Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1907-07-04

When the Air VIII FertilIze the Depleted
Earth.

Earth.
Thomas A. Edison gave the first
interview since his announcement on
his sixtieth birthday last February
that he had quit the career of a mon
ey-making inventor for that Of sci
enlist.
For the rest of his life. he says. he
intends to devote all his attention to
scientific problems without thought
of whether or not their solution would
bring financial gain.
Though the Wizard guarded as
secret the particular task on which
he is at present expanding his thought
and energy, he otherwise spoke freely
of his work. He discussed many of
the mysteries into which he was delv-
ing, and prophesied 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 science
would enable the farmer to enrich
his lands by means Of nitrogen from
the air.
THE element necessary for making
land fertile" he said, sis nitrogen,
which exists in almost inexhaustible
quantities in the atmosphere. Until
recently, however, the utilization of
atmospheric nitrogen was regarded as
merely laboratory demonstration.
Business men said it could never lie
obtained cheap enough to sell to the
farmer 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 established which
has been conducted with such good
results that l expect to see atmospher-
ic fertilizer on the market in this
country within the next ten years.
THAT such product will soon be
imperatively 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 the British Association
for the advancement of Science, proph-
esied that in another quarter Of
century the earth would be drained
of nitrogen to such a degree that there
would be famine in many regions o.
the world. He may have taken too
discouraging view Of the subj ect, but,
nevertheless, his statement had true
basis of fact.
cat the present time the bulk Of
the worlds supply OF nitrogen comes
from the saltpetre beds OF South Amer.
lea, but these are being dug up so
fast it will not be very long before
they will be exhausted.
Another scientific discovery which
1 expect to see before / die, contin-
ued the man whose own inventions
have done 80 much to revolutionize
modern life, sis the direct generation
of electricity from coal. This has al
ready been achieved in an expert.
mental way. l have heard Of several
men who have done it. Imy self have
generated an electrical current by
burning carbon and Chilean saltpetre
together in an electrolite, although at
an expense which made the process a
commercial impossibility.
Imagine what will be the conse-
quences. Then locomotives will be
thrown into the scrap heap. All
trains will be run BY electricity. No
longer will coal be laboriously trans
parted to the cities, but there will be
great power plants established 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. Wagons
will be propelled BY electricity.
Houses viii be lighted entirely by
electricity. for it will be SO cheap it
can be used by the hImbIsst tenement
dwsller.
"Ships viii no longer be driven By
steam. Electricity will be their mo-
tive power. And then it will be pos
sible to cross the Atlantic in three