The San Francisco call. [volume], March 24, 1901, Image 6

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
ri: ¦-¦'.
nished without cost, but by a convenient
provision of nature are freely transported
to the place of "use, which is wherever the
reflector may happen to be erected.
The usefulness of sun power will be by
no means limited to irrigation, nor should
It be inferred by the size of the present
engine that ten horsepower bounds Its
possibilities. The new motor will be used
for various Industrial purposes, and prob
ably quite largely in connection with min
ing. Plants of 100 horsepower, with sev-
tnan for a foitune. There are certain
heroic exceptions to the rule, but the fact
remains that :he conquest of the desert
must be made easily If made at all. Here
lies the chief significance of the new pow
er, since its operations are necessarily
limited, for the present at least, to the
sunshine regions of the earth.
Half of our own continent, most of Aus
tralia and New Zealand, most of Africa
and South America, a vast portion of
Asia, Including India, belong distinctly to
Wnlle the present successful motor ( has
been- developed In the fullest light of ex
isting scientific knowledge, the solution of
the : problem is a triumph '¦ of ; American
genius,; which -has built a' successful de
vice on the ashes of past failures.
The most obvious advantage of the solar
motor is the saving of - fuel. It will be
used over wide districts where the cost of
fuel" is prohibitive, and will ' even .super
sede allccher power In the uses for which
it. is adapted in localities where ' fuel Is
most abundant, \ since It ' is plain that no
fuel Is cheaper than any fuel. The saving
ls : ; effected not merely In the purchase
price of coal or v/ood, oil or. gasoline, but
also in, the Item of. handling these mate
rials." -The solar rays are r.ot only fur-
eral reflectors grouped about a central en
gine, are already feasible, and It Is quite
within reason to expect that with the im
provements which will naturally be added
as time goes on the present maximum will
be much increated.
It is In its relation* to irrigation, how
ever, that the successful utilization of sun
power will excite the widest public inter
est. Mining Is an industry which flour
ishes in spite of all obstacles. There is no
country so far nor climate so " severe
there Is no peril and no expense which
can discourage mining, because the possi
ble reward is so great and the ¦ hope of
sudden wealth - bo alluring. It may bo
sad and deplorable, but it is none the less
true,' that a man will risk less for a homo
the sunshine regions. Here solar power
Is bound to be extensively employed In
lifting water from under the ground and
from the deeply eroded channels of In
numerable rivers.
Exact Information concerning the under
ground water supplies is somewhat mea
ger, sln<ti both public and private enter
prise were naturally first directed to the
diversion of streams and the employment
of the smalle * class of reservoirs. But
during the past five years pumping has
become the most aggressive feature of the
irrigation industry In the West and tho
area of its operations has been rapidly
widening. A large portion of the precipl-
(Contlnued on Page Seven.)
noted that no lenses are used, but that the
heat is reflected from plain mirrors and
so centered upon th<=i boiler.
The reflector measures 33 feet across Its
diameter at the top and 15 feet at. the
bottom. It contains exactly 1788 mirrors
3%x24 inches in size. The reflector is set
in meridian like a telescope, the axis being
due north and south and the movement
from east to west. The boiler is tubular,
13 feet 6 Inches long, with a capacity for
100 gallons of water, and 8 cubic feet ad
ditional steam space. It is made of fire
box steel, covered with lamp-black and
other . absorptive material. * Before this
boiler is thrown Into focus its black cyl
inder is but an inconspicuous feature of
tlie novel mechanism which | stands f aco
to face with the sun. But when, with a
few turns of the crank, it swings into' the
concentrated rays reflected from hun
dreds of mirrors, it uuddenly assumes the
appearance of shining silver, or perhaps
of a great, gleaming icicle, and becomes
the irresistible cynosure of all'eyes. . Here
at last is the sun harnessed. A long pole
is reached " to 'the glittering boiler, and
soon begins to smoke and then takes lire
and bursts into flame. Evidently It is hot
up there, and this simple test carries con
viction on that point to the most unsci
entific mind. In about one hour the In
tense heat has "raised the cold water to a
hjgh temperature, evaporated It into
steam, and a pressure of 130 pounds is
shown on the gauge in the engine room.
For, be it understood, the solar motor is
not a sun engine- in the sense that It is
operated without the Intervention of
steam power, as the water wheel is turned
by the ' falling stream. The sun strikes
the mirrors; the mirrors reflect the heat
upon the boiler; the heat turns the water
within - the boiler into steam; the steam
passes from the head of the boiler
through a flexible metallic pipe into the
engine cylinders, and from that point the
process Is the , familiar operation of the
compound ¦ engine, and. the centrifugal
pump. There 'Is nothing occult, nothing
new. Every boy has felt the concentrated
In the arid region as a whole is 70 per cent
and this figure would correctly represent
the proportion of the year in which sun
power could be relied upon. Making due
allowance for the hours of idleness after
sunset, 1400 gallons per minute, which
equal 155 miners" inches, would irrigate
about 200 acres of alfalfa, about 300 acres
of oranges, or about 500 acres of decidu
ous trees. Although there are large dis
tricts where water may be had at a depth
of twelve feet, that is by no means an
average lift, so that the actual capacity
of the solar motor cannot fairly be set
so hiirh. Its capacity will vary with the
lift, with the character of crops, and with
differences of soil.
