Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1904-03-30

GNH ~ heat energy stored away in the
~ s ss'' SaI 4 =: ssi9 ss 9s.ss IL Il; q
IO to the time when even this great
stOrehOuse Of nature shall be depleted, and we ask
ourselves the question: What nexH
We have lived beyond our income and eaten into
our patrimOny. The coal bin and wOOdbOx will
soon be thing Of the past. Statistics show that
the worlds supply Of ceal cannot possibly last
thousand years, and that the dawn of another CEN
tUry will find the price of coal high that it's use is
prOhibtve except for special uses. Heat and light
and power will be obtained through other means,
and iRstnctivey We return to the sun, the univer-
sal scarce Of heat and light.
The sun, everyone knows is q great ball OF
highly heated matter one million times the volume
Of the earth. Although it is many million miles
away, yet 1t sheds upon the earth light and heat In
sufficient quantities to have satisfied all the require
ments Of ancestors before they stumbled on the
discovery Of fire. Great as is the amount OF heat
received by the earth from the sun, yet it is but
drop in the bucket when we consider the total
amount Of heat sent out into space by greet orb
OF day. We receive only twObilliOnth part OF
what is given of.
This is striking instance OF the prodigality Of
nature, and may suggest that it is not all prOdiga
ty bat that OF those worlds which the telescope
brings to view have living, thinking creatures en-
loving these same warm rays And as our earth is
but an insignificant member OF the solar system, 80
is our and his retnue Of planets and asteroids
but a speck in the infnitude of suns. We must
bow down in awe before the thoughts suggested by
these considerations, and say with prophet, priest
and bard: How insructable are Thy ways, 0 God!
Bat let us withdraw from the realms OF imagina-
tion toward which were OnconsciOusly drifting,
and consider the more real problem Of the sun and
his rays as we know them. AS the rays OF the sun
strike upon the eaTth's surface, some reflected
or bound back much as q rubber ball would rebound
from the stone pavement Another portion OF the
rays, however, y absorbed and swallowed mp By the
earth and its living covering as completely the
same rubber ball would be swallowed up If dashed
against the surface Of q lake.
That part Of the heat which is reflected is lost to
ne, bat what is absorbed is Of vital consequence.
The plants drinking in the sunshine and joining in
that gladstone smile which nature has for her lovers
are not living in idleness. They ere taking this
same energy and directing it TO useful ends as faith
fully and as regularly as the labOreFs il large fac
tory apply the energy OF the great engines to useful
manufacture. These faithful workers Of nature 8
factories are gathering the crude materials from the
earth and air; and directing the energy TO the
upbuilding OF strong, vigorous kingdom which
furnishes man with cOrn and vine, clothes bis max
edness, diRpes the cold Of winter, and iluminates
the hours Of darkDess.
Even in their death the trees and grasses do not
forget their service to u.s. and bid come to their
burying grounds and dig out their changed bodies
and pump up their life blood. Even the breath they
drew we are hidden to take. These burn coal,
oil or gas, and give little thought to the fact thGt
the genial ray had its birth million years ego.
We have given as little thought to the morrow
and now we find ourselves on the verge Of bankrupt
cy, so to speak. Our needs are so great that our
faithful servants Of the vegetable world cannot
transmit the SUMS energy 20 us rapidly enough.
Nothing is left to but to seek other means Of ab
sOrbing and Transforming the heat energy received
from the SUM-
q Nowadays We look to electricity TO solve all our
difficulties, and we are seldom disappointed. It
turns night into day and winter into summer. It
transmits our thoughts the sea 10 the twink
ling Of an eye. Il carries bodies from place to
place so that we may not become footsore. It per-
forms the abors Of our hands. IL brings health In
time Of sickness. In short il supplies every want
Of man but that oihunger. So that with electricity
We feel that we are largely independent Of the vege-
table kingdom as far as heat, light and power are
oncerned But how shall We generate our electric
~ For this We need power, and ct first glance it
ns that here We hare g missing link. hiatus as
as that which Darwin found between man and
0nkey.
while the sun has been allowing his rays to
tie to the workshops Of leaf and plant be has
On carving water from the ocean and high
From these high places it rushes in mad
down mountain side and over precipice,
ally in the current Of q great river rolls
ally into the ocean, there to begin anew it's
Quincy. During its descent the water is
oi performing work. In fact, We have here
orce Of nature to be reduced to the subiec-
DO. Every time a cubic foot Of water falls