WORLD'S FUTURE POWER AGENTS.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 28 August 1912, Page 3

WORLD'S FUTURE POWER AGENTS.

How is the world going- to get its work done when the coal supply begins to fail? It is a problem that many distinguished engineers are puzzling over.

One suggestion, recently made by a Philadelphia engineer, is creating great interest in the engineering world, and looks very promising The idea is to make the sun do the work of coal in heating boilers. A plant is at present on its way out to Egypt t n order that the scheme may be thoroughly tested. Great mirrors are adjusted so that they all bring the sun's rays to bear on the boiler in their midst.

The scorching effect is helped by the peculiar deep dull black with which the boiler is painted. The darker a surface is the more its absorbs heat, while light-colored surfaces reflect it back). The scheme is being heavily backed by American capitalists, as even under the moderate sunshine of Philadelphia the engine has developed thirty-two borse-power, and turned two tons of water into steam in an eight-hour working day.

One eminent scientist recently declared that possibly the world's work will one day be done by the Sahara Desert, which a sun, that blazes from Janaury Ist to December 31st, might easily turn into a gigantic power-shop crowded with sun engines.

What good would this be to Great Britain or America? Well, engineers are agreed that the next great advance of engineering science will lie in the direction of sending power hundreds and thousands of miles away, much as a telegraphic message can now be sent. Even now the Niagara Falls work tramways hundreds of miles away.

Many an engineer, too, has looked longingly at the untold millions of horse-power daily running to waste in the driving-force of the tides. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in vain, and at least two English inventors have gone mad trying to solve this problem. But more than one eminent engineer firmly believes the solution will come in time. When it does, the world will never have to worry about motive power.

One obvious suggestion is the use of water power, and in some countries, particularly in Sweden and Switzerland, it has almost superseded the use of coal. The power of the innumerable waterfalls in these countries is turned into electric power, and used for all sorts of purposes.—"Montreal"" Standard." .

Books are waste paper, unless we spend in action the wisdom .we. get from thought.—Lytton.