Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-10

returned, or the loss of the structure.
Still, so far as their knowledge of forces
went, their method was logical enough and
was entirely in keeping with their environ
ment. But now, leaving the dam out Of
the case, simply throw a wheel with ample
blades on the current, hold it there, let ir
be 20, 30, 40 or 60 feet in length, as the
case may call for. 1t would turn with .
force proportioned to the velocity of tho
current and the amount of surface against
which the current would exert itself There
might be gangs or strings of such wheels, as
the water in its flow, having turned the
first wheel, would in no way be incapaci-
tated from turning a succession of wheels
Drums A1oas ON the Water.
These wheels may be water-tight drums
and thus be rendered buoyant, with attach
| ment similar to common feld roller, or
they may be erected on fats, but in any
case must be securely anchored in position.
Their force can readily be communicated to
the shore in a variety of ways, where their
separate forces may be combined to run .
| single large dyamo, or as many smaller
dynamos, all concentrating their currents
to be carried over wires to such point as
| needed.
1t would be only simple matter to pro-
duce specially adapted wheels for this pur-
pose, the trouble being rather in selecting
from the many forms that suggest them
| selves 1t is not maintained that any of
the methods here suggested may not be i'm
| proved on, the purpose being not so much
to advocate any particular plan as to call
attention to the paramount fact that great
field lies almost entirely uninvaded, so far
as utility is concerned, along the lines OF
i more modern conceptions of hydro-dyna-
mics and electro conversion.
Yes, there will be kicking, to which the
propulsion executed by Texas steer would
| cut but sorry figure, for new idea to your
| average human has much the same effect as
| has a red bandana on male of the Spanish
bovine species. Anyone that has seen a
ferry boat operated from cable and trolley
wheel, with the vessel held slanting to the
current, will see that the same current
might have propelled a fleet of boats Just
as readily as the one. Nor would it be
necessary to first carry the power to the
shore with belts or shatting.
More Power Than Pittsburg Uses.
The dynamo might be placed on a float
right alongside and the electric current be
cabled direct from the wheels with over
head wires out of the way of vessels on nav
igable rivers. The annual expenditure Of
force in river currents, 20 miles above and
20 miles below Pittsburg, exceeds
in horse power all the force gen.
eraLeQ Dy steam IN Allegheny county.
Here is most inviting field awaiting the
invasion of the intelligent engineer; here is
an inexhaustible source and quantity Of
power, a harvest over-ripe; do we not know
enough to thrust our sickles into the field
and reap?
Here is power whose generator Is ths
sun, and for the little that harnessing need
cost, for the cheapness with which it is
afforded, we could well afford to lie over
during the ice period, although that would
be easily avoidable.
The great fact to be impressed is that here
is vast natural force requiring neither
mining, blasting, lifting nor hauling-the
clean thing, without the usual tax encum-
brances which the handling and transporta-
tion of all avoirdupois involves-and since
we now know something of the inter-con-
vertibility of force, since we can trans
form it to ether forms of energy that are
readily and economically transmissible, let
US agitate the matter, let us discuss it, let
us exchange thought on the subject, and let
us act. The Ohio river at Cincinnati repre-
sents the drainage of 10000 square miles,
on which is delivered annually about 292,-
723, 200, 900 tons of precipitation, very
large percentage of which force is gathered
together, concentrated and represented in
minor streams and rivers, and nearly all
ost
1t Really Looks Absurd.
What do we do? We go down into the
bowels of the earth at vast expense and risk
of human life and mine coal, we build towns
and cities on territory belonging to water
ways, that we may have water in abund-
ance and take the chances of frequent dam
aging inundations; there we erect furnaces
and proceed to burn the coal to cook water
in cylindrical iron kettles known as boilers,
and with the steam thus generated, we do
our manufacturing.
We are all familiar with the old ditty
that represents yankee Doodle" as having
been unable to see the town on account Of
SO many houses and we are at that identical
stage with reference to force. We cannot
see force because of the amazing quantity
that seems to bar all vision. We are doing
even worse than they who paid 81 25 per
bushel for coal to pump oil wells, when
each well had natural gas enough to run
half o dozen wells. We squat down on the
margins of rivers so as to have the water
handy with which to cook force with coal,
while in every hour more force is going past
than we can make in a week, and force too
that is nearly as cheap as the air we breathe.
pear to our successors, without expensive
methods of cookery along
streams, while the streams seem to say,
i'Blockheads! Why don't you hitch onto
US direct? Don't you see that we are just
wasting the very thing you are after, spoil
ing with it? Do you think you can COM
pete with Old Sol, the god of day? Why,
LII the furnaces on the earth to his, are not
10 much as friction match to volcanol
You make Us tired gazing at your ignor-
lnce"
A Solution OF the Smoke Problem. -
But while it is true that this force could
lot be made available IN some industries,
specially such as involve chemical action
wrought by intense heat, yet those that are
,ased on fashioning merely, on mechanical
ction chiefly, would all fall within the
ines indicated. The earth and the heavens
would to much lesser degree be polluted
With soot-imperfect coribustion-and in
many indirect ways there would be accru-
ng benefits
May Some Time Store the Energy.
'But," says an objector, ''these rivers all
ave their low stages, when their force is at
minimum-what them" Well, the fact
J, they have theu about all and probably
1ore force than we need, and the harvest
ng of this force can go on perpetually, and
y the time the new order is fairly under
Tay, necessity will stimulate Improvements
4 storage of force, so that, when the hourly
altering is not SO mnch as we need, the
orce in stock can be drawn on.
The unvarnished truth of the matter Is
re are laying ourselves open to reproach in
1e scientific future, whose dawn is already
ilding the intellectual heavens. We shall
e referred to as having occupied about the
lme plane, and as having had about the
lme conception in mechanics, hydro