The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-28
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKEN. Director.
Wasfiin&ton. d. C.
Using THE OCEAN.

] washington, II. L., Lee. Zo.-1Ls you
want to provide handsomely for your
grandchildren, you could not do better
than to purchase some frontage on the
ocean, which is of no present value for
wharfage or anything like that, but
will give contro! of a considerable area
of the sea-
For the sea is rapidly becoming
valuable. A careful scientific look q
thousand years or so into the future,
such as Mr.. H. G. Wells is addicted
to, would undoubtedly show men de-
pending upon the sea as much as upon
the land. If not more, for the materials
by which they live. Indeed, it will be
impossible to support the enormous
populations of the future without
is now a wilderness of great wealth
that men have just begun to explore.
Fish, of course, are the most obvious
, and readily available product of the
sea, and the only one that we use to
any considerable extent. And we use
only fraction of what we might.
There are whole families of fishes that
are never caught, vast levels of the
ocean swarming with life that fisher
men have never reached.
But the interesting new develop
ments are not in obtaining food from
the sea, but the raw materials of in
dustry and fertilizers for agriculture
example, has an experimental kelp-
potash plant at Summerfield, Cal,
which is said already to have proved
self-supporting. Not only the invalu-
able fertilizing element. potash, is OBJ
tanned, but also a number of by-prod-
ucts. including iodine, common salt.
ammonia and bleaching carbon. This
bleaching carbon was formerly i'm
ported from Europe and sold for 20
cents a pound, but has been produced
at this plant at Is cents a pound, and
is said to pay for its own production
and that of the potash. Some nitro
gen, most precious fertilizer of all. is
also recovered in the form of am
monia, and kind of tar, kelp oil and
creosote are minor by-products.
A New Industry.
Here is what. promises to be a con-
siderable industry, with variety of
products, founded on a single class of
sea plants. And. it has enormous re-
sources to draw upon, for the giant
kelp grows in great groves all thru
the Pacific waters, and is far richer
in potash than the Atlantic kelps.
which have been reduced by burning
In small quantities for some time.
A Norwegian scientist has made an
elaborate study of the sea water as
source of raw material for Norwegian
industry, and he is saidt to have shown
that it is practicable to extract metal
lie magnesium from the sea water on
a commercial scale. as well as gyp-
sum, common salt and other minerals.
You must remember in this connec-
ton that the sea water contains all
minerals in solution as an inevitable
result of the way the oceans were
formed. The searth, according to the
scientists, was originally a hot incan-
descent mass of vapor containing all
the elements of which earth, sea and
atmosphere are now composed. As 1t
cooled. the earth formed IN a molten
mass. water formed and fell upon this
in boiling torrents, making the seas,
which therefore had all of the eiel
ments in solution in them. Three
fourths of these salts are common salt
or sodium chloride. All OF the Euro
pean continent that lifts above the sea
level is only one-third in bulk what
the common salt in the sea alone
would be if it were taken out. There
is a mass, therefore. nearly as large
as Europe. of other salts, including
those of all the minerals. There are,
of gold to the ton of sea water, but it
has been estimated that if all of. the
gold in the sea could be extracted
there would be about $4,000 pounds of
1t for each inhabitant Of the earth.
Wealth OF the Sea.
The sea, in word, is a vast mass
of raw materials of all kinds-organic
and inorganic. 1t contains forests and
meadows, and vast quantities of life.
The sea produces meat as well as fish,
for the whales and porpoises, not to
mention the great family of seals and
sea lions which spend practically their
whole lives in the water, are warm
| blooded animals. AS far as we can
learn, none of the vegetable products
| OF the sea are used for food, but there
| must be edible sea-vegetables, and if
| this is SO, man could sustain himself
MT fr-rl I4-k
sea. He could also obtain from it al
most all of the inorganic and many of
the organic materials for his industry
Furthermore, it will supply him with
the power needed to manufacture
these things. Science has long recog-
| nized that both the tides of the sea
and the waves are potential sources of
almost unlimited power. They have
| been experimentally used for the pro-
| duction of power on a small scale, and
It is probable that nothing but the lack
OF necessity prevents practicable de-
velopment.
1t has also been pointed out by scien-
lists that a literally boundless' source
| OF potential power exists in the diff
| ference of temperature between the
surface of the sea water, in the tropics,
and the water nearer the bottom. Thus
in the tropics, the surface water has a
temperature of froRu 80 to 85 degrees
Fahrenheit, while at a depth of 500
fathoms the temperature is about 40
degrees. The layman does not realize
that in this difference of 40 degrees
lies a power that literally might move
the world. Theoretical methods of
utilizing it. by vaporizing and condens-
ing a liquid, as is done in steam en-
gine, have been worked out in great
detail on paper, but as far as we can
learn, no one has ever constructed the
machinery necessary to do the work.
The sea. therefore. could support
mankind with very little help from the
land. 1t could feed us and do our
work, and it could support an enor-
nous population. But the conquest of
the sea is far in the future. Man is
far from having conquered the land,
as yet. He is dominated and harried
! by the very machines and organiza-
tions he has built for the purpose. He
has harnessed the forces of nature,
and yet he remains a driven slave
! himself. Until he has in some degree
mastered and comDreheuded his own