El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-02-28

last is the sun harneSSed- A long
pole is reached to the glittering boiler
and soon begins to smoke and then
takes fire and bursts into flame. Evil
IDENTIFY it is hot up there, and this SIM
pie test carries conviction on that
point to the most unscientific mind.
In about one hour the intense heat
has raised the cold water to a high
temperature, evapOrated 1t into steam,
and a pressure of $50 pounds is shown
on the gage in the engine room. For.
be it understood, the solar motor is
not sun engine in the sense that it
is operated without the Intervention
of steam power. as the water wheel is
turned by the falling steam The sun
strikes the mirrors; the mirrors re-
fleet the heat upon the boiler; the
heat turns the water within the boiler
into steam; the steam passes from the
head of the boiler through a flexible
metallic pipe into the engine cylin-
ders; and from that point the process
is the operation of the familiar COM
pound engine and the centrifugal pump.
There is nothing occult, nothing new.
Every boy has felt the concentrated
heat of the sun gathered in the burn
ing glass held by a mischievous neigh
Dor, or had his eyes momentarily
blinded by the reflected light cast from
a hand mirror. These principles are
all old and known to us all. In the
solar motor they are applied on a 1arg-
err scale and made to perform useful
work in connection with the steam en-
CINE and the pump.
! Now that the thing is accomplished.
it does not seem at all extraordinary
that we have found a way to apply a
, little of the suns enormous heat to
actual economic uses. 1t marks but
one more step in the assertion of mans
control over the forces OF nature. Long
ago we harnessed the winds and the
waters. making them bear our burdens
and perform our tasks. More recently
and far more wonderfully. it seems to
me, we made the subtle currents of
electricity the doci1e servants of our
will. Science long since demonstrated
that the solar heat falling normally up
on four square feet OF surface during
one minute is equivalent to one horse
power. Prof. Langley, of the Smith
sonian institution. recalls the fact. in
his interesting work on the New AS
tronomy." that in the eighteenth CEN
fury Bernieres a Frenchman. and an
English optician named Parker. each
constructed burning glasses of great
size and power, under the Influence of
which Iron, gold and other metals ran
like melted butter" One Of these
glasses was presented to the Emperor
of China who was SO much alarmed at
it's performances that he had it buried
in the ground where it could work no
sinister miracle
The later efforts of Mouchot and of
Ericsson are well known. The former
exhibited a sun engine which operated
a printing press at the Paris EXPOSE
ton of 1870. while the architect OF the
famous Monitor brought his device SO
near perfection that scientific men be-
gan to build serious hopes on it in 1884.
But none of these inventions were able
to stand the test of application to ac-
tual commercial uses. They concen-
trated the rays of the sun. They made
steam They even drove engines. But
when brought to the crucial test of
practical. everyday useS-cheap manu-
facture, economical and continuous op-
eration-they failed. And SO it has
been with many other less celebrated
efforts.
While the present successful motor
has been developed in the fullest light
of existing scientific knowledge. the
solution of the problem is a triumph
of American genius, which has built a
successful device on the ashes of past
failures.
The usefulness of sun power will be
by no means limited to irrigation nor
should it be inferred by the size of the
present engine that ten-horse power
bounds it's possibilities. The new mo-
tor will be used for various Industrial
purposes and probably quite largely in
connection with mining. Plants of
1O0-horse power, with several refiectors
grouped about a central engine. are
already feasible. and it is quite within
reason to expect that with the i'm
provements which viii naturally be
added as the time goes on the present
maximum will be much increased.
1t is in its relation to irrigation.
however. that the successful utiliza-
ton of sun power will excite the wild