The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-08-10
SUNSHINE IN Bottles.
A Washington Inventor Has Device
for Keeping Solar
Rays on Tap.

earth during the cold night has been
invented by a resident of Washington,
William Calver, whose claims are that
the machines will do away with the
use of all present illuminants or the ne
cessity of heating by artificial means.
MIR. Calver's machine utilities die heat
and light of the sun in such a way that
the portion of the solar rays which is
poured down on a given space during
cloudless weather may be stored up for
the future and taken advantage of on
dark or cold days. He declares that he
can turn out power in such quantities
that machinery, which must now be run
with steam generated by a fire. can be
used by the adoption of this stored heat,
which will accomplish every purpose
to which the fire under Il boiler is now
put.
The light of the sun is the strongest
known in degrees of brightness.
Though 95,O0O,OO0 miles away, its radi-
ance is far above anything ever accom-
plished in the way of artificial light,
and is more than equal to 1905, 100000
of billions of candle power-candle
power measure being the degree of
light furnished by a sperm candle one
sixteenth of a pound in weight.
That the vast energy of the sun is
simply being wasted, as far as any util-
ization of it in mechanics is concerned,
is a fact that has long been acllnowl-
edged, and though many have sought
for ages to construct some machine
which could be practical-some inyen-
ton which would use this heat in doing
the work of the world-no advance has
ever been made in that direction which
led to any useful result. August 8, 1882,
there was an experiment made in
France by which Abel Pifre successful
ly printed a paper by a machine which
was run by solar heat, but the work
seems to have been dropped at that
stage.
His machine consisted of a large horn
like disk nearly - feet in diameter, this
throwing the rays down into a mirror,
by which they were concentrated be-
meath a boiler in which enough water
was heated to generate good steam.
This boiler was connected with a Mar
conf press, which ran by this means all
the afternoon, printing 500 copies of
paper which was called the Journal of
the Sun.
Mr.. Calyer, who has taken out many
patents for his invention, says his ma
chine will store up the radiant energy
4 L., Il, i
vast quantities in bright weather, and
release it in any desired quantities on
dark nights and cold days. This bot
tied sunshine, which is caught by the
meshes of science in the summer, can
be put away in the storeroom, just as
canned goods are now kept, and it will
be on tap in January. The details of the
machine are fully given in the specifca-
tons of the patent, but are too tech
nical to be of popular interest.
The possibilities of machine that
will successfully utilize the rays of the
sun, transforming heat to power, are
almost beyond the Imagination. In
stead of gas bills and electric light bills
to worry the householder, all he would
have to do would be to see that the sun
shine machine had taken advantage of
the rays that warmed the days of June.
From the store ct sunshine thus aC-
cumulated he could supply his kitchen
range and his parlor stove with heat.
lie could apply the power derived from
the stored rays to running a motor that
would accomplish wonders in house
hold duties. He could illuminate his
house as brilliantly as he pleased
every night in the week without the
dread thought that the never-tiring
meter in the cellar was eating up his
income.
Applied to transportation, the sum
shine machine offers too a wondrous
horde of advantages. Heretofore the
great problem of the aerial navigator
all inventors are potentially aerial navi-
gators-has been to find a Rotor the
weight of which will not keep his ship
from sailing on the breezes. Electric
motors and the lightness of aluminium
have held out glowing promises, but
how much more could be accomplished
with stored sunshine.
Railroads, with no coal to buy, could
declare larger dividends. Farmers,
able to dispense with horses, could drive
their plows and thrashing machines
with stored sunshine, and could go to
market on week days and to church on
Sundays with old Sol safely hitched to
the farm conveYances.
If the invention of Mr.. Calver proves
to do all he claims for it, the art of war
may well be reVolutioni2ed. No longer
will it be necessary for the martins ma
tons to have coaling stations, and no
longer will wars be fought over the pos
session of small islands valuable only
for such purposes. When each man-of-
war carries its own machine for con-
densing the suns rays a vessel can re-
main away from port 100 days, 200 days,
or year for that matter. as long as pro-
visions last, cruising about the enemy's
coasts if necessary, no longer troubled
with the present great drawback to for
cign naval warfare, the difficulty of OBJ
tanning Il supply of coal.-Boston Her
aid.
sleeps Standing.
In one of the big circuses there IS a
big elephant that has not lain down for