The morning times., 1896-07-12
WATER OUR FUTURE FUEL
Coal Too Rapidly Exhausted
to Last Much Longer.
UTILIZING WAVE POWER
Ocean Bill0wS to PrOSel Vessels and
Give Mariners Warning of Ap-
preaching Storms.
UTILIZING WAVE POWER

thority, but there are very eCod reasons
tor doubling Mr.. Edison's conclusions.
1t is true that recent discoveries and ini-
proyements in the methods OF electric light
ing give decided promise that this ''mys-
terious CURRENT will soon take its place
III the trout rauk of public and private IL
Elimination, and that gas, Which now holds
first rank, may shortly he feieSated to tie
rear end of the procession in that respect.
The New Jersey scientist, Moore, recently
demonstrated, at the New York Electrical
Exposition, that his brand OF electric light
isby far and away superior TO othatrurnisl:ed
blythe ordinary arCo rinca ndescent methods.
Both Edison and Tesla are literally working
night and day on the same problem that
Moore seen,s TO have satisfactorily solved,
and they are confident OF complete success
in the very near future.
That there is a very extensive field in
which coal gas has as yet no successful
rival is Individually true, and the gas COM
panies may he depended upon TO promptly
occupy that field, II electricity drives them
from their original business. And if tile gas
companies compete for hC3incSs as fuel
producers they can easily distance
all rivals. They have their great plants
and extensive mains ana facilities for fur
nishing the product 10 nearly every house
hold and public building in tie country
and the fact is well established that they
can deliver fuel gas at good profitfo for one
third the prizes that now obtain in the ma
iority of cities.
COAL SUPPLY VANISHING.
While IN this Z untry and many others
coal is abundant, in Others, notably in
Great Britain, coal veins are being rapid
ly worked out, or are only reached at such
increasing depths that prices have already
terribly advanced, and the next genera
ton will surely have to face the prospect
of practically total exhaustion.
So, too. i'll several other countries. The
great centers OF in iustr J in Belgium, + rance
and Germany must come To the end Of
these resources in this respect before the
end of the next century. Without an ade-
quate substitute Industrial ruin must over
whelm them.
As i'll the political, SO in the industrial
and scientific worlds, there are not want
ing ''prnphetS OF evir' who make haste to
predict fearful dis ls5ers to mankind in GER
tain evenUualitIes. The most conspicu-
Gas and, witnal. dismal OF these is Prof.
Tnurstun of Cornell University. who. a
few years since, in a lengthy and laborcd
essay. pictured To our arirightcd imagina-
tions the wnes that woaii result from the
exhaustion of coal.
Not content with vividly presenting the
disasters following such exhaustion with
in from one hun iral To a Thousand years,
lie rubbed il in so to speak. by scen-
tifc:lly demonstrating that in the vast
aeons OF time to come even the sin HIM
saf, from whom all blessings in the form
- light an | heif We exp DrT!eEcc. have flow
AMI colt,fGe nov "a flow, mus; cycntu-
ally pale lis Intellectual fires" grow
cold AMI colder. at frs tIr, q aiI rnanfinf
from the temae:lte % the tori : Enlr, t'I"-e
To- exc nEt Il chilly and torpid existence.
until the last man shall Stiffeu and. final
". be envelg9cd in mountains of ice and
snow. without even the poorest chance
tat ne viii at some future period be re-
leased again by the disS,lvin.- srows. to
become Zoo for tie rlTen1uS 70 rs. wolves
and bears. have been his great prcs!e-
ceSsors, the mastodons of remote an
tiguity.
This awful crntingercy IS so remote,
however. that n nerusal of tie professors
article wonli not produce the slightest
shiver in the reader. even with the ther-
mometer dallvinC about the 1GO degree
mark in t'c shade. unless. indeed. he were
gifted with the mira aculous sympathetic
smotionalism which moved Mark Twain
tntearS at the grave of his remote ancestor,
Adam.
WATER TO BURN.
There Will aiwIys uGuttess be Il super
fluity Of pessimistS rs !Cng rs mankind eX-
Ists. Nevertheless the cptimists must al
ways remain in the great H. jority and they
will find many good and sufficient rea-
Sens 10 strengthen them in their faith.
Never. while the earth exists, will it lack |
FOR an abundant source of fuel. This great
globe is twc-thirds enNeloped with an in |
exhaustible store Of fuel in many places five |
or six miles in depth.
When il is rpmeInl cred that watpr is Cnly |
\ compound of two single gases hydrogen |
and oxygen in the proportion Of twoof the |
latter to one Of the former. by weight teight |
ofhydrugen to one OF oxygen by volumeI and |
that the burning of these gases in the same |
proportions produces water again with the |
production of heat more intense than we |
can obtain by any other agency. save only |
that Of the electric arc that Gre pound OF |
water in tine form of these two gases will |
develop more heatthan ten pounds of coal |
II will be seen how absurd are the scientific |
tol specuiations concerning the frightful re- |
suits which must follow the exhaustion OF |
the worlds supply Of coal fuel.
While these facts are undeniahle as to |
the potential superiority of water as a fuel |
md while it is also uBquestiuned that there |
exists several processes for decomposing |
water into its constituent gases. none of |
them are sufficiently economical to render |
them CGfltGflbilN pT1llIII ne tlbtlTltdl
current will decompuse water, hut the same |
current will produce more light and heat
hy prevailing methods than the resulting
gases could supply. The same is true If
any of the chemical processes usually en-
ployed to produce hydrogen and oxygen |
from water. The application of heat will
will produce the critical point at which |
water is converted into its gases. but
the same objection applies here.
Who will discover a process for decom-
posing water that is economical and con
-venient? Fame and fortune await the IN I
vcntor In the meantime coal performs
tina t INDISPENSABLE office for mankind hut
# only yields up about one-tenth of its tile
orctical value.
Meantime the eager Guest goes on for a
substitute for coal as n prime mover Power
comes high, but we must have it.
CONCERNING THE TIDES.
An English scientific journal notes the
utilization of the tides, with their steady
rise and fall in neighboring country,
and pertineDtly asks why the numerous
places on the English coast where it would
be easy to employ them, might not be avail
ed OF. II can uuquestionably be done. but
the method suggested will only defer the
time when u better substitute may he
found.
There is bundance o power in most coun- |
tries III rivers and waterfalls: but the re-
cent advances in methods of long distance
of electric currents have
caused many of the best of them 10 he e gath-
cred in by capitalists and corporations.
as in the Instance of Niagara.
which has been absorbed Tor the American
side OF it) by the great Morgan syndicate,
which impounded the worlds flow of G Did
aud turned it into Uncle Sam's Golfers at
G nice little profit Of $1O,O0O,oOO 10 $15,-
BOO 900.