The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-01-06
How Cold Winds of the Oakotas
Will Be Used
KEEP THE FARMERS WARM
New and Novel Idea of Prof. H. w.
Wiley, the Governments Chief
Chemst-To Put Biz.
yards to Work. -
From the Chicago Tribune.

ny uOt put the pl1zzards to work."
1t was Prof. II. w. Wiley. the gov
ernments chemist. and he added:
There is no reason why it should
not be done. This winter another fuel
famine is threatened In the north west
such a famine as compelled the
farmers year ago to burn their
fences and outbuildngs in order to
save themselves and their families
from perishing of cold. 1t is dread
eful situation to contemplate Yet the
time is surely coming, and before
long, when the blizzards which now
bring sucf& widespread suffering will
be utilized Nor heating the homes of
dwellers in that section of the coun-
try, keeping the temperature indoors
at comfortable 20 degrees Fahren-
heit even during periods of Jack
Frost's EXTREMIST rigor
That such expectation should
seem to suggest the miraculous Is the
best possible evidence of the failure
of the popular mind to grasp the enor-
nous and VIII olly revolutionary change
which is on the point of taking place
in the meth DDS upon which the world
depends for the production of energy
for Industrial. domestic and other pur-
poses. 1t may be added, indeed that
civilization is about to make another
gigantic stride-a stride so vast as to
place it in effect upon an entirely new
plane.
The fierce blizzard, the storm, wind
and the gentler breeze are agents of
the sun. They are caused simply by
the heating of masses of air over
great areas by the solar orb, such
masses being thus made to expand and
rise, while denser masses rush from
everywhere. 1t is In this way that
all sorts of atmosph eric movements
are energized. Thus 1t is obvious that
when we put the winds to work,
through the medium of windmills or
otherwise, we are actually Harvesting
tine sun.
The sun, one should realize, is the
source and origin of all energy. 1t
was stated by the late Prof Samuel
p. Langley, the foremost authority in
| this country on solar physics, that the
amount of sunshine falling on four
average square feet of the earth's sur
face is equivalent to one horse power.
/ This supply of horse power is not only
! unlimited, but free to all who care to
| use it. The problem is merely to find
! economical methods whereby 1t may
be turned to account.
IT mention the blizzard simply be-
cause 1t presents the case in a pic
! turesque and striking way. Sweeping
/
! meteorologists say that 1t literally
draws it's cold out of the sky from the
upper regions of the atmospheric
extends its icy grasp over the land
even as far as the Atlantic coast. Its
energy is tremendous and II intelli-
gently used could be made by the
frozen farmer to run h eating plant
for his house, SO that he and his fam
| lily need shiver no longer. Only
! oF hi hp
needed for the purpose. indeed. the
| balance being utilizeble for storing
| large quantities of electricity in suit
| able and inexpensive batteries, to be
drawn upon in periods of calm wealth
err. for warming the dwelling, for IL
Illuminating. or for other purposes
Naturally, you ask, how is this
| TO be ACCOMPLISHED? reply: BY
means of windmills Not such wind
mills as we have now, but scientifically
| constructed windmills The windmill
| of today, as any intelligent person may
| see for himself is exactly like the
| windmill of thousands of years ago,
| practically unmodifled and unimproyed.
| The notion does not seem to have oe-
CURED to anybody that 1t was sus-
ceptible of Improvement. Yet In TINS
| clumsy continuance lies latent the
| forces of future centuries.
"Properly utilized an ordinary, eV-
eryday windmill with eight-foot sails
would be capable of keeping the dwell
| ing of any farmer in North Dakota at
! a temperature of 70 degrees all VIM
| ter long, though during that entire
period the thermometer outside
| should stand at 40 degrees below zero
1t seems a surprising statement, but
| only for the reason that such matters
| are as vet inadequately understood.
| The problem is simply that of har-
| Messing the windmill properly-1n Or
| der that it may deliver through the
requisite machinery with energy which
| the breezes and the storm WINDS sup
ply. -.
"Electric heaters suitable for the
purpose are already on the market
when once the Harvesting of the wind
mill has been satisfactorily accom-
plished There does not seem, indeed
to be any good reason why the farm
er's wife should not employ the same
source of energy for her cooking. AS
for lights, the batteries Will furnish
them for both house and barn. ana
power similarly supplied might De
utilized for a variety of useful mechan-
ical purposes.
The winds, which hitherto have been
permitted to go almost entirely TO
waste, will be a source of heat, llght
and power for ages after all the coal
fields and oil wells of the world are
exhausted. OF coal and oil the sup
plies are necessarily limited, and al
ready they are threatening to give out;
but the breezes will blow forever-or,
at all events, as long as our atmos-
phere lasts and the sun distributes its
energy carrying rays.
ut should be realized, however, that
the windmill is not the only efficient
medium through which the solar orb
may be compelled to work in harness.
Every stream depends for Its flow upon
the sun, which lifts the water out of
the sea and lets it fall upon the land
yea, even upon the mountains, from
hitch it finds its way again toward the
sea level, forming brooks and rivers.
Wherever q brook or river can be
damned 1t is an available source OF
energy waiting to be put to use by
man.
For ages the energy of streams has
been utilized through the medium of
water mills of one kind or another.
But. like the windmill, the watermill
has retained to a great extent it's an
cient primitiveness, refusing to
be improved. Not until lately has
mankind learned how to apply scien-
tific methods in putting the rivers to
work-the new idea In this line being
most conspicuously. illustrated by the
catarac of Niagara, power from which,
transmitted through copper wires. now