The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-06-24
An Hour With a Philosopher.
The Great ProblemQt Finding a Substitute
for Steam CRAFTY the Coming Notice
Force. 81
From the Cincinnati Chronicle


From the Cincinnati Chronicle.
1t is undeniable that the progress OF
civilization during the latter half of this
century is in large measure due to the
steam engine; hence Watt, Fulton and
Stephenson will forever live in history.
But it is no less true that there is grow
ing conviction among the scientific and
practical men of our age that, sooner or
later, there must and will be motor in
vented capable of doing all the work now
performed by steam, at less expense and
risk. The enormous quantity of fuel con-
sumed by the various descriptions of
steam motors, and the loss of life and
property DECEASED by ever and anon occur
ring explosions of steam boilers, seem to
remind us that the ingenuity of man has
not been exhausted in their invention.
The readers of the Chronicle will there
fore be interested to learn that there lives
gentleman IN this city, who claims to
have invented an engine that will prove
an ample substitute for the steam engine !;
and it is not too much to say that appear
ances go far to substantiate his claim.
But that we may not anticipate, we sub
join, in cond form, what we saw
and heard in an hours interview with
Mr.. Charles G. Leber, at his Office, in
Reds building. We stated to him that,
having learned that he was engaged in
inventing motor, we had called to as
certain the particulars of his invention.
so far as he felt at liberty to communicate
them, with the view of laying them be-
fore the readers of the Chronicle. With
the assurance, on his part, of his willing
ness to disclose his invention, as far as
completed, with the understanding, only,
that we publish nothing calculated to
prejudice MIN, we were conducted into
! his working room, and there shown num-
Der of models and drawings. We could
not conceal our surprise on learning that
the force Mr.. Leber proposes to utilize is
none other than gravity, since, sharing,
as we did, the generally prevalent views
on this subject, we had supposed that its
unftness as a motive force had long since
since been clearly proven. But we were
to see the action of this force on philo-
sophical and mechanical principles so
novel as to convince us that Mr.. Leber
has discovered hitherto hidden truths.
In explaining the workings of his model
to us, Mr.. Leber stated that the first diff
Guilty of his subject was to geta clear un-
derstanding of the motion of machinery
Mechanical motion, as now defined, was
caused by the motion of some matter,
which III turn was caused by some active
agent or principle in nature. Thus, the
motion of pulley, when connected with
weight, was said to be communicated by
the motion of the latter, which again was
ascribed to the motion of gravity and
the circumstances that both motions
ceased simultaneously was pointed to as
a cllncher to this proposition. But he un-
derstood these phenomena in different
light. The motion of the weight could
not be the cause of the motion of the pull
ley, because both motions were concurrent
in point of time; but both were produced
by the action of gravity on the body call
led weight (and on the pulley by means
of its connection with the former), be-
cause that was prior to them. And as to
the motion of the pulley ceasing immed-
lately with that of the weight, that cir
cumstance proved nothing more than
that, aoitb the mechanism under conssdera-
tios IA pulley and weight connected with
each other), the motion of one was indis-
pensable to that of the one was indispen
sible to that of the other.
The inventor then referred to what is
called the lao Of comp -usation. "There
must, of course, " he said, 'sbe an effort or
continued efforts, to produce motion, and
the quantity or sum total of such efforts
must be equal to the sum total of the re-
sistances to the motion, together with its
velocity or, in mechanical terms, to the |
amount of work to be done. On the
steam engine" he continued, 81 find these
efforts to be in the action of steam: on |
IL