields, and every soldier shined the reflection from the sun from his shield onto a wooden ship, setting it afire.

They must have had extremely capable metal smiths to make the shields reflective enough, and perfectly flat, to be able to do that.

Probably just a myth.