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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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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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It doesn’t seem like much of that light would actually hit each individual wire does it?

Contracting Wires Harness Sun’s Rays

THE long, exhausting search of scientists for a method of harnessing the rays of the sun has yielded the solar machine illustrated in the artist’s drawing above.

Operation of the machine is based upon the principle of contraction and expansion of tungsten wires. These wires are arranged lengthwise of a revolving drum, and the sun’s rays are directed against them by means of a parabolic mirror on each side.
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That’s a really nifty way to pump water!

CHINESE WINDMILL WATERS FARM
Adapting an Oriental idea for raising water for his own needs and to irrigate his fields, a California farmer has constructed the curious apparatus shown in the accompanying photographs. Power from a windmill, transmitted through gears, revolves a spiral-shaped tube of pipe open at both ends. The outside end dips into a water-filled ditch at each revolution. Water is thus picked up, and runs by gravity around the spiral to the hub as the wheel revolves. An opening in the hub dis-charges the water into a trough four feet above the level in the ditch, giving a sufficient lift for the irrigation purposes desired.

SUN’S RAYS ARE HARNESSED IN SOLAR FURNACE

ARCHIMEDES, famous mathematician, is said to have set fire to the fleet of the Roman emperor, Marcellus, by the use of a series of concave mirrors concentrating the sun’s rays upon the fleet. John Ericsson, the designer of the Monitor, of civil war fame, constructed several engines having boilers provided with mechanical devices for effecting the necessary concentration of solar rays which, when collected from 100 square feet of surface, effected the evaporation of 489 cubic inches of water per hour, more than equivalent to one horsepower. This is, however, but a small proportion of the potential energy actually developed by solar heat hourly received upon an area of this size. Read the rest of this entry »

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Giant Wind Turbines

Currents in Upper Air Form Unfailing Source of Power for “Windmills” of Future

WIND, at the surface of the earth, is proverbially uncertain; but recent researches show that, a thousand feet or more above the ground, wind is comparatively steady and unfailing. This has given new life to the hope of finding a substantial source of natural power, even more universally available than water power; and the designs illustrated here have been prepared by a German engineer, Honnef, the erector of several huge radio towers. As shown here, the structure carrying the power plant would be higher than any other building man has yet been able to erect.
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Putting Nature’s Power to Work

Methods of Harnessing Natural Energy Described by DICK COLE

Upward of 40,000 inventions a year are granted patents by Uncle Sam, but not one of these offers a practical solution of the problem which scientists agree is the most pressing of them all— that is, how to harness natural sources of energy for power. Mr. Cole does not profess to have solved the problem, but the methods he describes here point out the trend of probable development.

WHAT is the most needed invention? Not television—not new kinds of airplanes—not speedier automobiles. Men of science are agreed that what the world needs most is a motor which converts the sun’s rays and other forms of natural energy into usable power. Orville Wright, Lee De Forest, Elihu Thomson, and other leading scientists are among those who proclaim the need for a new motor.
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Sunlight Powers Automobile
POWERED by the same kind of solar cells used in space vehicles, this car—a 1912 Baker electric— has a top speed of 20 mph.

The 26 sq. ft. panel atop the car contains some 10,640 silicon cells which convert sunlight to electricity. The car was rigged with the cells merely to demonstrate the potential of solar power conversion, and the cells produce enough electricity in eight hours of sunlight to run it for only an hour.

The system was developed by Dr. Charles A. Es-coffery, technical assistant to the president of International Rectifier Corp., El Segundo, Calif. Cost of the solar cell panel is about $15,000. In mass production quantities of a hundred or so, it could be sold for $2,000 to $3,000, says Dr. Escoffery.

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New Schemes for Harnessing the Winds

INVENTORS PROPOSE STRANGE PLANS TO BRING THE OLD DUTCH MILL UP TO DATE

IS THE windmill coming back? With strange, unconventional types, inventors are seeking to adapt it to a modern age. Their experiments may bring new success in man’s effort for 800 years or more to harness the wind for power.

Centuries ago, people milled their flour, sawed wood, and pumped water with the picturesque European windmills whose enormous “sails” swept from earth to sky. This country contributed the smaller and more practical narrow-bladed type that pumps water on farms today. A new miniature design shaped like an airplane propeller charges storage batteries for radios and for lighting rural homes.
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Super-Windmills

Plans are being made to harness mankind’s oldest and cheapest source of power for industry by means of huge aerogenerators.

By Frank Tinsley

THE next few years may see a decided change in the landscape of our country. In certain strategic places which promise a constant, strong wind such as mountain passes, will grow strange structures resembling the Martian machines of H. G. Wells. But these will be instruments of construction, rather than destruction —tall, steel towers supporting fans to convert wind energy into electrical power.
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