The Washington times., 1918-08-25

do the work. If we could find some other
source Of carbon dioxide than coal, then it
might become another question. We know
of one such source, Of gigantic capabilities,
viz, gaseous emanations from the interior
OF the earth, particularly from VOLCANOES.
Vesuvius or an Etna, or a Cotopaxi in
full Dlast, might supply in day as much
carbon dioxide as all the coal fires on
earth can supply in a year.
So far we have been considering the
problem on a worldwide scale. Suppose.
now, that we put it upon a narrower, and
what may be regarded as an approach to
a more practical basis. Instead of trying
to turn the whole atmosphere into more
effective hothouse cover for the earth than
it now is, might we not conserve heat
emery, OF whatever origin, in reservoirs
of limited extent, from which 1t could be
released when and where wanted, as, for
instance, inside houses, shops, stores, fac
tories, etc, letting the outside air take
rare of itself, as we are forced to do at
present?
Imagine attached to every dwelling house
and every other inhabited structure a
just as we have iceboxes and cold air
apartments to contain stored cold" This
is the thermos bottle idea. The conserva-
tion of heat is easy enough, although to
keep It for months would require I'm
provements in the structure Of the non
conducting walls-but such improvement
could unquestionably be effected. The
great difficulty would be to obtain the
heat at sufficiently high temperature and
in sufficient quality, and to concentrate it
in manageable forms.
Heat is cue to molecular agitation, or
vibration. II the vibration is communicat-
ed to other bodies, or substances, their
temperature is raised at the expense Of
the heated body, which becomes colder,
until it has sunk to the general level OF
:he surrounding temperature. Now, wa
get a heat-storage hint from what happens
in the Fall of the year The soil, during
the hot days of July and August, becomes
penetrated to a considerable depth by the
heat vibrations, originally derived from
the sun. and this heat Is temporarily stored
in the ground, but the storage is imperfect,
something like putting water in pail
whose bottom is perforated with plnholes.
During September, October and even part
of November, the stored up heat gradually
escapes. and being diffused through the
air postpones the arrival OF the first frosts
of Winter
Suppose some way could be devised to
control the leakage of Summer heat from
the pround so that the amount stored in
ten acres would be diverted to the inte-
rior Of a chamber 40X40 feet in basal area,
and delivered to the living apartments by
system of pipes of non-conducting mate
rial. such as asbestos. This supposes the
air of the distributing chamber to be first
warmed by the heat from the ground, and
if that heat represented the radiation from
ten acres of surface. of course some
way would have TO be found to conduct
it to the chamber without sensible loss.
have no data showing how many heat
units may be stored in an acre OF ground
during the hottest part Of the Summer, but
the amount must be large.
There are many other conceivable ways
in which, II only the necessary apparatus
can be constructed. not only solar heat,
but even heat derived from artificial
sources, could be stored in hot seasons for
use in cold ones. Whether these would be
commercially successful" is another ques-
tion, but when faced with extreme suffer
ing or death men care nothing about the
commercial aspects of what they do. Water
is a great storer and conveyor OF heat,
as witness our house furnaces, and on
natures scale, the Gulf Stream.
A variant on this class Of suggestions
is one once put forth by the French astrOn-
omer, Camille FlammariOn, for digging
heat, as 1t were, out of the depths OF the