Evening star., 1924-09-07

want in more practical matters?" I
asked. Samuel insult has predicted
that electricity would in time remove
the druogery out of housework in
the most isolated farmhouse as ef-
fectively as it does today in the big
city apartment
Mr.. Insult is right" responded
DR.. Whitney quickly. THE whole
problem in that direction is ons &C
economical distribution of power.
Power itself is one of the cheapest
things we have. 1t costs about 10
times as much 20 deliver electricity
as to produce il. We have got to
find economical ways of distributing
1t. Take the farmer. for instance,
whose land Is crossed by wires carry
ing thousands Of horsepower at 30,-
900 volts. If we could tap off a few
horsepower for him at voltages such
as most OF US use in our homes he
could have abundant power to do
work about the house at cost far
lower than by the present crude and
laborious methods.
"It would be quite practicable TO
do this today. but it would mean the
installing of rather elaborate and
costly equipment. I do not know
exactly what the expense would be,
but it would probably be at least a.
would have to add interest on this
permanent investment to whatever
the charge would be for his power.
and not many farmers would want
to do that. AS a matter OF fact,
it would not be good business.
Working on Problem.
Tile problem of doing the same
thing in an economical manner is one
of the things electrical research is
concerned with now, and the answer
WILL of course, be found"
1.-The family dishwasher will bless
the man who finds it," I suggested
You mean it will make electric
dishwashers possible" remarked DR..
electricity is the answer to that par
ticulariy detested bit of drudgery.
We just hope it is. The real way is
unpredictable at the moment. ! say
this to be consistent in the opinion
that most new things are really new
unlike the old. That is, they are
not we anticipate, because we
think with the old means while new
means are being found. Until ac-
complished for small homes it may
even develop that the solution will
be no dishwashing at all. A real
solution might be to dissolve the
ulsnes themselves, which suggests
that we might have something that
will have all the qualities of china
as far as temporary use is concerned,
will be hard and non-absorbsnt. and.
when long soaked, weathered or
broken up. will quickly return to
the original elements. In fact, / see
no reason why such dishes should
not be made so as to be available
as fertilizer after serving as dishes"
nf.has
What would they be made of?'
Modified phosphate rock, possibly.
We have vast quantities of such
rock, particularly in Iowa Phos-
phate is the one great essential of
all crop-producing soil, and dishes
might be made Of phosphates so as
to dissolve properly in the soil. Even
if china dishes could be made cheap
iy enough their fragments would
take ten years or even longer to dis
solve. but phosphate rock dishes
might decompose and serve as an ex-
cellent ready-to-use fertilizer"
How about electricity as fer
tilizer?'
THAT is something we do not
know a great deal about as yet. Tho
Government is carefully studying it.
/ have seen some rather fantastic
stories in print, but the whole Ques-
tion is In a purely experimental stage
and l certainly would not care to
express any opinion as to possibilities
OF electricity as g. stimulant to
growth. In fact concluded DR..
Whitney. smiling, II have been talk
ing far too much about possibilities
as 1t is. That is a field which L
should much prefer to leave to the
admittedly fiction writer's"
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