The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-01-20
pressed at their annual conventions
held in Pittsburg the past week.
A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE

in the future One of the most i'm
portant Of these Is how to get the full
value out of fuel. Mr.. Edison pointed
out that the wastefulness of our pres
ent methods of combustion is tremen
dous. A pound OF coal has enough en-
ergy in it to carry itself around the
world We are only able to extract
small fraction of its heat and power;
the greater part goes to waste. Our
best steam engines use about Is pei
cent of the energy of the coal they
consume. With gas engines probably
30 to 25 per cent of the energy is
utilized
tried out to convert coal directly into
electricity without the use of a boiler
eliminating fire and steam. Some OF
these are oxidation methods, concern
ing which Mr.. Edison said:
They are scientifically successful,
though not yet commercially success
full. Oxidation is, of course, a form
of combustion. It is slow burning.
The only difference between rusting,
the chemical reaction Explosives
burn very fast, and though they are
used to some extent as fuel in the pro-
pulsion of torpedoes, they are not eco
nomical There is not as much power
In a ton of 10 per cent dynamite as
there is in a ton of coal Everything
in nature would burn up if it were
not for the fact that nearly everything
except coal is already burned up.
Iron would burn and make a good
fuel.-if in very fine powder-but
it has already been consumed in ma
lures furnace. Coal is stored up sun
light; it is the storage battery of the
sun, to which we owe about all our
energy
we may discover the germ of get
ing all the power from fuel tomorrow;
and then again it may take long
time to find OUT
Radium has great power, Mr.. Edi-
son added. 1t has no appreciate limi..
or end. It is not combustible. 1t
gives off extra-atomic energy. 1--WE
don't know how its energy was stored
up. A carload of radium would have
as much energy as all the millions Of
tons of coal mined in the United
States in year Radium is the cause
of the ear-h's heat, according to the
view Of most scientists today That
explains why the earth, constantly ra-
dating vast quantities of heat into
space, doesn't cool down The plane.
would be pretty chilly after all these
millions of years if it had not radium
in it. While only small quantities of
radium have been isolated, it exists
everywhere in water, rock and soil;
it is universally distributed, and a lit
tie of it goes a long way. The posi-
bility of Harvesting this force for our
use is somewhat of a speculation. A
radium clock has been made, and it
will go several hundred years without
winding. There are lots of things
besides radium that we do not under
stand:
These five senses of ours are pref
ty dull detectives. We only perceive
little that comes within the range
of our senses. A thing drops below
our level and we don't perceive It.
Here and there, now and then, some
one finds out new thing We didn'..
dream the existence of. In this room
and in your room at this moment
there are fifty wireless mes ages goin
through. Without instruments we can
not detec.. them"
Other sources of power mentioned
We're waterfalls, the tides. windmills
connected with storage batteries, sun
engines, steaming volcanoes and gey-
sers. There are number of earthly
motions and all are potential sources
of energy. Throw something out of
balance and you win power without
end. Six feet off the orbit would be
quite enough for all purposes. As
for the possible dangers of interfering
with the earth, like making it wabble
so much that We would feel it, OF
changing the zones so thai the arctic
( regions would change places with the
tropics, or making our days and nights
OF unsuitable length, Mr.. Edison
doesn't consider them serious
Mr.. Edison thinks the aeroplane OF
the future will have to be on the hell
/ copter principle. A successful air ma
chine must be able to defy the winds
If Wright's aeroplane had one-twenti
eth of its surface, the wind would not
affect it. The helicopter principle, ir
Mr. Edison's option, is the only way
to rise above atmospheric conditions
BY increasing the velocity of propeller
revolutions the size of the machine
I can be diminished and thereby we
vanquish the hostility of the wind. "A
helicopter could have foot size plane:
distributed on a 100 to 80 foot circle
and controlled from the center By
wires.
On the same authority the clothes
of the future viii be so cheap that
every young woman will be able tc
follow the fashions promptly, and
there viii be plenty OF fashions. Arti
fetal silk that is superior to natural
silk is now made of wood pulp. II
4 shines better than silk Mr.. Edison
thinks that the silk-worm barbarism
will go in fifty years just as the indigo
] of India went before the synthetic
/ production of indigo in German labora
tories.