WATER AS A SOURCE OF LIGHT AND HEAT.

Kumara Times, Issue 1117, 29 April 1880, Page 4

WATER AS A SOURCE OF LIGHT AND HEAT.

A Chicago man is about to astonish the world. He claims to have revolutionised philosophy, discovered truths which completely overthrow many of the commonly accepted theories upon which are based alleged laws of nature. More than that, these new discoveries will if practicable in there operation, convulse gas companies, with fright, demoralise coal companies, and disgust Nature with her efforts at growing trees for fuel. This gentleman's name is Mr A. D. Woodman, and he resides in the West Division. He appears to be a thoroughly educated man, is a chemist and machinist, and has been for years an experimenter in matters looking to new sources of Ifght and heat. In the course of his investigations he became satis tied that certian claims of natural philosophers a.% to the material basis of natural laws were all wrong. He put himself to work in an exactly opposite direction, disregarding certain accepted tenets of scientific men, picked up rejected ideas, worked out his own tbeories as to creative powers, and after years of experiment, study, and poverty, is prepared to demonstrate by exhibition, that water can be utilised for heut and light. His machine is composed of oyer thirty pieces. In that machine he disintegrates water, and bringing its compound parts together again, produces light, heat, or steam, as he chooses. The light obtained is a beautiful and very brilliant flame, and can be perfectly controlled: Its heat is of the most intense. character. By the turn of a valve he can transform the light into steam. The process by which this is accomplished is a secret. The discoverer admits that he generates a tremendous explosive power —a power as great as that claimed for the Keeley moter; but he utilises it at once in the manner mentioned. Mr Woodman knocks philosophy all to pieces, denying many of its most important laws. As a result of his discovery he declares that the electric light is not needed for either brilliancy of illumination or for economy ; because his burning water will supersede it. ft.B for motor power he thinks he can make a locomotive boiler of sixteen cubic feet capacity, that will draw to New York City a train of cars of any length.

We observe by a recent English cablegram that that white elephant, tbe Great Eastern, steamship, is being fitted oat for the conveyatce of live cattle from South America to London. We shall be. surprised if this does not provo another of her Mores.