THOMAS A. EDISON.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 53, 4 March 1925, Page 8

THOMAS A. EDISON.

PREDICTS SUN POWER.

MAY TRANSFORM DESERTS.

INTO INDUSTRIAL CENTRES. , (By DREW PEARSON.) ORANGE, New Jersey. The sun and ocean times, according to Thomas A. Edison, the great inventor, will supply the world with its mechanical energy long before our coal and oil resources are exhausted. And when the day arrives when sun-power becomes the motive force for our great factories, the deserts of Australia, Africa, India, and Mongolia, may serve in a new role to mankind. These great open spaces, which for centuries have lain not only idle, but a barrier to travellers, may be the most effective areas for the concentration of the sun'e rays, and may be transformed. into great industrial districts.

In the opinion of the famous inventor, the question of applying to the uses of man the immeasurable energy which is now being squandered by the sun and waves merely depends upon the price of coal. As coal becomes scarcer it inevitably becomes dearer, and, in Mr. Edison's judgment, when the price of coal reaches twenty dollars a ton economic necessity will force man to tap the limitless sources of power which are represented by the sunbeams and the waves.

I went to Mr. Edison to ask him what he believed were the three greatest inventions of the past, and what three inventions of corresponding importance we might look for in the future. He answered the first part of my question very promptly by taking a pad of yellow paper and writing, "steam engine, reaping machine, printing." However, he refused to be drawn into any predictions as to specific inventions which were coming in the future. Harnessing Sun and Sea. The question of getting power from the sun and t'des he did i.ot regard in the light of a prediction, but as something which ie already practical, and which only requires pressure of economic necessity to become an everyday factor in our social and industrial life. "Power from the sun," said Mr. Edison, "ia not only possible, but we are already using it. Down in Arizona they have generated thirty horsepower from> this source, and in the Nile Valley a sun motor is being used regularly. The main requirement is a good set of storage batteries with which to transmit the power from places where it is most easily generated to points where it can most readily be used. It is theoretically possible to draw 1000 horsepower per acre from the sun, and as long as that is true we do not need to worry about our future coal supply. However, there is not much incentive to develop sun-power with coal at its present price."

Mr. Edison did not care to predict whether the world's factories would be moved to the desert areas of Australia and Africa in order to be close to sunpower. But when asked if it might not be possible to transmit electric power from the tropics to the industrial centres of Europe by means of radio, he replied: "I know of no invention toward that end, but almost anything reasonable is possible in the future if canalisation of radio can be made to work as Marconi states. The' difficulty is that radio spreads in all directions, and we must find some method of concentrating its power in a direct line if it is to be used as you suggest."

"What about the power to be derived from the ocean tides?" I asked. "Yes, they are working at that,. too. There is a plan under way up on the Bay of Fundy where a forty-five foot drop makes it quite feasible. A tidal power project -is already in operation on the River Severn in England, and at Havre and all along the coast "of Brittany plans are under way or completed for using the tides.

"The main question in harnessing the tide k one of dividends. When the price of coal is from three to five dollars at-the mine the high cost of constructing dams, with which to control the tides makes such projects unprofitable. When increasing scarcity forces coal up to ten dollars a ton,' more use will be made of the power of the sun and sea, and when coal reaches twenty dollars a ton we should see a very wide application of these power schemes. The whole question depends on the price of coal."

Mr. Edison is not much impressed by the repeated boasts that mankind is to-day in the golden age of science. In his opinion man is still a good deal of a bungling amateur in handling the forces of nature.

"Instead of the golden age, I would call it the disgraceful age," he remarked. "When we come to think* , of it we know very little about light, heat or electricity. We are just on the verge of things. When I think of-the things yet to be done, I wish I were just at the start of life. I would like to have forty years yet to live."