Evening star., 1923-04-01

discovery, by a student at
the City College of a sun
engine, where water was boiled in
q test tube, under the action OF con-
csatrated sunrays and made to run
a tiny engine.
Truly remarkable! Yet Washing
ton passes almost without notice the
exploit of DR. Charles @. Abbot or
the Smithsonian, the expert on sun
matters in these United States. Dr.
Abbot utilized the suns heat not
only TO boil water. but also to cook
food on which three people lived for
more than three months. Down here.
however, with so many natural curl
osities and new congressman con-
stantly coming and going. it Is i'm
possible to keep abreast of the de-
tails in the march of affairs.
Sir William Gilbert phrased it in
q song of the "Mikado" when he
wrote: ITO the mind that's scientific
there is nothing that's terrific in the
falling of a flight of thunderbolts."
Lightning or sun, ii means little to
Smithsonian philosophers who study
forces.
Even old King Tut himself might
have evinced but slight interest IN
the new invention. Sun engine?"
he might say. "Ah: yes. One of my
ancestors. my great-grandfather. l
believe, toyed with the proposition.
but we found it cheaper to use
slaves after capturing a tribe or two.
A little matter of irrigation. 1 believe.
attracted him. But slaves were ever
so much cheaper"
And so IL is now with coal and
water power. under the present light
of knowledge. Yet so immense is
the power of the sun, so intrigu uing
are possibilities of finding some
possible way of turning this practi-
cally wasted power directly to the
uses of men, that more and more are
the brains of the country TURNING
that way in search of something new.
The whole world will belong to the
man who finds the way to harness
sun rays to do his bidding.
X x X X
a LOT of publicity has been given
"A the stunt of Archimedes of con-
centrating the sun rays on the Roman
ships. driving them out of Greek
waters. Every schoolbook noticed
that. But many other scientists have
delved into the subject and very
many curious experiments have been
made. all proving that the force was
there, and all failing to solve the
practical difficulties of arranging the
Harvesting.
Way back In 1747 the French SCI
enlist Button made a burning mirror
of $50 small mirrors with fiat, plane
surfaces, SO cunningly set in a frame
that all the mirrors could concentrate
the reflected rays to focus at any
desired point. 1t was a masterpiece
Of mechanical ingenuity.
Button took party of skeptics out
into field and set fire. by focusing
the mirror, to pile of wood some
seventy yards across the lot. Then,
to further show the suns power, he
took forty-five of the center mirrors
and. concentrating the rays on some
metallic tin in a pot twenty feet
from the mirrors. melted the tin.
OF course. Germany had to go one
better. A mechanic, whose name is
forgotten. but whose idea has lived,
devised a parabolic mirror, such as
was used in the test made recently
at the City College. The Germans
mirror was some nine feet across
and was made so accurately that the
gun rays from this area were focused
into a spot about half an inch square.
So intense was the heat at that spot
that coins were almost instantly
turned into molten masses, which
was the inventors favorite trick
with his machine. Remember, this
was long before the steam engine had
become known.
These stunts were spectacular, but
of no commercial value. However. a
very practical and utilitarian device