The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-07-03

l. w II II n -
coal a year in their engines. and that
the energy of only 100000 tons OF this
lie utilized, the energy OF the other
lll2. 500. 900 tons passing uselessly away
Unto the air. Every ton OF this wasted
coal gives OF $4,000 pounds OF carbonic
acid gas and each pound of II has as
much efficiency in 1t as three pounds
OF steam. Thus, every year the rail-
roads alone waste power equivalent to
. ltwenty-seven trilllon pounds of steam.
Think of the wonderful benefits the
man will confer upon hum 1nlty who
will find practical way to utilize only
one-half of the wasted energyi II all
coal consumption shows a proportion
ate amount of wasted energy It means
that in the United States we annually
lose the energy of more than sixty five
trillion pounds of steam. That energy,
properly doled out would be sufficient
to meet all the power requirements Of
the whole world. Some idea of its in
conceivable immensely may be gather
ed from. the statement that IL every
; one of the twenty-five million horses
in the United states were required to
take them more than $500 years, work.
ing eight hours out of every day and
800 days out of every year, to perform
a like amount of work.
Then there is the waste Of water
power. The total amount of water
power used in 1905 was about a mil
, lion and a half horsepower. II the
! streams of the United States from the
2 hi taf,
to the waterfalls and rapids of the big
rivers were harnessed, 1t would prob
ably show a hundredfold increase over
the present capacity, or enough to fur
nish the power of the whole nation a
;, hundred years hence. BY the utiliza-
!, ton of the hydro-electrc principle the
), millions of horsepower now going to
: waste in the mountain Businesses of
/, the country can be brought out into
:, human habitations and made to bear
= Its burden in q growing civilization.
Every community in the land could
have its hydro-electric plant just as it
now has its blacksmith shop and its
G grist mill. With his storage batteries
q the farmer would have a cheap sub
4 lstitute for his horses, having them re-
plenished just as he now goes to the
e shod. Or, perhaps 1t will come even
v closer to him. Today the farmer in
!. advanced rural communities who has
o no telephone is a rarity. Why not
e electric transmission plants reaching
. levery farm? There are today inter
:, urban railroads which sell their sur
plus current to farmers within their
: territory at less than half the cost of
10 .
u a century's progress to see a thing in
: general use which has already proved
it's value? AS the years come and go,
y farms viii get smaller and men will be
u forced to consider every item OF ex-
: rense, and to reduce waste TO the mini
mum. Electric power will be one of
the things to come as a result of this
twentieth century development.
There is even a possibility that wire
, transmission of power may be sue
u ceeded in the future. Wireless tele-
j graphy looked impossible until within
y q few years ago. Seeing by wire, or
telephotography, would seem an idle
P dream but for the fact that we know
u it has been accomplished. But beyond
this even, we would have regarded the
discharging of torpedo by wireless
d
seven miles, as impossible. And yet
this Is a recent accomplishment. Is
: not that a wonderful first step in the
direction of the wireless transmission
e of power? So that after all, the dream
i of the farmer replenishing his storage
u batteries from a wireless current may
. yet ripen into an actually. 1t is even
Il possible that new sources of power
lt,,a 10
late the force with which the pillows
y break upon our coasts? Someone has
g invented a turbine which may be an
5 chored in midstream to catch the
e power of the water as 1t rushes on
! ward in the universal impulse to find
a resting place as near to the center of
the earth as possible. May the CEN
fury not bring forth a similar meth
cd of Harvesting the waves as they
break upon our shores?
For generations man has dreamed of
the utilization of the energy of the
sun g rays. But it has remained for the
! twentieth century to take the greatest
i step in that direction. A solar engine,
showing three and half horse power
while the sun shines, has been develop
ed. So successful was the engine that
in Florida to be used for commercial
: purposes. Is it any greater step from
this to a general utilization of sun pow
er than it was from the Watt steam en-
: CINE to one of the modern kind showing
ten thousand horse poweri Or is it
5 a longer distance to travel than from
Fulton 3 Clermont to the twentieth CEN
e fury Lusitania7
. The century will bring forth new
= methods of preventing fires and of fight.
ing those which do occur. In the past
thirty-twc years the fire losses of the
United States have amounted to two
and half billion dollars. The money
values thus wiped out would be enough
to furnish l,25O,000 families with $1,000
homes. Fireproof buildings will be i'm
perative necessities as building mate
rails become scarcer. In the countries
of Europe furniture, even in the homes
of the poor, lasts for hundreds of years.
= Dove-taiiing and the like prevent it