The important consideration is that the
new power effects a complete saving : of
the item of fuel, since it gathers all the
heat for its boiler directly from the sun.
Water-pcwcr might be Just as cheap if
It were as widely diffused as the ¦ sun
power, which unfortunately, it Ik not.
Water-power is being more and more used
to generate electricity for pumping, but
this can only be supplied by companies
which have made a large investment and
who then charge the irrigator an annual
rent of $i»0 per horsepower. In addition
to this, the Irrigator must supply his. own
pumping plant, eo that his expenditure
for electricity is practically a total loss
as compared with sunpower. The natural
comparison of the solar motor is with the
windmill, since both are automatic, being
operated by the. elements.
•'How does it run and how does It look?"
will naturally be asked. It looks not un
like a huge umbrella, although this illus
tration should not be construed to mean
that the solar motor is a frail structure.
On the contrary, it is large and substan
tial, weighing 8200 pounds. But In shape
it much resembles an umbrella open a*nd
inverted, and Is so disposed as to catch
the sun't rays on the mirrors which line
its inside surface and to reflect both light
and heat with concentrated energy on a
long, slim boiler, which is where the um
brella stick ought to be. It should be
\ "¦• . ' ¦ '-•¦"..-.'
•» ITCH your wagen to a star, ' was
I \ the lofty counsel of the Concord
I J Sage to aspirins youth. And lo!
A J after more than a generation,
** practical fanners are accepting his
advice more literally than any one could
bave Imagined. They are hitching their
engines ¦ to the sun.
The ostriches at the farm near Los An
geles surrendered one of their paddocks
to a mechanical engineer and a business
man from Boston a few weeks ago and
the newcomers proceeded to set up a
etrange device which casual onlookers
have variously considered a windmill, a
searchlight, a merry-go-round and a look
ing-glass of gigantic size and fantastic
design, but which proves to be a new in
vention of extraordinary interest and
wide sractical usefulness. It is the solar
motor, and it solves the question of ap
plying the sun's rays directly to the pro
duction cf steam power.
There were a good many attempts dur
ing the past thirty years, and. indeed,
more than a century ago, to make a com
mercial proposition of sun-power. Some
of the more recent of these efforts have
been announced In a highly sensational
way as likely to furnish power for mov
ing trains and steamships and even fcr
leveling down great mountains. No 6uch
absurdities have been associated with the
solar motor whSch is now attracting the
attention of scientific men smd popular
crowds at South Pasadena.
Indeed, nothing has been claimed for it.
The device speaks for itself in the modest
but Impressive language of actual dally
performance.
It drives a ten-horsepower engine from
an hour and a half after sunrise to with
in half an hour of sunset. Its perform
ance has gradually increased with each
day'e trial and the perfecting of details
and there is no reason to suppose that its
maximum ha* been reached, nor that It
wwl be with the present modeL At this
writing its best record is the raising of
1400 gallons per minute at a lift of twelve
feet. The average percentage of sunshine
heat of the sun gathered In the burning
glass held by a mischievous neighbor, or
had his eyes momentarily blinded by tho
reflected light cast from a hand mirror.
These principles are old and known to us
all. In the solar motor they are applied
on a* larger scale and made to perform
useful work in connection with the steam
engine and the pump.
Now that the thing is accomplished, it
doea not seem at all extraordinary that
we have found a way to apply a little of
the sun's enormous heat to actual eco-'
nomic uses. It marks but one more step
in the assertion of rr.an's control over the
forces of nature. Lung ago we harnessed
the winds and the waters, making them
bear our burdens and perform our tasks.
More recently, and far more wonderfully,
it seems to me, we made the subtle cur
rents of electricity the docile servants of
our will. Science long since demonstrated
that the solar heat falling normally upon
four square feet of surface during on*
minute is equivalent to one horsepower.
Professor Langley of the Smithsonian In
stitution recalls the fact, in his interest
ing wcrkon VThe New Astronomy," that
in the eighteenth century Bernleres, a
Frenchman, and an English \ optician
named Parker each constructed burning
glasses of great size and power, under the
influence of which "iron, gold and other
metals" ran like melted butter." One of
those glasses was presented to the Em
peror of China, who was so much alarmed
at its performances that he had it buried
in the ground, whero it could work no sin
ister mlraclej ' ,-
The later \ efforts of Mouchot and of
Ericsson are well known. The s former ex
hibited a sun engine which operated a
printing press at the Paris Exposition of
1S7 , 0> ' whI1 e the ' architect of , the , famous
Monitor brought his device so near perfec
tion that scientific men began to build
serious hopes' upon it in 1S84. But none of
these \ inventions Vwere able toVstand the
test of application to actual commercial
uses." They concentrated the rays of the
sun. They made steam. They even drove
engines. But when brought to the crucial
test of practical, "every-day "uses— cheap
manufacture, > conoraical and continuous
operation— they /ailed. And'so it has been
with" many other less celebrated efforts.
THE SUNDAY CALIi.
6
The Sun is Harnessed
at last