THE FUTURE MOTIVE POWER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIV, Issue 10786, 25 October 1895, Page 2

THE FUTURE MOTIVE POWER.

' E. Watkins in the Detroit Free Frees.) j « What wilLba- the standard motive flower' of. the Mature, to replace steam, »nd electricity'??’- This broad question the writer has recently been asking men of science. : It is now recognised by great engineers that-the establishment of a new standard ■ipotive power is the next problem to be solved after the perfection of the flying machine. Coal, petroleum and natural gas are all soon to go, taking with them manufactured electricity. Invention in this line will before many generations be fostered by the moat urgent necessity that over faced man. To deprive the world of ■ v a cheap and easily gotten motive power . means its degeneration to barbarism. Professor Langley, of Washington, the highest authority who might be quotedon ■ this question,.speaking of the diminishing coal supply, says“ This stock of coal is 1 by hd meats unlimitad, and in the course of' a few centuries, at the most, it will be exhausted, in Great Britain for instance, .at’the pteseht rate of consumption. We may depend that long ere that time her engineers will, with those of other conn* tries, be turning to the immense source of power in the sun’s direct rays, and those regions now barren under a tropical sun, there is no fuel, water, or scarcely human life, will rise into new importance aa the proper seats of industry, fed by the new power.* ■ Engineers have hitherto done little .for this, but we may be sure they will in' the future do more. • Professor Watkins, of the Smithsonian ’lnstitute,'-'.who is curator of the technological,collections in the national museum, and whose department includes the study of all contrivances of engineering and sources of power,. answered the writer’s question in these words :

' THE BARTH’S SOURCES OP POWER. “That the earth’s natural sources of " motive power now known to man axe fast giving out,. is not only indicated by the rapidly decreasing coal supply, but by the recent failure of many of the gas wells of the western States, and the rapidly exhabiting supply cf petroleum. Coal and petroleum furnish the fnel and gas for all modern forms of steam , and gas engines. The’supply of wood for fuel baa almost given oat in the rapidly disappearing forest. Bat the genius of man has always been able to adapt him to the necessities which arise from the exhaustion of any products of nature’s store-house. Men will learn to harness the sun and the moon—the former by the solar engine, the latter by using the action cf the waves and tides Of the ocean—to turn the factory wheels to drive the railroad car or water craft: from place to place, or to perform any of the servitudes now required of ■team, electric or gas motors, all three indirect applications of sunlight. Perhaps the power of the wind will be more generally utilised as a motive power when we learn how to build up lofty towers, several .thousand feet in altitude, placing thereon wind wheels at various distances apart and automatically meeting the air currents from all directions of the compass. Then we should always bo able to get power from some of their shafts. Beceat experiments in flying high kites have proven that there are varying air currents at diffeient altitudes. The kitaatringa are generally found to ran up in Make-like curves, caused by the

VARIOUSLY DIRECTED AIR CURRENTS. "The .exhaustion of the coal supply of course means the end of our present methods of manufacturing the electric current; which it ia predicted will supersede steam as the standard motive power. Thus without coal and oil we will be deprived of both steam and electricity. Meteorologists have recently proven that by sailing up aerial contrivances to high altitudes, in all hinds of weather, it is possible to draw to the earth electric currents of strong voltage. The high brashes used for gathering the fluid lor distribution over the , agricultural department’s experimental electric gardens might also be erected, on ft colossal scale. Future genius may also adopt a method for gathering and storing electricity directly from the sun’s rays. In addition to all of this power , to be had from the sun, there ia doubtless being wasted. each minute of the day and night ifl the' -tirelessly vibrating waves of the ocean, enough force to replace that now to be had from the total coal supply of the world. How to get practical results from the suh.fi rays and the tides caused by the moon is a problem that has engaged the attention of prominent scientists and engineers during cur century, and that will continue to furnish the basis for thought and invention while discovery continues to stimulate the construction of sufficient apparatus.” , PATENTS. The United {Staten patent office has issaed many patents for inventions which provide fbr the harnessing both of the sun • and the moon. Most of the solar devices ate for evaporating ammoniatad solutions and thereby creating cold rather than hot circulations of sir to be used in gas-engine condensers; &c. The solar engine proper, although invented by John Ericsson, the celebrated engineer who built the Monitor, was never patented by him. He received patents, however, on a half-dozen or more hot ait and gas engines. The nearest approach to the solar engine that has been patented in this country is an apparatus for collecting solar heat by means of powerful lenses, concentrated upon masses of iron. The specification also provides for an insulated heat reservoir, for storing the heat until needed, keeping it in suen form that it can be transported from place to place, and used for industrial purposes. The inventor, however, does not go into detaila.cpaeerning the constrnction of the contrivance. SUNLIGHT TOR POWER. According to ancient history, Archimedes to the Roman fleet of Marceilus by • system of mirrors, which brought numerous rays of sunlight- upon the shin at a common focus, Ja v modern years," how»r»r,th» only very.Tmportsat steps besides

