MAGNETIC MOTIVE POWER.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3203, 19 May 1871, Page 3

MAGNETIC MOTIVE POWER.

[New York Telkgraph Journal]

If wo mistake not, we are in the dawn of a now and economic motive power. Wo have long had an instinctive expectation of its' approach. Now by the scientific exposition of the possibility of an indefinite development of magnetic power hy an apparently inadequate initial force, as argued by Mr High ton, and already published, and the apparent production of it before our senses, seemingly verifying the argument, we are strongly induced to hail magnetism as the coming worker for millions of men and for purposes innumerable. It is right they should. The idea has been discouraged by electric writers as visionary and impracticable. They have asserted the impossibility of any such economic use of material for the production of magnetic power as could ever justify the hope of its substitution for steam. They were right as long as the battery was regarded as the source of powder instead of a mere initiative, such as results now seem to prove it to be. Our theories of electromotive force may require to be re-examined, and perhaps changed. The axiom that a given magnetic force is the exact product of a given consumption of zinc or chemicals, must now be challenged and put to the proof. We confront now the proposition that, although the electro-motive force may be in the battery, yet that the magnetic power which follows its application is capable of indefinite enlargement without increase of the initiative agent. We are brought face to face also with the fact that, when a magnet is performing its maximum work, • the battery which started the magnetic power is most at rest. Tn other words, that the magnetic power is not proportioned to the consumption of the elements of a battery, although dependent upon it as an initial force. We do not pretend to explain the problem, but we can tell what we have seen. It seems to corroborate the recent position taken hy Mr Highton, of England, and to prove that we are on the border-land of a new and wonderful series of development of an economic, safe, ond efficient motive power. It may prove that our assumed data as to the power resident in our battery materially has been underrated, and their productivity misunderstood. Let us now state what we have seen, A few days ago we accompanied, on invitation, several gentlemen to the works of Mr H. M. Payne, of Newark, N. V, (The editor here gives a description of a powerful magnetic sawmill which he saw in action^ This .rapid and effective action has been watchod nine consecutive hours by investigating parties, without any perceptible decline of power, and with a consumption of less than half a pound of zinc — a cost of less than }c. per hour. The power developed was rated at two-horse, and can be maintained for twenty-four hours without intermission at a maximum cost of ten cents. Such, at least, is the statement made to us by Mr Payne, and confirmed by well-known gentlemen, who thoroughly examined it. By increase of diameter and -width, or by multiplication of wheels and the number of magnets, the power can be largely increased so we are assured, by the same number of cells. This was proved by the fact that by the addition of wire in the circuit of sufficient length to surround another set of magnets, no diminution of power was apparent, although the action of the battery was necessarily less ; thus another wheel of similar power could have been added. The four cells we saw were stated as capable of maintaing the speed and power produced in our presence for sixty hours without renewal, at the cost of about a single stage fare on Broadway per day. In this machine, so utterly simple as to challenge the scrutiny of the most ordinary mind, we see the dawn of a new power, capable of endless application at a minimum cost, and destitute of the usual element of danger. It occurs to us as very strange that what is just being proposed as a possible status of facts by a learned divine in England should prove the self-same theory which an American citizen lias been privately and persistently developing in actual practice for years. , To what it may give rise we have no prophet's ken to tell. If the premises demanded are proved to be correct, its application is infinite. We may yet see the Atlantic crossed by huge vessels, propelled without an ounce of coal, by a power, the initiative of which tLe captain may place beside , his writing desk in his cabin, which a child can apply, and the littlest finger I may stop, The begrimed furnace man ! may then come out from these lower hells, and walk the deck as clean as the passengers, and the blazing fires be put out. And it may be, in the mysterious workings of the Almighty, that these electric forces, which are on every hand

developing themselves as the life of the world, quickening its pulses from pole to pole, the cause of growth, and the cardinal element of a power, the limit of which is yet unknown, may be ordained to remove from man part of the curse of toil, unbending the laborer's back, and making him to stand erect as at the first.