The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-03-27
THE SOLAR ENGINE.
John Ericsson's Last Great Invention,
rc.ol W q cr,.....h :. $780, -,

Jonn ErlcSsonS Last Great Invention,
LCol. w. G. Church, in Scribner for April.l
No man has accomplished more with
steam than Ericsson; yet he has never
altogether abandoned his early idea of
employing heat directly as a means of
generating mechanical power. The
flame engine is among the curiosities of
the past; the caloric engine, though
mechanical success-over 5000 of them
having been built-has notaeeomplished
all that was intended. From the at
tempts to find a substitute for. or an
auxiliary of, steam, in heat artifcially
produced, Ericsson has turned his at
tention to the problem of making direct
use of the enormous dynamic force
stored up in the suns rays. Not that
he expects or intends to supplant steam
within its natural domain where the
solar energy gathered during the car
boniferous period is available for use:
but over large portion of the earth's
surface the use of steam is impossible.
neither fuel nor water being obtainable.
1t is in precisely this region that the
radiant heat of the sun is the most in
tense and constant. Now, this heat is
wasted, neither producing nor sustain
ing life, converting what might be some
of the fairest portions of the earth's sur
face into desolate wastes.
" There is rainless regicn," says
Ericsson, " extending from the north
western coast of Africa to Mongolia,
5000 miles in length, and nearly 1000
miles wide. Besides the North African
deserts, this region includes the south
ern coast of the Mediterranean, east of
the Gulf of Cabes, Upper Egypt, the
eastern and part of the western coast
Of the Red sea, part of Syria, the east
ern part of the countries watered by
the Euphrates and Tigris, Eastern
Arabia, the greater part of Persia, the
extreme western part of China, Thibet,
and, lastly, Mongolia. In the western
hemisphere, Lower California, the table
land of Mexico and Guatemala, and the
west coast of South America, for
distance of more than 1000 miles,
suffer from continuous radiant heat"
To make the enormous, and as yet
unused, dynamic force of this radiant
heat available for mans use is the prob
lem to which Ericsson is principally de-
voting the remaining years of his long
and useful life. Tt is in a lofty spirit
that he has approached the solution of
this great problem. An inventor of
less noble instincts might well have his
imagination fired by the prospect of
adding so enormously to the sum of
human capacity, until the idea of mere
personal advantage should lose itself in
the grander one Of public benefaction.
Ericsson has resolved in advance that
he will make use of the laws for the
protection of inventors only to secure
to the public what he intends to offer
as as his free gift to the race. 1t is a
gift for the future, for, as we have said,
he does not imagine that his invention
can be made available in competition
with machinery using wood and coal
But where or when artificial fuel is not
to be obtained his solar engine WILL he
believes, open new possibilities to hui
man achievement. Toanyone who will
pay the price, he is prepared even
now to furnish solar engine
of 100 horsepower. But the
apparatus required to gather and
concentrate the suns radiant heat is
too expensive tn make the engine an
economical one, and new conditions
must arise before it will be required.
Yet the solar engine is, it's designer de-
clares, mechanical success, and it
needs only such a combination of wood
and metal as he shall suggest to make
at least possible such a transformation
of the now waste portion of the earth's
surface that the prophecy shall be full
filed, and {" the desert shall rejoice and
blossom as the rose" The work of
training the forces of nature to mans
service is to continue until the sun,
from whose dread presence he now
hides himself away, shall become the
slave to till his fields and transform
into fruitful garden the plain which
from its bed reiecteth every plant;"
propelling for him the machinery which
is to introduce new, and, itmay be, an
even more varied and complex civiliza-
ton than we have yet seen, combining
the warm fancy Of the East with the
practical accomplishment of the West.
We are merely to follow Emerson's adj
vice to hitch our wagon to the stars"
and Ericsson is to be the Vulcan who is
to forge the coupling.
The Champion Pedestrian.