Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-08-16
rFuiTuRiETsoURcE Of POWER.
Gas and Electricity Direct From the
4 sMines May LIGHT and Hosl Our
Homes.

L 'ss@t
our modern civilization worth the living
as we have come to set up standards of
| living-depends primarily upon powef
is universally known and all but uni
] versally overlooked. Only the worlds
great physicists meehanicians. chemists
and scientists of the most advanced type
| fail to forget this prime necessary of our
modern existence. And they, by con-
trast have its problem perennially be-
fore their anxious eyes. The problem is
| this:
| How shall civilized man, with his in
creasing numbers and his doubly in
creasing wants, find the power which
shall enable him to satisfy all the enor-
nous needs of the future?
Can he discover fresh sources? Can
| he devise new transmissons? Can
he invent fresh economies? Can he
evolve larger percentages of utilization?
| All of these factors are tributary TO
| the problems solution. All, in fact, must
| be tributary, for not one alone can solve
| 1t and solved it must be or scarcely a
single activity of the world can escape
standing still, if it be not compelled to
retrograde.
This is the great puzzle of the goth
century, but it is a puzzle with an an
swer, with as many answers as there are
now questions, and then a few. But it is
| impossible to say, for the present, which
| of all these answers is correct. Some of
the most famous names in science are
| among the indorsers of the most radical
proposals. And that is one startling hint
| in topsyturviness-for your famous
scientist is usually most eonservative-of
the overwhelming Importance the entire
subject carries.
One of the first. and most astonishing.
suggestions came from the most distin-
guished of English physicists, Sir VIII
| liam Ramsay, president of the British
| Association. who declared at a public
meeting that there was absolutely moth
ing, so far as he could see, to prevent
| a bore-hole from being driven into the
earth until coal seam was reached,
with concentric tubes for setting the coal
| on fire by electricity and for blowing
down air to keep it burning. The amount
| of air could be regulated that the
coal. only half consumed. would give off
what is called Dawsons gas, while
steam blown down would make water
| gas, both used for the running of gas
engines.
With the gas-engines at the mouth of
| the bore-hole, the Is per cent. of energy,
| or power now derived from coal con-
| sumption in the steam engine would be-
come 80 per cent An electric plant
could convert the power thus made into
| available form for transmission 200 miles.
as he saw it transmitted in California.
England would have it's power in cleo
| trieal form for lighting, heating and
| railway transportation; and the only
| fuel needed would be oil for her ships.
| He added that mine owner had given
| him the privilege to experiment oil
vein of coal, and he proposed to begin
work at once.
| The words were scarcely out of his
| mouth. when Sir Marcus Samuel. identi-
/ fled with company running 20 steam
| ships told the British Institution of Ma
| val Architects that his company would
never build another steamer. wonder
| full Diesel engine which uses only one
| fifth as much oil as steam engines use in
| coal had proved itself so perfectly adapt
| ed to marine uses that all the engineers
| have to do is to sit and read books.
Those who. in the future, build steam
ships, Sir Marcus announced, would be
counting financial ruin
Next day, from Charlotte, n. c., came
| the brief record of an electric power
| transmission, achieved by a plain, COM
mercial plant for practical. everyday use,
| to record distance of $50 miles. almost
| double the maximum referred to by Sir
William Ramsay.
A little longer, and Prof. Comfort A
Adams, of the engineering department
at Harvard, announced the planning of
an electrical machine double the size
of any hitherto constructed, for use in
| the Harvard electrical laboratory. 1t is
an alternating current transformer, with
a capacity of 100000 volts. 1t may open
up a new electrical era. sk
"Some day. said Professor Adams,
| Boston, New York and Philadelphia
may be lighted. heated and supplied with
powe by wire from the Pennsylvania
coal fields. The installation of the great
transformer we are planning will make
possible the necessary experiments"
Meanwhile, in the testing station at
Pittsburgh. DR.. Walter o. Smelling. con-
sulting chemist of the bureau of mines
and of the Panama canal commission.
had developed a liquid form of gas which
enabled him to confine 1900 cubic feet of
gas In steel cartridge container six
inches in diameter and four feet in
height. The discovery was hailed as a
boon to all who have need of light, heat
and power in portable form at points re-
moved from bases of supply.
Two hundred years before the Chris
tian era, when the ancients watched a
hollow sphere revolve on an axis by
means of steam that puffed against the
atmosphere from couple of elbowed
pipes on opposite sides. their learned men
discussed the thing in the light of Archi-
modes principles of power and consid-
cred themselves very cultured and acad-
emic, as, indeed, they were. But their
burdens were borne on the backs of
jackasses. and, with so great a start on
the high road to mechanical power, there
must have been human jaekasses as
drivers. Modern and more practical
philosophers. like Sir Marcus Samuel,
perceive human jackasses of the same
breed in those who shall henceforth pin
their faith and fortunes on the systems
of steam power production which literal
| ~ made our world what it was up until
the end of the 10th century.