The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-07-05
EARTH's PRODUCTIVE ENERGY
NikOIa Tesla's Views on Probabilities
of Fertilization by Use of
Natural Forces,

Energy" with special reference to the
Harvesting of the suns energy, is dis
cussed in the Century, by Nikola Tesla.
ITO increase materially the produc-
tivity of the soil, it must be more effec-
lively fortified by artificial means.
The question of food production re-
solves itself, then, into the question
how best to fertilize the soil What it
is that made the soil is still mystery.
To explain its origin is probably equiv
alent to explaining the origin of life
itself. The rocks, disintegrated by
moisture and heat andwind and wealth
er, were in themselves not capable of
maintaining life. Some unexplained
condition arose, and some new princi-
pie came into effect, and the first layer
capable of sustaining low organisms,
like MOSES, was formed. These, by
their life and death, added more of the
DEMONSTRATING quality to the soil, and
higher organisms could then subsist,
and so on and on, until at last highly
developed plant and animal life could
flourish. But though the theories are,
even now, not in agreement as to how
fertilization is effected. it is fact, only
too well ascertained, that the soil can
not indefinitely sustain life, and that
some way must be found to supply it
with the substances which have been
distracted from it by the plants. The
chief and most valuable among
these substances are compounds of nj
trogen, and the chief production of
these is, therefore, the key for the So
luton of the all-important food prob
lem. Our atmosphere contains an in
exhaustible supply of nitrogen, and
could we but oXidize it and produce
these compounds, an incalculable ben
eft for mankind would follow.
Long ago this idea took powerful
hold on the Imagination of scientific
men. but an efficient means for accom-
plishing this result could not be de-
vised. The problem was rendered ex-
tremely difficult by the extraordinary
inertness of the nitrogen, which re-
fuses to combine even with oxygen. But
here electricity comes to our aid; the
dormant affinities of the elements are
d dhCllCu ny al CltCIllC VI lue
proper qualities. \
''In the manufacture of nitrogen
compounds by this method, of course,
every possible means bearing upon the
intensity of this action and the eff
cheney of the process will be taken adj
vantage of, and, besides, special ar
engagements will be provided for the
fiXation of the compounds formed, as
they are generally unstable, the nitro
gen becoming again inert after little
lapse of time. Steam is simple and eff
fective means for fixing permanently
the compounds. The result illustrated
makes it practicable to oXidize the at
mospheric nitrogen in unlimited guam
titles, merely by the use of cheap me-
chanical power and simple electrical
apparatus. In this manner many COM
pounds of nitrogen may be manufac-
tured all over the world, at a small
cost, and in any desired amount, and
by means of these compounds the soil
can be fortified and its productiveness
indefinitely increased. An abundance
of cheap and healthful food, not arti-
| fetal, but such as we are accustomed
| to, may thus be obtained. This new
and inexhaustible source of food sup
ply will be of incalculable benefit to
mankind, for it will enormously con-
tribute to the increase of the human
mass, and thus add immensely to hui
man energy. Soon, 1 hope, the world
will see the beginning of an industry
which, in time to come, will, believe,
be in Importance next to that of iron"