Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-30
WEATHER MADE TO ORDER.
A pipe Line to Convey Cold and Warm
Currents.

WEATHER MADE TO ORDER.
pipe Line to Convey Cold and Warm
Currents.
From the New York Herald.
A bold and daring electrical engineer of
London, in an article written for one of the
London technical papers, has advanced the
proposition that a few years hence making
rain by electricity will be regarded as no
more wonderful than the endeavor 20 sup
ply the motive power for the machinery
of a half dozen states from Niagara is to-
day. Nor does he see any reason why the
climate should not be modified by the same
agency.
The author Of the article, Mr.. Sidney F.
Walker, is among the younger and more
daring of English electricians He declares
that. Judged by the age of other branches
of science, electricity is still an infant, with
all its manhood's work yet to accomplish"
! He declares that the future Of electricity
holds in view, first, the gradual utilization
| of the forces of nature known as wind and
water power,to the gradual displacement Of
| coal. At irregular periods the world is
startled by the cry, what will become of
US when our coal supply fails?" Long be-
fore that period is reached, Mr.. Walker as
serts, coal itself will have to fight for its
life as an industrial product, just as gas
is now doing, the antagonist being wind
and water power, delivered where required
| in the shape of electrical energy.
In speaking of this idea, as well as 9TH
ers advanced by Mr.. Walker. Prof. F. B.
Croker of Columbia College said:
Il do not know that clearly understand
the tropics to modify the temperature Of
colder chimes. The suggestion may be SIM
ply to utilize the heat Of the SUMS rays
by means of a solar engine for the Gre
a nf ola trio In
mitted long distances. You know in the
tropics, where the suns rays are intense,
the solar energy develops a force Of about
one horse power to each square yard of
Guns action Is very nearly continuous in
the day time. and but little interrupted
by clouds. this force is fairly reliable.
But 1t seems to me there may be a
much simpler device than this for modify
ing the climate. The simplest device would
be to pump hot air from the tropical zone
circle. 1t would not be difficult. nor would
1t be very expensive TO construct steel
tube system of sufficient diameter TO some
what modify the climate of the eastern
seaboard.
For example, a thin steel tube, say four
or five feet in diameter, would convey an
enormous quantity of air. One has really
no idea Of what this quantity would be
until one stops to figure it out.
Like Piping OIL.
systems now in use. Oil is piped long dis
tances from the oil wells of Pennsylvania,
and similarly natural gas is piped long dis
tances. Now it would be Just as easy and
just ss feasible to pipe air as Oil or gas.
THE distance, too. Is not SO very great.
l have been surprised to find how short a
line would serve for this purpose. If it
extended from within the tropical zone to
within the arctic zone 1t would more than
a rnU1nnn mi 70 dCfit <yfe
only an eighth of a circle. 1t would be only
about three thousand miles long. do not
think that 1t would require a pipe of more
than four or five feet in diameter, and the
pipe could be built of thin steel and need
not be expensive. Such a line would not
be nearly so costly to build and equip as
terial difficulties. 1t would be the simplest
of mechanical problems, and the right of
way would not be expensive.
For motive power some out-of-the-way
waterfall could be utilized, SO that the ex-
pense of operation need not be very great.
Il know all such suggestions as these are
generally looked Upon as coming from a
wild-eyed lGnatic. But there is really moth
ing half SO daring In this suggestion as
was the idea OF laying a cable under the
Atlantic. The difficulties to be overcome
were greater then than any difficulties with
which this enterprise would meet. We go
to great deal of expense to secure pure
water for use in New York city. 1 don't
see why it would not be just as feasible
" ptoNiue medDS lOT ifSSIl ana al the
same time modify the rigors of our eli
mate. OF course, the original heat or cold
might be lost in transmission, but the air
would always produce heat where 1t is
compressed and cold where it expanded"
The Heated Air of Cities.
asked Prof. Crocker why his idea could
not be Immediately applied on a small scale
to bring fresh air in the summer time from
Coney Island or the seasnore. He replied:
1T could. 1t would be a very simple
thing to construct pipe line from the
seashore with vents along Broadway or
any other points desired, at intervals of
half mile or so, and send fresh air through
the streets and make New York quite a
seaside resort.
This, however, would afford only tenn
porary relief. 1t would scarcely be feasible
to attempt to seriously control the climate
except over wide areas. 1t would have to
be done by national, rather than state or
municipal, action, and would probably re-
quire cooperation between this govern
ment and the Canadian and Mexican gov
ernments. Such a pipe line as 1 have de-
the very cold regions Of the far north clear
into the tropics. This would enable US at
will to draw cold air from the north and
warm air from the south. In this way we
could probably pretty effectively, too con-
troll the rainfall. At least we could turn
on cold blast when We needed rain, and
hot blast when we wanted to keep it
away. It would certainly require a huge
system, something very much larger than
anything here outlined, to stop blizzard.
But science today is more daring than
- IT.