Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-12-03

Thomas 4. Edison PN1icts New Source
Of PtSsr.

il Of Pexer.
Thomas A. Edison believes that the
j world is on the eve of some astonish-
] ing advances in the art of power de-
velopment; that certain theoretical
and fundamental facts are soon to be
made of commercial use In. ways that
wifi amount to a revolution of life and
industry almost as great as was
brought about by the steam engine or
the telegraph or the telephone or the
dynamo.
Some of the scientists" he says.
have been specializing as to what the
world will do for power when its sup
ply of coal has been burned up. At
the same time the commercial invent
ors of this age are working hard to find
out practical solutions of this problem
and there is not the slightest doubt in
my mind that more than one method
| for getting great deal more power than
| we shall ever need will be practically
and successfully worked out long be-
| fore there will be actual necessity for
decreasing coal consumption. SO long
as the sun shines man will be able to
develop power in abundance, no matter
whether there are coal mines or not.
and when its rays have been quenched
power will no longer be needed. 1t is
| from the sun. in fact, that we get all
our power now. for coal is only stored
sunshine and the rays that fall upon
the earth's surface today are as full of
power as ever they were.
| ENGINES RUN BY STEAM HEAT.
John Ericsson showed by his ex
periments with the sun engine, on
which he was working when he died,
| that each square yard of the earth $
surface receives sufficient heat from
| the sun. when its rays fall perpen-
| dicularly through a dry atmosphere.
| to make enough steam to run an en-
CINE of one-horse power. The only OBJ
stacle to the direct use of the sun S
concentrated rays for the purpose of
making power in this latitude lies in
| the fact, that excepting in midsum-
mer, the sunshine does not fall verti-
eally, but at an angle. There are many
days when the sun does not shine at
all, and many more on which its rays
have to pass through an atmosphere
filled With an invisible vapor that alb
serbs great portion of their heat be-
fore they ever reach the earth. On
| the desert sands of Africa, and in some
parts of our own Southwest. Where the
sun shines unnterruptedly through dry
air. the use of its rays in this manner
would be more practica bic. OF course,
| the amount of power that is theoreti-
| eally available in this way is almost
| al inp-ar1p1ycr oh r,1tll1 "a
got from the desert parts of the earth
alone to operate the machinery of many
worlds like This
| ALMOST TOO VAST FOR BELIEF.
No one who has not familiarized
himself with the experiments of the
scientists along these lines can COM
prehend the possibilities of the scheme
for getting power direct from the sum
shine. AS matter of fact, ii is pos
sible to get enough power from the
suns rays that fall on territory no
larger than Manhattan Island. and
much smaller than the area of Chica
go. to operate all the machinery of the
world"
If, as Ericsson demonstrated. heat
enough to make horse power may be
developed from each square yard. from
one square mile enough may he col
lected to makeas many horse power as
there are square yards in a mile, or s.,
0S9, 800. At the outside the city of New
York does not use more than 100000
horse power and this amount would
operate all its cable electric. horse and
elevated cars haul all its trucks and
| Nd oil u. .
gnes. all the tugs and ferry boats in
it's 'harbor and all its other machinery
Of every kind. Chicago probably uses
little less. Paris about the same and
London about twice as much. or say
100000 altogether. These four great
cities. then. use more than a million
less horse power, altogether, than one
square mile would produce.
MANHATTAN ISLANDS POWER
SUPPLY
Now, Manhattan Island contains %
square miles, and such an area ac-
cording to the calculations just made,
absorbs enough heat to make 67.971 200
horse power. whenever the sunshine
falls directly and unimpededly upon
ii. Twenty-Five square miles of terri
tory on Sahara, or even in Arizona
could furnish all the power humanity
has use for at this stage of its indus
trial development.
But it would be useless to develop
power in those regions, remote from
the centers of industry and ciyiliza-
ton, unless some scheme were per-
fected to apply the power at the points
where it is most needed. To the lay
mind the electric storage battery sug-
sests, itself as available for this pur-
pose, but Mr.. Edison holds that in the
present imperfect. development of this
contrivance transmission by copper
wires would be far more practicab BILE
Although the greatest possibilities in
the way of changing sunshine into
power exist in the dry and sunny
south there are great possibilities even
in the latitude of New York and Chi
oago. Suppose. for the sake of argu-
ment. that there isan average of clear,
direct sunshine of only one hour a day
the year through. That would he 300
hours of 30 working days (holidays not
counted(. and a square mile of terri
tory would. therefore, produce the