The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
IDEAS LOST TO WORLD
INVENTIONS THAT SEEM TO
 HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN.
Heat as Motive Power Was Never Brought to Perfection-Though Once Known, Making of Dia-
 monds is Mystery.
Journal of Electricitx

Journal of Electricity.
 A recent issue of the most prominent exponent of the steam. engineering indus try. Power, reviews a number of inter esting instances which cannot do other wise than convince even the most doubt ful that engineering is today! very, very far from having reached a pinnacle, of perfection. Among other notes 1t stater that 1t is hardly twenty years since John Weymouth, the Wolverhampton engineer and designer discovered the motive pow CT of, heat. exhibited 1t in one. of the simplest cheapest and most useful en- zines imaginable and then deprived the world of it's benefits. ,''- '. st
 He had produced beforehand a round dozen of excellent inventions, which still bear his name, including the modern re- volving chimney cowl and. having made a large fortune. he devoted himself to harnessing the ordinary heat of a, fire and making a new power of it. The idea was laughed at by all his friends, but af- ter four years of study and experimenting he produced a stationary engine that gave double the power of any steanl-drtven mechanism at about a third of the cost and also small model heat locomotive large enough to draw truck with a man in 1t. tfs+
 He invited a committee of scientists and engineers including Prois Huxley and
 
 two machines worked to perfection. The affair made a great stir and 1t was proved that a great power of unlimited scope had been discovered. Wayfnouth was flooded with offers of huge sums for his invention, but. for no apparent reason, except. perhaps, the alleged madness of genius. he absolutely refused to either bring 1t out himself or sell the secret. He announced himself satis..ed with the triumph of the invention and before his death. year later, he destroyed all the papers and plans explaining the system and removed the essential parts of the two engines. These engines are still pos sessed by his heirs. but nobody has been able to make anything of them. 's [
 Still stranger was the famous loss of the recipe for the manufacture of diamonds. some fifteen years ago. Herbert Warner, who alone discovered and held the secret of diamond making. did not live to wreck the diamond industry as people thought he would. and the circumstances of the loss were mysterious and tragic. h. ferior diamonds can still be produced ar tifcially. but only at a cost of about ten times their value. Warner. after years of experimenting, was able to. turn out a genuine diamond of large size and rei the first water at cost of a small frac- ton of the complete stones worth, He, like Weymouth of heat-power fame, man. ufactured his diamonds before an audi ence of scientists and produced three fine stones, which were tested and pronounced faultless. Two of them are still in ex- istence and are the greatest curiosities the jewel world has even seen.- But with in a fortnight of this triumph. before any new stones were put on the market, Warner utterly disappeared from his house on Harley Street. London, leaving no trace whatever. So complete was his disappearance that from, that day to this not the smallest explanation has been hit upons5F -E' TA 4sJ- sf s i- ',-s A
 Then there is the lost secret of the won derful new metal called "talium," which would certainly. have been worth many millions to the nation and the inventor. Grantley Adams discovered fl just eight years ago and during its short life 1t was one of the greatest wonders of the "sei- ence of commerce. world. '.Talium' is an alloy of metals. electrically treated. nearly 55 per cent. lighter than steel, both stronger and tougher and costing 90 per cent. less to produce. It was the fruit of four years hard work and study and eventually Adams completed it and pulp licly exposed 1t to every Kind of test
 Trains or any other vehicles. as 1t va, proved, would be able to travel at nearly double their present speed if constructed of "talium' and there Weas no kind of edged tool that would not be as keen as