Possibilities Of The Sun's Heat

Last Sunday evening Mr. Townley, instructor in astronomy in the University; gave the engineering society a talk on the heat of the sun. Many experiments have been tried, he said, for the purpose of determining the sun's heat, giving widely differing results. The most satisfactory trial was made in Pittsburg, by comparing the heat and light of that body with a mass of molten steel. From this it appears that the temperature of that body lies between 3,000 degrees and 30,000 degrees centigrade. Mr. Townley thinks that the time will come when the sun's heat will be put to mechanical use. It is estimated that the coal fields of England will give out in 300 years. And since, .in machines already made, enough sunlight has been concentrated by means of lenses and concave surfaces to boil water and produce a sufficiency of steam to drive machinery, it is likely that when the coal supply fails England, she will adopt means of utilizing the sun's rays to maintain her commercial prestige. Then the seat of manufacturing may be changed from regions like our own to the more favorable climes of the south, and even, perhaps, to the burning deserts of África where clouds are never seen.