WEALTH TO ORDER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 228, 9 January 1911, Page 7

WEALTH TO ORDER

MAGIC CROPS. CONTROL OF THE CLOUDS. London, November 11. A new England was pictured by Mr. S. Z. de Fcrranti, president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, in his inaugural address delivered to the institution.

Mr. de Ferranti's Utopia was not divided from present-day conditions by a great gulf. He built it up step by step from conditions which now obtain. His plan was not a political one; it had little to do with social reform; it might be summed up in two words—"all electricity." Mr. de Ferranti pictured an England where there would be no fires, except at a few great centres; and from these great centres would radiate activity that would increase our crops so marvellously that we could dispense with any food from outside this country, and live in increased comfort notwithstanding. His was a system which would make not only housework, but even agriculture, to a great extent, merely a matter of pressing buttons 01' pulling levers; which would enable everybody to live with far less arduous work than is at present necessary; which would ensure a clean England, and which—most wonderful of all—would reduce the weather questions to merely a matter of convenience. Many of (he theories which Mr. de Ferranti advanced were not new, but it was his task to weld them together in such a way as to show them, not as sectional improvements, but as parts of a great scheme to change the face of England. His plan for the reformation of the weather was perhaps the most remarkable part of the scheme. "It would be a desirable thing," he said, "if, instead of the dark weather that we now often experience owing to cloud obstruction, we could have continuous sunshine at certain times of the year.

"The amount of sunshiie would, no doubt, be largely increased by the abolition of all smoke in the air. CONTROLLING RAIN. "At present it is considered quite right and reasonable to canalise rivers and make great works for adding to the fertility of countries by means of irrigation, but I believe that in the future the time will come when it will be thought no more wonderful largely to control our weather than it is now thought wonderful to control the water after it has lallen on the land.

"I think that it will be possible to acquire knowledge which will enable us largely to control by electrical means the sunshine which reaches us, and, in a climate which usually has ample moisture in the atmosphere; to produce rainfall when and where we require it. "It seems to me- that it may be possible, when we know a great deal more about electricity than we do to-day, to set up an electrical defence along our coasts by which we could cause the moisture in the clouds to fall in the form of rain, and so prevent these clouds drifting over the country between ourselves and the sun which they now blot out.

''lt also seems to me that it will be possible, when more water on the country is required, to cause the falling of the rain from the clouds passing over the highest part of the country and so produce an abundance of water which, properly used, would greatly add to the fertility of the country. "Of course, it may seem that these are only mad visions of the future, but I think we can hardly consider these results more improbable than any one would have considered wireless telegraphy or flight in heavier-thsin-.iir machines fifty years ago." WASTE OF COAL.

The opening point in Mr. de Ferrantrs address was our present-day waste of coal.

'"We can never, of course, hope to pel anything like the full value of the energy in coal," he said; "hut, on the other hand, throwing away more than 00 per cent, of the value of our coal, as we do at present, in the process of conversion is of the greatest possible concern to the country.

''Moreover, there is a second waste involved. We now dissipate nearly tlKwhole of the valuable by-products, consisting principally of fixed nitrogen"— the great fertilising power of which Mr. de Ferranti explained.

•'We arc forced to the conclusion," he continued, after reviewing the presentday waste, "that the only complete and final solution of the question is to be obtained by the conversion of the whole of the coal'which we use for heat and power into electricity, and the recovery of its by-products, at a comparatively small number of great electricity-producing stations."

Mr. de Ferranti touched on the revolution which the "all-electricity" plan would work in many industries, although, he said, we should use less than half the coal we use now.

But his address became more interesting when he came to the general question of food supply. "Much is being done," he said, "to improve tin; yield of corn crops. The most vital feature, however, in bringing this about, once we have acquired suflicient knowledge, is an ample supply of fixed nitrogen to use as a fertiliser. HOME FOOD SUPPLY.

"With the increased yields wo could produce corn crops sufficient to supply the whole of our requirements on eleven million acres. This would represent 23'/, per cent, of our present cultivated area. "The increased yields of the land nowcultivated would not only give us all the grain that we should require for food, but also all the foodstuffs that would lie required for raising the cattle, sheep, and other animals necessary to supply the whole of our wants.

"Sulphate of ammonia is a particularly good fertiliser for sugar beet, and here again its is probable that the availability of large quantities of this'fertiliser would enable us to produce the whole of our sugar at home.

"There would be further by-products from the coal *n the form of tar and light oils. The large quantity of tar produced would enable us to make good roads, tlie light oil would, when carburettors have been further developed, so a long way towards supplying the fuel for our motor-cars, which we now have to import." I Mr. de Ferranti added the prophecy i that motor machines driven by these I cheap oils would do the farming work ! of the future.

Finally, he declared that the all-elec-tric idea would mean cheaper commodities, less arduous work, but a much higher standard of comfort, and a more beautiful England, as the desolation caused in many areas by the use of coal fires

would iie swept away. "it may come to pass," he concluded, "that this all-electric idea, with its farreaching changes and benefits, will become an accomplished fact in the near future."