Another Scientific Wonder

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 33, 14 August 1902, Page 29

Another Scientific Wonder

A most 1 eni.ukalile claim, the fjeiiuwieiiess of i\ln(h it is impossible as \et to tist (uittis the Las i'alliuis coi i esponclrni (l i \ h,; • Daily Mail '), is being made, by Senor Cle-m'-nte 1 it;ueins an engineer of woods and foists m t lie C.marx Islands, and foi nwui\ \eais Profi-ssor of l'h\ mcs at St Augustine's College, i^as l'ahn.is Tor, a long while Seiior Figiieras lias been known m thd Canai.v I'slatuls as a scieni ilic student, but now he 'has suddenly attained to local fume.

Jt seems that for many \ ears he lias been working silently at a method of directl\ utilising atmosjiheiic electricit,\ — tihat is to say, without chemicals' or dynamos' — and of making practical application of Uj without the need of employing any motne power

Hitherto he has jealously guarded the secret of his hihors, fearing that premature ie\ elation might rob him of Ins reward, and e\en now, while ho claims tO ha\c entirely .succeeded, ho still remains silent concerning, tho exact, principles of his discovery lie clainis ho\\e\cr. to ha\e nnented a generator which can collect the eleetiic fluid, to l*o able to store it, and| apply it to infante purpose — for mlnstancy, m connection with shops, railways-, and manuJactnues

He says he is expecting that its eflcct will bf a tremendous economic and industi lal revulution lie will not) £i\e the key to the invention, but declares that the only extraor(lmaiy point about it is that it has taken so long to discover a simple, scientific fact People m tho Canary Islands consider Senor Figueras very clever, and firmly believe his invention to bo genuine

Senor Figueras had Ins apparatus made in separate parts m Paris.

Berlin, and Las Palmas, and fitted! them together himself. A firm in Berlin who supplied parts was curious enough to send to the Canaries and try t,o • draw ' h,iim, but the; emissary returned none the wiser. Senor Figueras is shortly going bo Madrid and to Berlin to patent his inventions The ' Daily Mail ' further adds :— To this we may add that according to letters received in London from a friend, Mr E. Ley, of Tencriffe, Senor I- iguoras has constructed a rough apparatus by which, in spite of its small sizo and its defects, he obtains* a current of 550 volts, which he utilises m his own houso for lighting! purposes, and for driving a motor of JU horse power. Senor Figueras ia shortly coming to London, not with models or sketches, but with a working apparatus. His invention comprises a generator, a motor, and a sort of governor or regulator, and the whole apparatus is so simple that a child could work it.