Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-10-30
WASHINGTON LETTER.
The Sunshine Man Revolution
Achieved in the Mining
Country.
How The Volume Of Gold Will Be Du-
plieated-The Other Benefits.
special Correspondents OF the Gazette.

Special Correspondence OF the Gazette.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26.-No patent
ed device, for years past, has excited
such keen interest among mechani-
clans as Calver's solar heating and
lighting apparatus. 1t costs about ten
dollars per horse power, and will last
as long as wood AID glass in the shape
Of unused household furniture.
j recur to this invention
because Western miners have
been induced TO build a working
model to be used not only in reducing
ores, but in carrying out great stones
from mountain sides by sheer force of
pencils of light and heat concentrated
upon collaborating and other stones.
Conscious that information on this
subject would interest keenly readers
of THE GAZETTE In mining regions AS
well as those living where fuel is scarce
and where the sun shines most
brilliantly, and where its
heat may be collected and
stored by the devices of this in
ventor, / have thought It advisable to
advert to Mr. Calver's more recent dis.
coveTies and inventions in this broad
field OF inquiry and experiment.
Experts of the signal Office say that
in the Southwest and West the sun
shines on an average ten hours in each
twenty-four through the year. Gu
riously enough, the sun shines most
and rains and clouds are least where
fuel is COZ titst. / cannot
doubt, after witnessing Experiments
on several occasions, that the solar
heat, stored in clay or ashes, will be
used instead Of wood or coal fires in
prOpelling locomotives from Fort
Worth To San Francisco.
WESTERN MINERS.
But the great beneiiciaries of Mr..
Calver's discoveries are Western min.
ers. So cheap is this solar heat, thus
concentrated, and so efficient and its
use so practicable and profitable, that
the principal owner Of the best mine
In the Black Hills declares that this
invention will triple the products Of
his mine and quartz mills. Very many
mines, now not productive enough
to be worked, because of their cost of
fuel required in smelling the ores, will
become most valuable when heat costs
practically nothing. The wood used
by the great Comstock mine costs $l2
per cord, and yet a railway was built
to supply the mine with this fuel. In
many mining districts the ore is carried
to railroad and conveyed long dis
tances TO be smeltsd. In other words,
1t is hauled to the fuel, and this fuel in
Denver or in San Francisco is
most costly. How enormous the sums
saved IL this but were drawn from the
heavens and with mirrors concentrated
on the quartz. Then only gold and
silver need be shipped and not the
earth or stones containing it. 10 is be-
lieved that Mr.. Calver's invention will
double the silver and gold products OF
the country.
But we should not forget that the
masses of the people and miners, like
the rest OF us, reject everything new
however simple and ingeni
ouH. All miners are welded tc
habits involving infinite waste of tot
and money, and they will be very 10th
to abandon coal and wood, in which
God stored the heat, in order to draw
1t from the sun, heretofore conteni
plated by the multitude simply az {
luminous body. But 1t seems tina
coal pits are to be closed and heat al
we'll as light for mankind must comt
directly from the sun.