MONEY IN THE POWERS OF NATURE.
Vast Forces yet Unknown--The Human Form a Key to unlock Nature’s
Caskets of Gold--The Storage of Air--The Waste of Steam--The March
of Electricity--How One Company saved $50 a Day--Sunbeams for
Sale--Winds and Waves awaiting Man’s Sail and Wheel--How a Western
Man Invented a Sand Mill--Enormous Power of Sea Waves--A New Use
for the Artesian Well--Eureka! The Right Kind of a Storage
Battery--Opportunities for Enterprise and Wealth.
The finding and unlocking of the forces of nature have been sources of
some of the world’s largest fortunes. Steam and electricity are to-day
among the earth’s greatest contributors to wealth. It is not, however,
the simple discovery of a new force, but its ingenious application, that
brings financial reward, and there may be a hundred, or even a thousand
ways of applying a new power. These powers are perhaps all known at the
present time, but many of them are little utilized, and some have never
been harnessed. It is probable that we have as yet only begun to unlock
the secrets of nature.
852. COMPRESSED AIR.--There are vast possibilities in the use of this
power. In a few years lightning expresses will fly over the land, swift
vessels will skim the deep, monster passenger eagles will soar in the
air, and tons of mail matter will be blown through tubes from sea to
sea, all driven by this powerful motor, compressed air. These things
only wait for money and brains.
853. STEAM.--In the application of steam about ninety per cent. of power
is lost. This is an enormous waste. Here is room for a second Watt. In
the race for primacy as a power, steam need take no second place if only
its unutilized forces be turned to account by some inventor. Here is a
field worthy of the noblest powers of man.
854. ELECTRICITY.--At present electricity sends our telegraph messages,
projects our voices through the telephone, propels our street cars,
lights our streets and dwellings, and in some States executes our
criminals. But it is altogether likely that this as yet comparatively
unknown power will be extended into a hundred untried fields. Here is a
single example of the economy in its use: The Baldwin Locomotive Company
discovered that they were losing eighty per cent. of steam power in
shafts and belts. They installed electric motors and reduced the bill
for power immensely. Hundreds of large establishments waste from
one-fourth to three-fourth of steam in the same way. If electricity can
save from $14 to $50 per day, as in the case just quoted, it is surely
well worth a trial.
855. CALORIC.--The time will come when the billions of cubic feet of
sunlight that fall upon our earth will be utilized and will doubtless be
the cheapest and most efficient of all the motor forces. If you can only
focus this widely distributed energy, you can obtain any amount of heat
and consequently power. It has been proved that you can boil two pints
of water with the heat of the sun falling upon one and one-half square
yards of surface. One square yard of sunshine represents one horse
power. The problem, therefore, is to concentrate. This will be done some
day by the use of immense convex mirrors. Already experiments are being
tried, and the first promoters of this scheme will have the power of the
world at their feet and its wealth in their hands.
856. WATER POWER.--The time will also come when the thousands of
cataracts and rapids that now waste their energies will all be harnessed
and set to work. It is estimated that the water power of Niagara is as
great as would be the steam power produced by 226,000,000 tons of coal a
year. This one cataract has power enough to make a thousand
millionaires, and there are hundreds of smaller waterfalls running to
waste.
857. WINDMILLS.--Steam is costly and water is not always available, but
the wind is everywhere, and costs little or nothing. It has the
disadvantage of inconstancy and uncertainty, but it is invaluable for
storing up force for future use. The windmill is susceptible of great
improvements, and waits for another Morse or Watt.
858. A SAND MILL.--One ingenious man out West has equipped his windmill
with an endless belt provided with buckets, like a grain elevator. These
dip into a box of dry sand and discharge it upon a large wheel like an
overshot water-wheel, which it turns as water would. The sand is
discharged again into the box and thus is used over again endlessly. We
think the man has not patented his invention; he has missed a fortune
which somebody else will pick up.
859. SEA POWER.--Next to the power of the sun is the power of the ocean.
An experiment with a dynanometer has shown that the pressure exerted by
the sea waves during a storm often exceeds 7,600 pounds per square
foot. Multiply this by 1,393,920,000,000,000 feet, which the surface of
the ocean presents, and we gather some little notion of the
inconceivable power that is running to waste. When will come the
inventor who will harness the sea and set it to lighting our cities and
carrying men and mail-bags? There is said to be millions upon millions
of gold strewn on the ocean’s bed as the result of wrecks, but there is
vastly more gold for the daring inventor in the waves that forever pound
upon the beach.
860. ARTESIAN WELL.--The artesian well plant is coming into prominence.
Formerly the well was only employed as a means of getting water to
drink; it is only recently that it has occurred to people that here is
an immense and unused water motor. Water power from running streams is
only available here and there, but with the advent of the artesian well
there is no spot on earth that may not have as much cheap power as it
needs, the cost being almost nothing when once the power is obtained.
Here is another opportunity for enterprise and fortune.
861. LIQUID AIR.--This is a new discovery, and one very rich in promise.
Here is doubtless the long-sought-for method of the storage battery. It
has been found that the same force of liquid air as applied in the
electric storage battery scores from one-tenth to one-twentieth more
than the electric fluid is able to do. Here we have a power whose
application will result in such unknown quantities of usefulness and
wealth as to defy the power of figures and even the imagination itself.