The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1909-10-03
SUN ELECTRIC GENERATOR

'Somerville. Mass. Oct. 2.-That
problem with which scientists have
lahnred for centuries has at last been
solved. The sun will in future provide
the world with light, heat and power
both day and night.
George III. Cove. an inventive genius
of this place has harnessed the sun
The statement is literally true He
has gone to the source Of all terrestrial
energy in his effort to find "A means
for cheaply providing a sun electric
generator. and he has solved the sup
posedly insoluble, achieved the. sup
posedly impossible by going right back
to the fountain of all energy
Every schoolboy knows that the sun
is that power which keeps our rivers
smoothly flowing. ripens our crops,
and brings the seasons in their APP
pointed order. When you burn n pound
of coal, its combustion liberates en-
ergy stored in it ages before through
solar heat. The river that turns the
turbines of the power stations at Mag
ara Falls derives it's very source from
the alternate evaporation and precipi-
tation of water in the far away basin
of the great lakes. And this is brought
about by solar heat alone.
But power obtained from either coal
or water is wasted. to a greater or less
extent. all the time. Not 10 per cent
of the latent energy of a pound of coal
is turned into actual efficient power in
the steam engine. So many chemical
processes must be undergone, in each
of which some non-productive element
enters, that at the last the efficient
result is very small. Imagine the won
derful change in the industrial effici-
eney of the country IL that sleeping
energy could be Embossed tn its utmost
extent. And this is what George Cove
has done.
The story Of his invention is simple
-as simple and as mysterious as the
generator itself. One day he had left
two pieces of metal attached tn the
terminal wires OF storage battery.
The sun shone on them. where they ac-
cidentally lay. one on the other. For
some hours the solar rays concen-
trated through the glass of the win
dow. poured their energy into those
pieces of metal. When the inventor
returned. imagine his establishment to
note that the storage battery had been
receiving an Increment of electrical
energy. Logic could only find one ex-
planatioa-the joined metals. the glass
and the sun.
And so it was. More experiments
came and then some success. Now the
solar generator is ready To perform It's
service in the world: ready To solve
for all future humanit.- the ecnnom!-
cal. wasteless, free, production of I'M
limited power by stretching out its
sensitive tentac'es towards that in
finite mass Of energy daily hurtel ut
the earth through o. nol.C0O miles of
SPACE at the rate of 1850 miles per
second.
And what 4 simple thing il is after
all. Imagine light metallic frame
work, looking something like an exag
gerated window with Is ranes in II.
each a foot square. Behind ea-h pane
is a set of e1 metallic plugs. Joined up
electrically and passing through the
framework of the generator. Where
they pass through. each is embedded in
a half-resistins cement. 50 that the
other end. which projects hackwardly,
is always cool and sheltered from the
sun. Instead of ordinary window glass
each zane is of a velvet color. Set up
on the inventors house top it looks
for all the world like an eccentric Gu
cumhsr frame turned up on end,
But let the sun shine on IL and at
once il starts To work. Not the solar
heat itself. but rather the invisible
rays that make W Il part of the solar
spectrum. and the ultraviolet rays
themselves-rays that We cannot pre-
Ce.vc with our eyes, but whose elects