those of Ericsson in the direction of utilising the sunlight for power have been made by Professor Mouchot, a French scientist, and Mr W. Adams, of Bombay. Both , Ericsson and Mouchpt concentrated the rays of the sun by means of large concave mirrors, rather than by lenses or burning glasses. ’ A concave mirror such as they used, resembling an ordinary lamp-shade of giant size turned upside down, will focus the sunlight in front of it, rather than back of it. Protruding half way through the smaller opening of the lamp shade, we will imagine there is placed a tin can. This represents Ericason’s and Mouohot’s boilers. The upper portion of this boiler was directly in the focus of the sunlight, which soon heated it to a red glow. The cylinders of Ericsson’s engines fed by this boiler were from two to five inches in diameter. The pistons were worked so fast as to make the driving wheels revolve 420 times per minute. Mouchot used bis boiler for cooking purposes. rather thau for running engines. One May day of ordinary temperature he heated in his boiler 20 litres of water to 121 deg C. in forty minutes. That was 21deg beyond boiling point. His mirror was but ten feet in diameter, made of copper covered with silver leaf. These contrivances were at the time considered but as toys, but what great things might they accomplish if built on a tremendous scale ? Mr W. Adams, of Bombay, India, once used a combination of seventy-two flat mirrors, each 15in x lO Jin, made of common sheet glass in rectangular frames. At noon,’ one day ia May, they were placed so as to concentrate the solar rays to a focus twenty feet away, with a temperature of 108‘8deg E„ about the same as that of a common wood fire. Every kind of wood placed within it was instantly set on hre. A large copper can of water placed in the focus was boiled in exactly twenty minutes. THE SOLAR ENGINE. Ericsson found that more heat could be concentrated by bis mirror on a winter day than upon one in summer, for the reason that in the former' season the sun is much nearer the earth. He also estimated that if all the sunlight shining on one square mile of the earth’s surface were used for heating a steam engine boiler, the engine would exert thirteen million horse-power. But the solar engine will not work at night or on cloudy days. Ericsson’s reflector automatically followed the sun as long as visible, .but ceased working when it was hidden. Professor Langley says that making allowance for the time the sun was hidden, 3,650,000 would be the smallest number of average horse-powers for one square mile. As an example of the enormous power here represented, he says the sun shining on a region like the Adirondacks, for instance, is equal in power to the combined eteam powers of the world. HARNESSING THE MOON. But as to harnessing the moon! There would be less difficulty in doing this. Seventy-six patents have been issued at the patent office for motors run by the tide or waves of the ocean. The tide motor is generally in the form of a float, fastened to a long, pivoted lever. This converts the tide power mote perceptibly at the longer end. Some inventors use the strong undertow or the action of the waves themselves for turning wheels. A unique invention ia a series of floats, placed as far apart as the usual distance between breakers. To each is attached a cable which passes over a pulley, fast to a stationary pier in the sand, and kept tight by a weight fastened to the end, which passes over another pulley. The cables, as many as desired, are constantly pulling back and forth, which motion is, reduced to the revolving of wheels. Still another interesting invention in this line is a broad float, containing a circular railroad track, upon which runs a wheel with a long axle fastened to a horizontal shaft iu the centre. The waves are supposed to rock the floats and send the wheel around on the track, thus revolving the shaft. A PRACTICAL SYSTEM.

Bui; what seems to be the most practical of all these “ lunar motors ” is a system patented only a few months ago. The inventor proposes to use the rooky sea coasts, about Not? England, for instance, into which are to be dug a series of caves, which will be below the tops of the waves, as they come in. The caves are to be conical, the mouths being the larger ends. A boring is to be made from the centre of the roof of each cave, upward to a drain feeding an artificial reservoir, built as high as possible. Over the inner end of each cave is dug a hollow chamber, connecting with the interior, but above the tops of the ■waves. As the waves enter the caves they push all of the air, already in them, into these chambers, where it becomes compressed, up to & certain point, when it explodes, forcing the water np the vertical borings into the reservoir overhead. The water from this reservoir is continually making its exit again into the sea through a steep tunnel containing a powerful water motor. This is calculated to turn a dynamo, creating electricity for many uses. The greater the number of the caves and their capacities the greater the volume of water in the reservoir, and hence the greater the horse-power of its fall. Perpetual motion is thus obtained by allowing the water to run back whence it came.

All of these strange inventions are rapidly paving the way toward a new age, as far as motive power is concerned, to take the place of the electric age, which now begins to supersede the age of steam. At all events there will surely be a new standard of motive power, and engineers who may choose to work thus ahead of their time have its creation before them.