Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1907-08-09
When the Air VIII Fertilize
Depleted Earth.

80
on his slxtieth birthday last Febru'
airy that he had quit the career OF
a money making inventor for thai
Of a scientist.
For the rest Of his life he says
he intends to devote all his atten'
tioh to scientific problems without
a thought whether or not their so.
luton will bring financial gain.
Though the Wizard guarded as a
secret the particular task on which
he is at present expanding his
thought and energy, he otherwise
spoke freely Of his work. lie dis
cussed many of the mysteries into
which he was deliving and prophe-
sled that even though he might
fail of solution, he firmly believed
Others would triumph where he
failed.
Mr Edison, for example, made
the prediction that before long SCI
ence would enable the farmer to
enrich his lands by means OF nitro
gen from the air.
The element necessary for maxi
ing land fertile. he said, lis Miro
gen, which exists in almost mex
haustible quantities in the atmor-
phere. Until recently, however.
utilization Of atmospheric nitrogen
was regarded as merely labratory
demonstration.
Business men said it could be OBJ
tanned cheap enough to sell to the
farmers as fertilizer.
But the day is just about to
dawn when the air will be made to
give its nitrogen to the earth. and
to make it yield more abundant
harvests and larger herds of cattle.
In Norway a plant has been estab-
lished which has been conducted
with such gnod results that | ex-
pect to see atmospheric fertilizer
on the market in this country with
in the next ten years.
THAT such a product will soon
be inperatively necessary there is
no doubt. Every shipload of wheat
and corn which goes abroad leaves
the United States so much poorer,
not in gold, but in nitrogen.
.Sir William Crookes, when he
was president Of British Associa-
ton for the advancement OF Sci
ence, prophesied that in another
quarter of century the earth will
be drained of nitrogen to such a
degree that their would be famine
in many regions Of The world. lie
may have taken too Encouraging a
view of the subject, but, neverthe-
less his statement has true basis
Of fact.
.At the present time the bulk of
the >world's supply of nitrogen
comes from the salpeter beds OF
South America, but these are being
dug up 50 fast it will not be long
before they will be exhausted"
Another scientific discovery
which expect to see before | die"
the man whose own in
ventions have done so much to rev.
olutionize modern life. ''is the d.
rect generation of electricity from
c al This has already been aehitv-
ed in an experimental wav. have
heard of several mrn who have
done it. | myself have generated
an electrical current by burning
carbon and Chilean saIspetre to-
gether in an electrolite, although
at an expense which made the pro-
cess a commercial impossibility."
"Imagine what will be the con-
Then the Locomotives
will he thrown into the scrap heap.
All trains will he iun by electricity,
No longer will coal be laborously
transported to the cities, but there
will be great pswer plants. estab-
|ished at the mouths of the mines,
from which the electricity will be
sent out over the country by wire.
There will be no horses in the
streets. no stables, no flies. Wag-
pns will be propelled by electricity.
Houses will be lighted entirely by
Electricity, for it will be so cheap
hat it can be used by the humblest
tenement dweller.
"Ships will no longer be driven
by steam. Electricity will be their