Power from the Sun.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 11 September 1914, Page 2

Power from the Sun.

Charles Dickens called the sun

'\^n- servant of all work ;" and, iideerl, all power is derived from the sun, though we sometimes forget it, since it comes indirectly. The sunmotor is a successful attempt to obtain power direct from the sun. In the Tropics much of the heat of the sun, especially in the sandy desorts, is never used at all, and it has been calculated that the sun's' rays on one square foot of the earth's surface can produce onethird of a horse-power. The question men have racked their brains to solve is how to collect this energy. In California this problem has been solved by the sun-motor. The motor itself resembles an enormous lamp-shade, supported on one end by a steel framework. The inside of the motor is lined with about 1,800 mirrors, 2ft. l6ng by »in. broad, and these are kept at right angles to the path of the sum by means of a clockwork engine. The apparatus is so arranged that the heat from all the mirrors is focussed on one point, where there is a boiler containing one hundred gallons of water. The fierce heat thus produced would smelt copper in a very few seconds, and it converts the water in the boiler into steam, the process continuing ac long as the sun shines.

Since sun-motors are best worked m the Tropics, where water is scarce the power is used for pumping water obtained from underground over the vast deserts found round the Equator. Thus Old Sol has heen harnessed to draw water for the land which he has parched by his fierce rays.