WHAT INVENTION NEXT?

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1933, Page 6

WHAT INVENTION NEXT?

OPINIONS OF SCIENTISTS. SEARCH FOR. CHEAP POWER. What shall we invent next? .'Answers to this query, given by. leaders in the field of invention,, and quite remarkable for their diversity, are given out by Science Service in a special feature series. Orville Wright wants a sun-power motor; Lee de Forest, on the other hand, would tap the bowels of the earth for his heat: Elihu Thomson wants solar energy turned into the electrical forth; Pupin stands for democracy minus the professional politician; Arthur D. Little asks for decent homes at small ; cost; S. M. Kihtner, Westinghouse vice-presi-dent, wants ether waves in sizes now unknown; Dr.. E. F.. Northrup, not. content with one objective, yearns for television, a crime-detector, and protection against germs and insects. '’" . Dr. Lee De-Forest says: “I believe the next great invention (or group;; for several inventions are required to solve the problem) will, be practical television, first in the theatre, then in the home,' by wire and radio; :.. “But this is not, in my opinion, what the world needs most The urgent Heed of mankind is for unlimited'sources of power, at costs so low as to revolutionise our methods and conditions of work,ing and living. LIMITLESS HEAT. “Such power lies a few miles beneath our feet. The next generation will see man ; delving and .boring, not for fuel, but to tap the limitless fountain? of heat, by some durable means which will permit us to send down water and get back high-temperature steam, or some equivalent energy absorbing and emitting medium. “Then electric power will be at our doors for heating; for cooling dur houses, for purifying <Siir air, propelling our vehicles (supposing suitable storage batteries.)—doing all manual work, in factory, farm, and home, speeding and enormously increasing vegetable and crop growth, illuminating homes, street?, and all country roadways with light like that of day. “ ‘Knowledge is power,’ the Sage has said; but power will bring knowledge and leisure to acquire it, and the immeasurable blessings which follow in its train.” ’ ■

But Elihu Thomson would go up for his energy instead of down. He writes: “Some people would, be inclined to answer that what the. world needs most is a more perfect civilisation, a better psychology throughout the peoples of the world. If I may be permitted to limit myself to the ‘greatest future invention,’ or what the world needs: most in the mechanical > aspect of things, > I would say the-‘greatest future invention of which I can conceive the possibility in some direct method of converting the radiant energy of the sun into electric current with high frequency. It does seem that such a thing may be a possibility, and that solar energy may in years to come be relied upon to furnish directly electricity for ’all the. services that are possible with it. There may be other sources of energy' of which „we know too little, ,but- the radiation from our sun is the most , evident source. “Looking forward, I can see no period when the efforts of the inventor ;or discoverer may. not be expected, to be fruitful in the service of man.” . ■ IF WE KNEW. Vice-president Kintner of the Westinghouse Company, writes from Pittsburgh: “The question of the next great invention somewhat suggests the' statement of the Irishman that he wished he knew where he was going to die, because if he did he would not go there. “TKis is the way jt is with us; if we knew what the next great invention:, was going to be we would start on it right now.

“Almost anybody that you would Jask this question would say—‘television,’ 'fair conditioning, ’ or some other development that now offers immediate hope of .accomplishment; but, in addition to thoge, one might look forward to biophysical accomplishments in the study of -the human body and better control ,of diseases relating thereto; control of inw+c by radiations, or they might even think of power transmissions by radio mearis, along with other possible great inventions that will follow the discovery of means for producing and detecting ether waves in-the now unknown regions of wave-lengths.

“In thinking over past inventions- I cannot escape the? feeling that has so frequently- come to me of how • little we appreciated the need for 'many of them until after they were here—that is, the world to us appeared just as complete before as after these inventions : yjadaJß —