Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-07
u. S. EXPERTS LAUD
CLAUDE'S SUCCESS
WITH SEA POWER
CONTINUED From First Page.)

Continued From First Page.)
France in connection with the fixation
Of nitrogen. In his Office at the Bureau
Of Mines today he expressed himself
enthusiastically over the reports Of the
experiment yesterday, when forty 500
watt electric lamps were lighted for
half an hour from the ocean turbines.
Lauds Prof. Claude.
prof Claude Is scietist of marked
attachments and commendable persever-
| ance," DR.. Munroe declared. Despite
great obstacles and many discouraging
developments, he has kept at his plan
and attained his objective. regard this
work as one of the outstanding achieve
ments of science since the time of
Faraday."
The Federal scientists explained to
The Star the principles on which Prof
Claude's scheme is based.
Water, it was pointed out, turns into
steam when the temperature is raised
to 212 degrees Fahrenheit Goo degrees
Centigrade), providing the water is
under atmospheric pressure. If the
pressure Is lowered, however, less heat
is required to start the water boiling.
Thus, when the pressure is lowered so
that vacuum is created, the water
need only be warmed to give off steam.
This Is where the natural warmth
Of the gulf stream Is utilized. BY
pumping into vacuum tanks warm
water from the surface of the ocean,
the water instantly turns into steam
without the aid of artif1cially applied
heat.
Since vacuum is necessary for the
conversion OF warm sea water into
h.
idea OF using cold water from the
depths OF the ocean to help him pro-
duce the low pressure required in the
conversion tanks.
Vacuum Is Created.
There is a law Of physics which says
that differences in temperature are ac-
companied by differences in pressure. If
the temperature on the outside of the
tanks Is lower than that prevailing
within, partial vacuum automatically
Is created in the tank. As the tenn
perature outside is lowered, the vacuum
within increases.
Accordingly, Prof. Claude devised his
plan for building a long pipe extending
to the bottom of the sea, where the
cold water of the ocean bed could be
sucked up by pumps and circulated
0OONV VAC vetLlhos Az tIlC Oil
other pipe line was arranged to bring
the warm water of the surface into the
interior Of the tanks.
Cold water outside-warm water in
side. The result was a partial vacuum
that finally reached a point where the
naturally-heated sea water began to
boil and give of its power-producing
steam.
OF course there are many drawbacks
to the plan that must be overcome,
many developments that must be per-
fected, before the Gulf Stream power
plant idea can be made commercially
profitable. In the first place, power
must be generated first to turn the
powerful pumps needed to draw the
water from the ocean floor. To be-
come commercially practicable, the in
itial cost of turning the pumps must
be reduced belo wthe level of revenues
obtained from sale of the electrical
enrgy.
Must Find Cheaper Power.
Manifestly, the ocean turbines can
not themselves operate the pumps, for
the law of perpetual motion holds that
no machine is capable of producing
more energy than goes into 1t. Thus
it would take quantity of power in
excess Of that generated by the turbines
to operate the pumps. The only solu-
ton, then, is to find q power supply
for the pumps that Is cheaper than the