Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1882-07-30
A BURNING SENSATION.
ETRING THAT TAKES THE
SHINE OUT OF ELECTRICITY.

Fuel.
Chicago Herald.
WASHINGTON, July ia fashionable craze
has seized hold of the citizens of the District.
which bids fair to spread as widely through
out the country as did the blue glass "fad' of
several years ago. The person primarily re-
sponsible for what promises to be an infection
on the community, is a resident of the city
and an inventor, but the Washint ton Post has
contributed largely toward popularizing that
gentleman's disco very and in converting the
young and the aged of both sexes and all colors
into experimentors. A few days ago it appears
that the Patent Office issued papers to VIM.
Calver for a discovery which, if 1t possesses
all the merits the p~atentee and the Post claim
for it, will be hailed with gratitude by both
busy manufacturer and toillng housewives.
The invention is no less than the
REDUCTION OF INTENSE HEAT
By a peculiar arrangement OF mirrors. Mean
while, as the ordinary looking glass is conf
mon to every dwelling. and the testing of Mr..
Calver's claims can & on without expense, the
city seems determined to Judge of the virtue
of his discovery. In the Smithsonian grounds,
in the vicinity of the Capitol and on many of
the avenues the test has been made by those
who have had their curiosity aroused concern
ing the strength of the suns rays. In the
negro quarter even bits of broken mirror can
be seen cleaning in the dussy hands of col
ored urchins, who mischievously turn the
focus full in the face of the passer-by. What
the results of all these experiments may have
been has not yet TRANSFERRED, but it is evident
TIL the society of all grades has caught a new
tangled idea which viii, if it does nothing
else, afford it some amusement. Mr.. Calver,
the gentleman who has so distinguished him.
self, is a brother of DR.. Calver, at A street
Northwest. Dr.. Calver was born in England.
but came to this country when very young.
For q number of years he resided in New York.
He has been a citizen of the District for up.
ward of ten years, and during that time has
been absent much in Arizona, looking after
his mining property. He has been looking for
d long time for some method of working mines
and reducing the ore by a cheaper process than
that in vogue. By a happy chance, equally as
singular as that which befell Newton, he
stumb ed on his discovery. The whole inven-
ton simply consists of a arrangement where
by the rays of the sun are reflected
FROM ANY NUMBER OF MIRRORS
Upon a common focus. Happening to direct
the light from two ordinary looking glasses
upon the same surface he noticed that the re-
sultant heat was about doubled. He proceed.
ed with his experiments, and succeeded in
reducing wood to ashes and metal to q liquid
state by simply concentrating upon them the
reflected light of the sun from twenty small
mirrors with flat surfaces. The principle is
an unexplainable one. 1t has never hitherto
been suspected that tapping one ray of sun
light upon another increased the heat. The
model patented by Mr.. Calver consists of Z
number of small looking-glasses, arranged III
rows upon Il frame so fixed that they can
be converged upon any one point. A working
model, Of which he has u number, was exhib-
tied to & reporter in the yard in the rear OF
his residence. Forty innocent, guileless lock-
ing fifteen cent framed mirrors, each three
and three.quarters inches by five and three
quarter inches were arranged upon a frame
propped up like an artists easel, and bearing
u striking resemblance thereto. Facing the
easel was the fragment of Whist was once a
barn door, also pr0pped mp and partly covered
with a worn and faded sheet of zinc that bore
unmistakable evidences of having been burned
through in several places. 1t was but the work
of q minute to converge the forty mirrors
npon u space three and three quarters inches
upon the barn door, and then the revelations
began. AS each mirror east its quota of sun
light upon the common store, the parallelo-
gram of light grew whittier and more dazzling,
until at last it looked like u patch of electric
light. But little patience was required to
await results. In less than thirty seconds
THIN, CURLING PUFF OF SMOKE
Gave evidence of the progress of his expert
ment. In a minute the board was bursting
out in flames. The focus was then shifted
upon the zine. In a few moments it began to
turn color; then shrink as If anxious to get
away where it was cooler, and then in less
tlllL ! lilukN tIS ShtiAS "a seeo
by the focus was literally melting, drop by
drop. To melt aiuc req Tres G temperature of
over roo degrees Fahrenheit. The more Won
derful feature about the whole thing is the
bsilliancy Of the light. Each mirror ndds not
only heat but light. The forty mirrors pro.
dueed a light more brilliant than any ordinary
light. A hand, held so as to interoept
this focus, becomes as white as driven snow.
4 white handkerchief deies ordinary sight,
and conveys but an impression Of beautiful
whiteness. 1t is as hard to look at ss the sun
itself. The possibilities of Mr.. Calver's in
veution are boundless. With q combined
square surface of twenty feet of mirrors, lead
niaits quicker than thought, wood bursts into
q II anne and is gonG into ashe- and iron I..elts
in less than twenty minutes. Each mirror
adds SO much to the heat and light, and Mt
Csiver has found by actual experiment that a
comparatively small collection Of mirrors,
each one f~ootsquare,w will
MELT ALL KNOWN METALS
In n very few moments. He has produced over
4, 00G degrees of heat with his mirrors. By cal
it is shown that 900 mirrors, each n
foot square, will melt iron and steel with the
rapidity almost of thought. There are pro-
cesses, too, by which even this Mormon
quantity of heat can be condensed and made to
incredible feats. A coneave mirror
placed at the focus of the large mirror Will
throw q pin point of heat back toward the
mirrors, should their numbers be increased by
several thousands. capable of eating through a
solid mass of steel ten feet thick, like a fash,
and as easily as a needle goes through a cheese
The immense practical value OF the Invention
can be readily understood. MI. Calver's forty
mirror boils water in less than no time. An
egg placed in the water is done hard quicker
than by fire. Meat and vegetables are cooked
in ten or fifteen minutes. A half hours sun
shine any time between 8 A. NJ. and 4 P. NJ. IN
the summer will do the cooking for an ordi-
narily-sized family for a week, If necessary.
By the mirrors engines can be run, wells dug.
mines worked, ore melted and refined, every
kind Of cooking performed; and, in short there
is no variety of Industry in which they cannot
successfully compete with mule power steam
or electricity. There are
MANY CURIOUS THINGS
In connection with Mr.. Calver's discovery.
More heat can be gotten from the mirrors IN
Winter than in Summer, strange as 1t may ap-
pear, for the world is then 900 900 miles nearer
the sun. Three thousand degrees Fahrenhelt
decomposes water, and this heat can readily be
produced with the large mirrors, 100000 OF
which. one foot square, will run the largest
engine in the world. In the West the process
of concentrating the suns rays Will be OF I'M
mense benefit. Statistics show that there are
over a million square miles of territory in the
United States where there is, on an average,
but one cloudy day in a month for eight months
in the year. All the rest are clear. Inc
heat produced by the acknowledgements
mirrors will do more work in fifteen minute
than can ordinarily be done in a day, and q
days steady work will outstrip q weeks pro-
gress by other methods.
The heat-mirrors Will make ice az easily as
they will melt steel. A few large-si2ed ones
will operate "a machine large enough to usher
into existence 100 tons Of ice a day. 1t is tht
intention of the Inventor to vigorously protec,
his patent and shortly begin the manufacture
of his mi. ror furnace. Probably he will make
q lot of tho smaller Kind, convenient for tour
lists, which can be packed away In a trunk and
vet be large enough to do all the cooking FOL
the party in a few minutes.
The heat from tho mirrors can be thrswn
long distance. Mr.. OalVer says he can make
heat powerful enough to M melt line me S 80 nns.o o.