Bottled Sunpower.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 10 July 1914, Page 2

Bottled Sunpower.

The solar energy now going to

•. :-.s!g in vast amounts in such parts of the world as the Sahara Desert may some day be stored and brought to habitable lands, wher.-; it can be used.' So we are ar.sured by .James O. Handy, President of the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, in his retiring address recently printed in the '•'American Mechanist. All that we need, Mr. Handy says, is "a method of converting the sun's energy in dry, tropical countries directly into a form which may be transmitted to habitable countries where it may bo used." This would appear, to be a job of some magnitude, but Mr. Handy thinks some one will perform it. lie says in part:—"ln the tropics the heat per square kilometre will equal that produced by the complete combustion of- 1,000 tons of coal. A surface or only 10,000, square kilometres receives in a year calculating a day of only six hours, a quantity of heat corresponding to that produced by the burning of throe 'and a half billion tons oi coal, or more than three times the

annual production of coal. The desert of Sahara, with its 6,000,000 square kilometres, receives daily solar energy equivalent to 6,000,000,----000 tons of coal. It is estimated that the earth produces yearly 82,000,000,000 tons of vegetable matter,- which, if. burned, would correspond to 15.000,000 tons of coal. We can prepare for the exhaustion of coal by studying such types of vegetation producing woody fibre most rapidly, and can use extensive methods of cultivating them for fuel and afterward convert this fuel energy. There is reason for c hope, however, and wemay.be able to do more than to improve agricultural, methods of producing fuel if we take advantage of the fact that many chemical i changes are produced by the action of the sun's rays, and that some of these now known, or which may be discovered, may be the basis of a method of converting the sun's energy in dry, tropical countries quite directly into a form which may be transmitted to habitable countries where it may be used."

"Oh let me dream again." (Voice from the gallery) : "I wish you would—do old corncake."

If you dream of a reel cat chasing a green mouse into a purple gooseberry pie it is a sign that you had cheese for supper ?