Tapping the Ether.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6752, 5 February 1892, Page 2

Tapping the Ether.

The savants ara wrestling with one another, and amusing the world over the question- “ Can the ether be tapped ?’’ And singular to say the great men are so eager in their contentions over this queathn that they have omitted to first settle whit (he ether is, or what it would give out if they got the length of “topping” it. One thing, however, appears to bo generally taken for granted—that it contains stores of p tential energy beyond all conceivable limit. Professor William Crookes has undertaken to measure out a small parcel for us, and give in to us as a specimen of tho whole. He lays down the thesis that an electrical atom is something as definite as a chemical atom, and then proceeds to estimate that every cubic foot of ether throughout all space contains ns many of these atoms of electricity as wou'd supply 10,000 foot tons of “ energy.” It is pretty clear that the lucky mortal who can first “ tap ” a few cubic feet of this sort of material will bo able at once to assume the airs and state of a demigod, and>rejoioo in a power only just ehort of omnipotence itself. Ideas travel fast nowadays. We used a few years ago to think it a very magnificent project when somebody proposed to put the “ tidal energies " in traces and make the strength of the ocean drudge the slave of man. But schemes of this sort and of putting a collar on the pulling power of Niagara falls, grow commonplace when man like Mona. Tesla and Professor Crookes open their mouths and begin to talk about “ the hi ssed task of the electrician of the future." But bow are the men who tell us these scientific fairy tales going to set about the accomplishment of their tasks ? Ah, that is their secret. All they care to do is to lift just a corner of the curtain, and give us a glimpse of the work going on in their laboratories. Certainly, that glimpse is interesting enough to make us imitate poor Oliver Twist and ask for more. All matter, they tell us, is stocked and stored with energy, if we only bad the trick to unlock it with the right key. Every sunbeam that is shot across space comes to us with a transmitting force of miraculous power. One of these gentlemen assures us that every “ square foot of the earth’s surface

receives each minute from the sun energy equivalent to nearly one-quarter of a horse power, we are encouraged to dream of the possibilities we shall have in our hands when we grasp the solution of this great problem that so seductively invites research.” There is no question about the latter reflection. If one square foot of mother earth gets this amount' of energy every minute from the sun’s heat and light, it receives 360 horse-power every 24 hours, and it is therefore merely a matter of calculation to And out that every owner of an acre of ground has a daily present from Tar darting Apollo of 15,681,600 horse-power of energy. The mischief is that be doesn’t know as yet bow to use it, and that is just what be is waiting for those clever men to tell him. The reason they have not yet told him is the small difficulty that they don’t yet know themselves. But they are bent on finding it cut in lime. Mr Wilfred Spruson, of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, won’t hoar a doubt about the solution of the problem. Already, j on a small scale in the laboratory, he says, he can convert the energy of light into electrical energy. “ Jhe practical problem that is at the present moment exercising the minds of electricians and chemists is the direct conversion into electrical energy of the energy contained in fuel. There iis still the possibility of obtaining energy, not only in the form of light, but as motive power, or otherwise, in some more direct way from the medium ether. The time will be when this will be . accomplished. We are whirling through endless space with an inconceivable speed j all around us is spinning, everything is moving, everywhere is energy. There must be some way of availing ourselves of this inexhaustible store of energy.” We have seen many wonders in the last 20 years. .No man may guess what the next twenty may unravel. We know, ns Newton said, that we are children picking np shells on the shores of the great ocean of truth ; and nolhwithstanding all our progress, that description fits today as well as it did in his time (Affe.)