TRANSFORMING THE WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 19143, 9 January 1926, Page 2

TRANSFORMING THE WORLD

MARVELS OUR CHILDREN Will SEE A new era of knowledge is growing on us; we have come to understand that the miracle is merely another name lor something wo do not mentally appreciate. M hat will happen when our brains can conceive further advances hy moans of the knowledge of to-day and to-morrow? It is not very long since (writes Professor A. M. Low, in the London ‘Daily Express’) witches were burned at the stake, and if fifty years ago we had told our friends that wc could talk to a man ns he flew across the Channel we should have been written down" as mad. Most of us walk down our dirty streets. We see our ill-lit, insanitary houses. We rido in motor cars which waste 80 per cent, of the power purchaser! for thorn, and wo aro thankful if 2) per cent, represents the efficiency of our house lighting. Can anyone seriously imagine that the mental phase of the scientist of the future will permit such crass ignorance? Do wc really think that the only changes that will take place in wireless will bo in the color of the knobs wo turn and in the number of stations we can pick up, atmospherics and sunlight permitting? Surely it requires little imagination to appreciate that in ten years’ time a schoolboy will probably know more than wo who live today.

It is possible now to transmit pictures by wireless, to see hy wireless, on a laboratory scale. Before many years have gone hy the events, the sounds, and the sights of the four corners of the earth will bo brought to our very fireside; it will be a simple matter, and it will bo a common happening of our domestic and commercial lives. TIME AND DISTANCE.

We shall not sit down in “ Little Puddlcton ” and take no interest in an event because it happens to _bo far away. Civilisation is _ minimising distance and shortening time. It is altering the whole speed at which our brains can operate, it is dealing ruthlessly with our physical and mental capabilities. It is we who will ho the Stono Age men, the “Men. Fridays” of the future, and if we wish to avoid some of this contempt let us at least appreciate our personal shortcomings. What is it that made England great so many years ago? The answer is— Power; and that power was coal. Today power is oil; a good example of the manner in which time affects our outlook. Power to bo valuable to-day must bo producible instantly. Coal is too slow, oil is better; wind is too slow, and electricity is bettor than all. It has often been suggested that with the smallness of England tho country could be wired almost like a largo country house; that wc could obtain power from the sea, power Lorn the *idts, and, above all, povor frem central generating stations, which could then use their by-products and bring power to a national commodity available to everyone on advantageous terms, as is tho very air wc breathe. I dare almost say that power should he communistic in principle. DISTRIBUTION OF POWER.

To reduce cost hy a few farthings per unit is not sufficient, a.nd the crying need of humanity for energy is demonstrated hy the wildness of some proposals we hear. ~ , Power from the sun may be good, but it is power at an instantaneous moment that is wanted by civilisation, and today wc cannot oven store electricity effectively. We have no capacity methods of storage. Power from the sun may be a wonder of tho future—more direct power from the sun is the correct phrase, for all power has its origin in that source. . Atomic power Rounds very nice, but it js little advanced beyond the theoreIvicsl Tt is useless to thn.t the power from the breaking up of the atom would movo a battleship so many miles. The energy employed to cause that cleavage would probably be far fn’Gfi'ter. Tbo conirnorcia.l result* ■would be no better than that of the "minercial ruanufootute of diamonds. It is, in short, cheaper to dig them from the Sr \Vhat wc are concerned with is distribution of power. It is tho distribution, .the “ middle-man effect,” that is throttling industry and producing disease and misery. . , Wo dig up our coal in pieces from tho ground—we cannot yet pump it up or convert it into energy as it lies—and when wc have done so it is distributed by many paJtry little, bodies all over the country in a most inconvenient fom ‘ FOR THE HOUSEWIFE.

Wo are coming to tho discovery of wirelass power which in the future will bo as vital to England as was coal in the past. It is a discovery which will save the dirt of coal and 'manufacture from- producing such diseases as cancer and consumption; it is a discovery which will prove the greatest blessing imaginable to the poor housewife. H is a discovery which will operate factories, airplanes, motor cars, ships, - and railways in a more wonder-

ful manner than was ever conceived by the most hopeful Socialistic speaker. Remember always that to define tho impossible is the most difficult thing in tho world, and remember that the marvels of to-day are tho commonplace of the future. Always think to yourself when you doubt—what would people a few’ years ago have thought of wireless music, what would men have thought of the airplane? In the future we shall undoubtedly have radio control for trains, just as we shall use broadcasting to while away tho long hours of a journey, and we shall most certainly have wirelcss-con-trollod tanks and wireless-controlled airplanes during the next war. Death machines will be able to fly pilotless over enemy towns, taking photographs and even transmitting by television what comes before their wireless eyes. CONTROL AND POWER. It is not usually realised that wireless control and power by wireless are two totally different things. The wireless torpedo carries its own engine, and the actual wireless signal having not enough strength, to lift a feather, is used to control tho steering gear only, by means_ of the actual power unit. Ever since tho .first conception of wireless it has been the dream of many to be able to find out tho basis of light and to be able to direct this ctherial oscillation in such a manner that actual power can be transmitted by wireless means. Up to to-day the results have been of laboratory interest only. Wc know’ that we can at great expense send power over a short distance, and Tesla and many others have succeeded in transmitting fairly largo powers by induction. Our understanding of radio is widening with each succeeding day. The path of discovery is marked ahead. The scientist will undoubtedly gain his objective,• first a simplcj commercial and cheap method of distributing pow’er by induction, and then tho greater step • —the broadcasting of power without the use of wires and cables. Then, indeed, tho Golden Ago will have dawned. When it may come, no person can tell. A small, stumbling accident may give tho first right idea. But that it will come is certain.