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Why Don’t We Have… SUN POWER

Old Sol has more energy than all the atom bombs in the world lumped together. And it’s free … if we can find a way to harness it.

By Frank Tinsley

EVER since James Watt built the first steam engine, inventors have been trying to harness the sun’s heat to stoke their boilers because the sun is the mightiest heat source known to man. Every hour, it floods the earth with a deluge of thermal energy equal to 21 billion tons of coal. Every day, the sun pours more potential power upon our land areas than all mankind’s muscle, fuel and working waterfalls have generated since the beginning of time.

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Rubber from the SUN - and Power Too!

Amazing experiments conducted on the American desert point the way toward the day when the sun will be the universal source of power for industry—and also the manufacturing source of rubber, nitrates, and other organic compounds. This authentic article explains how such results were achieved, and describes probable future developments.

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Sun Furnace May Vaporize Diamonds
A HEAT of 4500 degrees centigrade, intense enough to turn a diamond into vapor and to melt any known substance, is expected to be generated in an amazing new solar furnace which derives its heat directly from the sun. Eighty per cent of the sun’s heat is expected to be captured by the furnace, which has been designed by scientists of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. It consists of a mounting similar to that of a telescope which always follows the sun, upon which are 19 lenses which focus the sun’s rays on a central spot within the apparatus.

Solar cells on top of helmet power a tiny transmitter and receiver during daylight. The silicon cells also charge four small storage batteries to operate the set at night. (U. S. Army Photo)

Big Bee-hive Gets Water From Air

AN ODD “drinking water fountain” in Europe acts as a giant artificial spring, condensing the moisture of the air.

The thick brick walls keep the inside of the stone structure at a lower temperature than the outside, so that moisture condenses on the thousands of stone slates.

I don’t buy it. Hair dryers use a LOT of electricity. Plus, unless they have some sort of flywheel or intermediate battery, wouldn’t the power fluctuate if his speed alters?

Leg Power replaces electricity in this Parisian beauty salon, where Madame has her hair dried despite the lack of coal-generated current. An ingenious beautician hires unemployed 6-day bicycle racers to peddle away on a bike, the back wheel of which is attached to a small generator! The current runs 6 driers.

Origin of the ethanol lobby?

Urge Alcohol Gas for Farm Relief

FOR economic and technical reasons a mixture of alcohol and gasoline for automobile fuel is being recommended by farm relief advocates.

Use of the fuel by motorists would consume 680,000,000 bushels of corn a year, greatly reducing the crop surplus, it is said. The gasoline would be diluted with 10 per cent of alcohol. It is claimed the fuel results in greater power at considerably less cost.

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HOT NEWS ABOUT THE SUN

Not in the future—but right now—scientists are putting to work the limitless energy of the sun.

By Lester David

SOON, a native of East Punjab, India, will walk into the local version of the neighborhood hardware emporium, plunk down 80 rupees and buy a newfangled kind of stove. Back home, he’ll proudly unwrap the shiny gadget, set it up and tell his wife to start dinner.

Less than an hour later, she’ll call out the Indian equivalent of “Come and get it!” and the family will sit down to a meal—a meal cooked by sunshine in the world’s first mass-produced solar stove!

This initial Solar Cooker—a device simple to operate, easy to maintain and economical to use—is actually in production in India right now and is just about ready to go on the market.

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NOVEL NEW MACHINES for PULLING POWER from the SKIES

IN THE endless quest for cheap sources of energy, two proposals have recently been advanced which demand serious consideration, both for appeal to the imagination and the possibilities of practical operation.

The high speed windmill shown on this page is the latest development of Volf’s laboratories in New York. The first of these power producing units will be in operation by May first. Three fans are provided so that one is always facing a wind current. The fans are geared to a gyro stabilizer which runs on inertia so that the fans will not run down in calm intervals between gusts of wind.

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Sun’s Rays Harnessed to Run Steam Engine

One of man’s great ambitions— to harness the sun to a steam engine—has been achieved. Dr. C. G. Abbot, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, has developed a solar heater and demonstrated that it would operate a one-half horsepower steam engine with sufficient efficiency for commercial purposes.

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It’s a giant space condom!

Inflatable Solar Collector

Rocketing into space in a canister the size of a teacup, a solar collector will billow out to a conical shape with a metalized Mylar reflector that is seven feet in diameter.

The sun’s rays striking the reflector are focused onto a collector. These rays will be transformed into heat energy which then may be used to power various electrical and mechanical instruments in space.

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ROOF-TOP HEAT TRAP STORES POWER FROM THE SUN

HEATING homes in January with the warmth of last summer’s sunshine —that is the exciting goal of research now under way at Cambridge, Mass. Not far from the Charles River, scientists of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently completed a white frame building, its sloping roof edged with a glistening battery of solar-heat traps.

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