Evening star., 1936-09-06

GEORGES CLAUDE,
Whose experiments deal tUith
Harvesting temperature dit
ference OF surface and deep
sea tDdter.
BY GEORGE w. GRAY.
TN WASHINGTON. in the National
Museum across the Mall from the
Smithsonian Institution, is an
impressive exhibit Of engines and
other prime movers recently as
sembled for the World Power Con-
ference, which meets this week.
THE Pageant of Power" its spon-
cant not only of machines. but also
of ideas-a celebration of the con-
tinuing triumph Of the engineer over
his world of inanimate matter.
For in this panorama Of engines,
turbines, dynamos. motors and trans
formers, windwheels and solar boilers,
pigmy models of giant dams and OF
vast power stations, even the most
casual lay spectator cannot escape
the impression of growing mastery
over the physical forces of nature. If
our social inventions were one-fourth
as productive of their intended goods
as our mechanical inventions are OF
theirs, what a paradise this planet
on earth might be!
But today's innovations are tomor-
rows relics. No doubt time will
come when the most powerful Of these
ultramodern machines Of 1885 will
occupy q permanent place In the
museum as mementoeS Of the past,
along with the stone tools Of prehis-
toric man and the fossil bones Of the
dinosaur. One of the tasks Of the
World Power Conference-perhaps its
prime tasks to look ahead; to sur
vey the resources on which our pres
ent power production depends, con-
slider possible ways Of conserving these
resources of economizing their utili-
zation, and SO to fortify our industry.
our civilization, against the inevitable
days of change.
Fuels and Waterfalls.
The resources on which our pres
ent power production depends are
fuels and waterfalls-predomi
fuels. The statistics on this subject
are voluminous, and the figures OF
tonnageS, horsepowers and kilowatts
approach astronomical magnitudes in
their totals. Suppose We take the
worlds production of coal, oil and gas
as our starting point, and rate the
power derived from the annual sup
plies of these fuels as unity.
That is to say, the total fuel output
of all nations is providing one world
unit of energy. Then, on this same
basis, the worlds harnessed waterfalls
are yielding about one-twelfth Of q
unit annually. And If all the water
falls on earth were successfully har-
messed to dynamos-those in the re-
mote jungles of Africa and the deep
bush of Brazil as well as the more
accessible sites on the st. Lawrence
and other streams near to large popu-
lations-the waterfalls still would fall
short of supplying the energy that
the world is already getting from the
heat of fuel. Indeed, some years ago
Steinmetz calculated that If all the
rainfall of the United States were
converted into electrical energy. its
total would be but 10 per cent of the
current American requirements.
Water wheels, therefore, can only
supplement other power producers.
There can never be enough of them
to take over the work Of the heat
engines in that inevitable day when
the fuels are exhausted.
Coal Deposits Limited.
Economic control may push the time
of reckoning farther into the future,
but cannot abolish it. The coal de-
posits the world over are fairly well
known now, and at our present ac-
celebrating rate Of depletion will be
gone in q few hundred years. With
advancing technique in the utilization
of fuels, coupled with controls to
eliminate the wastes incident to pres
ent methods of production and dis
tribution, the coal age may possibly
be extended for . thousand years.
Possibly, said-not probably.
As for petroleum age-if we are to
believe the experts, it will come to q
close even sooner. Doubtless in the
meanwhile some new reserves may be
discovered. but the lands have been
closely prospected, and about the only
large virgin territory that may be con-
sidered as probable petroleum fields
are the strata underlying seabeds. As