The Portland daily press., 1897-09-07

fro. Another curiosity is the 1nyentlon
of a FrenrhmaR named Teller. His idea
is to make building with double roof
-one roof OF glass and the other OF metal
the latter being beneath. The heat gath
cred between the roofs evaporates
ammonia, the expansion of which works
an engine. The ammonia may be con-
densed and reused Indefinitely, pumping
it back over the roof
III. Mouchon Is said to have constructed
a really practical solar machine for the
purpose of distilling water in regions
where supply for drinking cannot easily
be obtained. The apparatus is portable,
being carried on the back of man with
out trouble. 1t will distil two and half
enough to supply six or eight men. In
Egypt, India and certain other parts OF
the world campaigning is rendered much
more difficult by lack of drinking water,
and contrivance of this sort is likely to
be of the utmost value, furnishing the
essential fluid in q healthful state and en-
abling the soldiers to cook their food
rapidly. In some countries it lie out of
the question to get good drinking water.
In Alden, for example, the sun always
shines, and all water for drinking has to
be distilled.
Elaborate experiments with solar engines
have been made by the French in Algeria,
where the sun shines at all times and with
great power. The best apparatus was
found to be a simple arrangement OF
boiler and concave mirror, the steam gen.
Grated being conpensed in coiled tube
surrounded by water. This was for dis
filling water merely. In India an inven-
tor named Adams has obtained some very
interesting results with machines of his
own continuance. One of these is cook
ing box, made of wood and lined with re-
tiecting mirrors. At the bottom of the
box is a small copper boiler, covered
concentrated by mirrors upon the boiler.
In this continuance any sort of food may
be quickly cooked. If the steam is re-
tanned, the result is a. stew or boil; il
allowed to escape. it is bake. The
rations of seven men can be prepared in
two hours, including meats. The heat
maybe augmented Indefinitely by in
creasing the diameter of the box.
Mr.. Adams accomplished some ex-
traordinary things by arranging mirrors
on the method which Archimedes is said
to have employed for the purpose of set
ting fire to the Roman fleet when the lat
ter was blockading the city of Syracuse.
He managed to get focus at distance
of twenty feet, obtaining an enormously
high temperature. At the distance men
toned he was able to ignite wood in
degrees Fahrenheit or thereabout. He
boiled nine gallons of water in thirty
minutes, evaporating four gallons of it.
He claimed that with five hundred
mirrors he could produce a temperature
of 1900 degrees. There was no limit to
the number Of mirrors, and none to the
intensity of heat obtained, or to the force
next to nothing and was almost everlast-
ing. Clouds might interfere with its USE
fulness at times, but, employed as an
auxiliary to ordinary boilers, 1t would
save twenty five per cent of fuel.9
The printing press already referred to
was run at a fete at the Tuileries, in 1882,
an apparatus for the concentration an d
utilization of the sun S heat being placed
on exhibition. 1t consisted of great re-
f1ector-a hollow cone ten feet long,
which concentrated the rays of the sun
upon boiler. The steam from the boiler
actuated an engine which ran the press
and printed little newspaper set up for
the occasion and called the Soleil Jour
nal. During the last century, by the way,
anenormous lens was made in France
All the heat falling upon it was concen-
trated on smaller lens, and so on until
iron and gold were molten and ran like
melted butter. At about the same time
a burning glass; of huge size was made
in England for the emperor of China. 1t
was three feet in diameter. The emperor,
however, suspected that it was magical
and SO had it buried.
The action of the sun on the atmosphere
of the earth may be considered as the
operation of solar machine, the result
being movements of the air.. e., wind
Thus every windmill is worked by the
sun in reality, though indirectly. Pro-
lessor Cleveland Able of the Weather
Bureau says that solar pumps could IN
doubtedly be used for irrigatio and for
other purposes, but windmills are much
cheaper. This newspaper is printed by
sunbeams which fell upon the earth ever
SO many centuries before man was first
born. The paper on which these words
are marked was made from material
grown by the sun. With little trouble
taken in calculating, the amount of solar
radiation expended In turning out todays
edition of the Transcript could be stated
with approximate accuracy.
It, is reckoned that the heat of the sun
would sufficiently warm and illumfne
1000, 600, 000aglobes as big as our earth.
The solar orb shrinks in diameter at the
rate of about ten inches per diem. It
will be 1000, 900 or 5, 000, 900 years before
there is any perceptible diminishment Of
Its radiation. Eventually, of course, it
must become dead and cold like the
moon.