IN 2030 A.D.

Evening Star, Issue 20510, 14 June 1930, Page 2

IN 2030 A.D.

LORD BIRKENHEAD AS PROPHET Old Moore, Jules Verne, ami il. G. Wells still command a fascinated following, so that Lord Birkenhead (in ‘The World of 2030 ’) is hut the latest in a long and honourable line (says the ‘Manchester Guardian’). He, too, has submitted to what lie terms “the chronic habit’’ of prophesying, and the result is a series of audacious but uniformly exciting essays which have the stamp _of that learning and vivid imagination which it is only natural to expect from him. There is no question of doubt in- the emphatic way he puts forward'the most revolutionary of his theories. For the most part, tendencies and possibilities are ruled outonly once or twice are we allowed an alternative;, in-the main w r e are presented with' a series of inevitable conclusions drawn from what seems an imposing and irrefutable array of scientific data. The result is to leave the layman impressed and convinced, often against his will. Stupendous material, changes', we are told, will be wrought by applied physics in the next hundred years. FOOD A CENTURY HENCE. For one thing, Lord Birkenhead thinks that food in 2030 will be entirely changed, and after giving reasons for this, he says;— “The perfection of the synthetic diet cannot be delayed far into the twentyfirst century; ■ and when the first synthetic food factory begins to undercut the prices of naturally-grown food the doom of agriculture will be sealed. Synthetic foods w T ill be much cheaper, more palatable, more various, perhaps more hygienic, than their natural predecessors. “Therefore they will drive the products of agriculture off the market and ruin the farmers of the world. By the year 2030 synthetic bread, sugar, and vegetable substitutes may be cheaper than water is to-day.” “The best scientific opinion believes,” Lord Birkenhead says in another chapter, “ that before 2030 physicists will have solved the problem of supplying the world with limitless amounts of cheap power. At present we derive the energy which drives the wheels of industry from coal and oil. Both these substances are won from Nature at the expense of much money and vast stores of muscular energy, nor are their supplies inexhaustible. THE ATOM AND THE POUND OF COAL. “By means of the most efficient methods, moreover, • a pound of coal can only be made to yield -energy of the order of one horse-power tor one hour. ’ Yet, locked up in the atoms which constitute a pound of water there is an amount of energy equivalent to ten million horse-power hours. It is undoubted that this colossal source of energy exists, and . . . the problem of releasing it will be solved bofore 2030.’’ . , _ , After pointing out that in the first place such liberated energy will naturally revolutionise travel'and transport, Lord Birkenhead goes on:— “ The consequences of tapping such stupendous sources of cheap energj are almost illimitable. For the first time in his history man will bo armed with sufficient power to undertake operations on a cosmic scale. ... “ Engines weighing loa _ for each horse-power they develop will become practical possibilities; and a power plant of 600 horse-power will carry fuel for a thousand: hours’ working; in a tank no bigger .than, a fountain pen. “ Passengers will travel in enormously swift aeroplanes, which by 2030 will ascend and descend vertically. Goods will bo carried cheaply and rapidly ,by land or sea, propelled by motors whoso fuel bill will bo negligible. “ I prophesy that the industry of the future will bo largely decentralised - , as compared with tho industry of to-day. There will be no districts .thick with largo towns, such as disfigure the Black Country, Lancashire, and Yorkshire. “ Power will be so cheap that the transport of goods by electricallyhauled railway trains will add little to their cost of production. Hence it will not bo essential, as now it is, to situate factories as conveniently close as possible to both raw materials and market. Single factories will be scattered far and wide over the whole countryside, each supporting the village or small town which clusters around it.

“Deserted by agriculture and ‘ tamed ’ by the complete eradication of weeds and thorns, our countrysidewill present a very different aspect from the chequered but charming irregularity of fields a!nd hedges, which is now so typically England. Tho countrv will probably appear like an interminable park, broken only by patches of woodland. gardens, houses, and factories. “For example, the Himalayas are provided by Nature with an abundance of waterfalls capable when harnessed of generating vast supplies of electricity. It is probable that before 2030 an intensive industrial life will grow up among the foothills of this mighty range, drawing its life-blood from great power stations high in tho gorges and ravines of the mountains. “ At present the population of this region of the Himalayas’ foot averages under sixteen to the square mile, while the fertile valley of tho Ganges supports well over 250 agriculturists to the square mile. Some time in the twenty-first century tho condition may ho reversed.” A cheerful prospect is the end of dirt and noise:— “ By 2030 dirt will have disappeared from the ordinary man’s experience. Chimneys, blighting vegetation and poisoning the atmosphere with their acrid fumes, will be banished from industry. Tho machine shop, the foundry, and tho abattoir of 2030 will bo as clean as any bakehouse or dispensary of 1930.”