SOLAR ENERGY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1070, 8 March 1911, Page 5

SOLAR ENERGY.

POWER FOR WORLD'S WORK. A GREAT " IF." THE VIEWS OF AN EMINENT SCIENTIST. Bv Tclcuraph-Press .\R?m:i.-itlon-Coji.vr!ztat London, March C. Sir J. J. Thomson, Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge University, states that tho sun transmits power on a clear day equivalent to 7000 horse-power per acre. If it could bo harnessed all tho power required for the world's work would bo obtained at a cost of lowering the temperature a degree or two.

The suggestion that radio-activity is the cause of the sun's energy Professor Thomson regards useless, because the life of radium is insignificantly short. The only tenable hypothesis is Helmholtz's, which, traces the energy of tho sun to a shrinking within itself to the extent of about 200 ft. a year.

nARNESSING THE SUN. Sir J. J. Thomson is one of the most distinguished of living English scientists. He was one of those who predicted the behaviour of radium and , was granted the Nobel prize for physics m 1906. As President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1009 he dealt at some length with the question of harnessing the sun. Speaking of the untapped energy derived irom tho sun he stated that according to the measurements of Langley, under a high sun and clear sky the heat derived from the sun is equivalent to about 7000 horsepower per acre, and though this is not utilised at present, ho had not the slightest doubt that ultimately it would be. Then when coal is exhausted and our water-power is inadequate it might be that tho centres of industrial activity would, bo transferred lo the burnins deserts of the Sahara, where tho sunbeams could br trapned better. The ether which seems theoretical. Sir Joseph continued, is really the medium through which all the benefits of the sun come to us. It is verv probably of about 2000 million times praatpr density than lend, and lest it should fopm inconceivable that we are siirronmlpd by such n medium tho lecturer pointed out (hat all matter is probably composed mainly of holes.

SOURCE OF THE SUN'S HEAT. As regards the much-discussed question of the source of the sun's heat Mr. Hector Macplierson, in his book on Astrouomv, published in 1908,.states: It has been calculated that if the sun were composed of coal it would last for only six: thousand years. Now, wo know that the sun has lasted for a much longer period, and Hint there are no signs of its decline. There must, therefore, be some mechanism by which the sun's heat is maintained. It wns suggested by the late Lord Kelvin that numbers of "meteors falling into it might effect this purpose; but. as has been pointed out by Sir Robert Ball, suppeme; the moon, for instance, were crushed into fragments and allowed to fall on the sun's surface, the heat caused by these frnsmer.ts would be exhausted in a rear Thus another thporr must be formed. It has been found that the sun is continually shrinking in size, so that it actunllv contracts sixteen inches every day. By this rontracHin heat is goiirrafod which will keep tlio sun at a lysli tomprrature for ten million year?. After, that it will liecomo n cold, dark glob?. . An clement of unoerbinfy, however, hns I'oen introduced into these rnlculntions br flic discovery of i-.c'ium. In milium, it has been'snrcosted, tWe nr.y be another source, of enerpv. wliidi may alter the f=timato. On this point, however, them ii' : no unanimity "f opinion.. .is iwel' 'in bear in mind thnf the innnln>nnts_ of fhi= nlan»t on'v rece ,v " P wMI friction nf t'lP *""'= *<•**•' JFr - F - R - Jri " '" .Ms. lio"1; "The flp.ilm nf Vntnrn." gives the fnllnwinf r.dm'VMo illustration "f the earth'? share of (:'<» «nlm; licit- "Tf the sun were pTPMidi'icr. insfeivl if money nt the ™te of 000 V yen", the earth's annuity would only be £9."