Omaha daily bee., 1905-12-17

10 per cent Of the energy of the coal we
burn. Eighty-hye per cent goes up the
chimney.
Now If We could find Il way TO get the
energy out of the coal by some direct
process without wasting cighty-ive per
cent Of it, the result would be -
Mr.. Edison raised his hands, closed his
eyes and gave soft, prolonged whistle.
1t would so multiply and 50 cheaper
clectrict power as to inaugrate a new epoch
iu the history OF the world. 1t is practi-
caly impossible to cXAggerate the couse-
quences of discovery that would produce
electricity direct from COAL or in any way
to avoid the waste consequent upon the
use of boilers and engines"
But all the discoveries so far have
! failed to give us the secret we are looking
FOR. We need process, simple and mex
pensive, that will save the s. per cent OF
lost power.
1T will come 1 am confident Of that.
{ There are about 100000 scientific men at
work in the world. digging out, testing,
Analysing.
What the world needs are not facts
so much as corelators We want men who
can bring the facts together. compare
| them and work out the law.
Some Day.
Some day the great discovery will be
made A man will discover one fact in
one part of the world, and that will set
some fellow at work on another fact in
/ some other part OF the world. and pres
emily lot of men will be working on the
/ true path; and one day it will be an
! nounced to the world that electric power
can be produced directly from coal"
But we may all be dead then, Mr..
| Edison"
/ Nonsense. I believe that you and 1 will
/ both live to see it. II will come in our
( time. 1t is in the air. We are on the very
/ threshold of another wonderful era
when that discovery is made the
steam engine will be driven out of use
! 1t will then be possible to have airshps
l expect to sec arships flying before my
death. l do not think that they will fly
/ very high, but they will be able to go a
| little higher than the trees and buildings
Such a discovery will make it possible
| to drive ships across the sea by electricity
at a rate of forty or fifty miles an hour
| three days across the Atlantic from shore
/ to shore.
why, power will be so cheap and SO
easily distributed that a multitude Of new
/ neutrality-suspicious. uON DtCduSe Oh Tue
cost of labor will spring into existence.
| when Electric Power VIII BE Cheap.
! The direct process will give the world
! electricity at such ii low cost that electric
! light can be used by everybody. and rail-
ways can be operated at a fraction of their
present expense. The city of New York
can be lit as brilliantly in the nighttime as
in the daytime, without any additional cost
THE human race may we'll look forward
| with hope toward the day in which the
discovery will be announced, for after that
the world will be greatly transformed.
! 1T is all a matter of understanding what
energy is. l remember saying to Dubois
Raymond, the great professor of physiol.
ogy in the University of Berlin. what
makes my finger move?' MIR. Edison
! held up his foreinger and waggled it
and he answered, I don't know; 1 have
worked In vain for thirty years TO find out
what that form of energy is
when you wind up a clock you trans.
form the energy of beefsteak into mechani
cal energy stored In a steel spring. But
who can tell you how the one form oil
energy was converted into the other form
II have tried hard to get at the secret
I through which the energy stored in Goa
must be transformed into electricity. Il
/ is too much for me. l am stumped. l dom
know enough. But the man who does
know enough will appear before long"