The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-23
RIMENTS WITH SUNSHINE.

and day. A vast proportion of this energy
is radiated back into space unused by
man.
EXPERIMENTS WITH SUNSHINE.
If a way could be found to utilize this
vast food of energy that comes with the
sunlight clearly we might snap our fingers
at the coal beds Everybody knows from
his own experience how powerful the heat
ing power of the suns rays are when
brought to a focus with a magnifying
glass, and the classical story of Archimedes
setting fire to the Roman fleet off Syracuse
with a concave system of steel mirrors
whether true or noD illustrates another
way in which the suns rays may be gath
cred This latter way has been thought
by engineers more available for their pur-
pose and some very remarkable results
have been attained by various experiments
with concave mirrors or systems of fiat
mirrors arranged to bring the light to
common focus. With such system Burton
set fire to plank at a distance Oh lou
feet. More recently another Frenchman,
Villette by name, has experimental with
concave mirror forty-seven inches IN d.
ameter in the focus Of which, when eX-
posed to the sum- iron ore was melted in
twenty-four seconds, cast iron in sixteen
seconds silver sixpence in seven seconds,
and tin in four seconds; while an emerald
was melted into a state like turquoise and
diamond lost seVen-eighths OF its
weight"
But perhaps the most practical of the eX-
periments that have been made in this di-
rection are those of NJ. Mouchot, in France.
and of John Ericsson, the famous builder of
the Monitor in America Each OF these IN
ventors strove to make a sun motor that
should be practically available for running
an engine and both were entirely successful
in the effort, Mouchot producing a system
of mirrors that would rapidly Doll water,
and Ericsson one that, under a clear SKY,
ran an engine with perfect regularity at Z4O
revolutions per minute, hour after hour But
of these sun motors was the very tangible
one that, counting the cost or construction,
they cannot compete with the energy stored
in coal even when the latter Is used as
wastefully as we now use it. So the world
regarded these engines as little better than
toys, and only here and there an lnVesu-
gator has thought 1t worth WhlIe TO take
up the work which the death or ericsson,
in 1885, interrupted.
But the recent report which estimates the
decay of our anthracite trade In the next
generation serves to recall Erlcsson's proph-
ecy that some day the 'ccal Will become as
rare as diamonds and that then the great
industrial centers of Europe and America
will decline in power, while manufacturers
will flock to such tropical regions as upper
Egypt, where a ''neVer-ceaSlng sun power
would be available for running their en-
gines Should that prediction be fulhlled 1t
will no longer be westward, put equator
ward, that the course of empire Will take its
way, and the Egyptian OF the future, Iulflll-
ing MacauleyS forecast, may fanSack the
ruins of Westminster abbey with the same
ANTIQUARIAN interest with which the Euro
pean archeologist of to-day ransacks the
sarcophagi of Egypt.
But there are two or three other possible
sources of energy which Ericsson, with all
his Imagination, overlooked in making this
forecast and it is not unlikely that these
may be called on to avert the disaster which
the great engineer predicted. Even now. Tor
example, engineers are Harvesting Mag
ara" and in an emergency this and other
waterfalls could make amends for a vast
deficit in the coal supply. But the power Of
Niagara is mere bagatelle compaFea WIN
another source of water power which until
recently has beer utterly neglected The
tides which ceaseessly oscillate in our
oceans. under stress of the moons attrac-
ton, have power which could we harness
1t, would run all the machinery of the world
as readily as a locomotive could haul a
toothpick. All this tremendous power IS
going to waste, but of late more than one
engineer has been asking how it might be
utilized, and now that we know how 10 store
energy in batteries and to transmit it TO
distance along wires there is little doubt
that human ingenuity would in time find
a way of Harvesting the tides and max
ing them do all the work of the world,
should the exhaustion of the coal supply
give sufficient incentive.