The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1916-07-13

bed so decorated and do it effectively.
Thomas A. Edison said recently
that we are on the verge of great
discoveries that will put all our pres
ent power and light plants into the
discard. Enough is known of wha.
Edison and other chemists and men
of science are after to give us hint
of what may be coming. Everyone
knows that our present methods of
generating power and light are too
wasteful and expensive. There is ire
mendous waste in digging coal from
the earth, hauling it many miles and
burning it beneath boiler to turn
water into steam. Scientists tell US
that wonderful as steam has been in
the development CT power and all that
has followed upon its use, yet the
time will come when sources of power
will be discovered so much more eff
cient than steam that humanity of
the future will look back upon the
age of steam as we look back now
upon the age of the hand rowed gal
lev. and the caravan. At a recent
meeting of the Society of Automo-
bile Engineers, C. F. Kettering gave
his associates some hint of what was
just over the rim of the horizon in
this field of laboratory research after
better and cheaper sources of power.
In nature there are no dead, unmov-
ing solids. A piece of steel or gran
tie is composed of molecules, not at
rest, but moving and revolving about
each other, and all held together by a
cohesive force so closely that to us
it seems a solid substance. Now, sup
pose we could find some way of har-
Messing the power latent in those
molecules-some way of coupling it
up to our motor cars and machinery.
Suppose we could find means to let
loose the energy which binds together
the molecules of piece of steel or a
block of stone Try to break or pull
apart a piece of tough steel with
strength of many thousands of pounds
per square inch, and one gets an
idea of the latent power there. And
Mr.. Kettering says it is theoretically
possible to release this cohesive force
and utilize it and that it will furnish
an inexhaustible source of power. AS
an example, the molecular forces hold
ing together a grain or corn would
provide over two thousand horsepower
for "a hours if we could find means
for letting those hidden molecular
forces loose. The farmer of the fu-
ture, about to pillow 40-acre field,
will drop grain of corn in the mole
cular disintegrator" of his tractor ma
chine and go to it. The city man, in
stead of filling the tank of his car
with gasoline, will chuck in a grain
of corn and get power enough to ride
all day. Well, if radium was unknown
today and a person should tell how
he had little pin point particle of
stuff that continually threw off atoms
of itself with such incredible velocity
that their bombardment caused the
warming of the surrounding contain
er, and that there was so much OF this
energy in the tiny piece of radium
that it would keep on doing this for
centuries and never appreciably di-
minish, the world would shake its
head and say: poor Bill, he's stud
led over them contraptions in his
lab'tory till he's got teched in the
head"
The flight of the hours are marked
On the dial of c. w. Hundreds watch
by the faces of his 10 children and
nv hic ov,r, fooa onJ tho facp of MS