WATER SCREEN
KEEPS HEAT ON EARTH ALTADENA (Calif.). June 24. W. F. Alder, consulting physical engineer, built a special lens to isolate heat, rays in his research .for a large manufacturer of heating devices and one of his first observations through it was that the earth would freeze solid every night wore it not for the blanket of water vapour.
The lens, less than two inches in diameter, is believed to be the only one of its kind. It is impervious to all visible light but permits passage through it of infra-red or heat rays. “The water vapour surrounding the earth.” the inventor explains, “is transparent to light but not to heat. If this were not so, the earth would freeze solid each night, so water vapour is more important to man than clothing. It would be unfortunate for us if the earth at. night lost its heat just as fast as it receives it during the day from the sun. “It is the water vapour radiation of the earth’s heat into space. The same phenomenon explains why we have frost on clear nights. The fact is that almost two-fifths of this escaping heat is trapped by the vapour within 10 feet of the earth’s surface.”
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Greymouth Evening Star, 27 July 1936, Page 5
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206WATER SCREEN Greymouth Evening Star, 27 July 1936, Page 5
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