Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1901 — ENGINE RUN BY SUNSHINE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ENGINE RUN BY SUNSHINE.

Ingenious Yankee Has a Solar Motor in Full Operation in California. Bottled sunshine is one of the dreams of science. When it becomes possible to run motors with the energy of. the 3un's rays without the intervention of coal or steam, the world will be revolutionized. The discoverer of the process will work greater changes than any Alexander of Caesar Who ever lived and conquered. Science has long known how to make steam with sunshine, but the discovery has hitherto taken an experimental rather than a practical form. California now claims the distinction of showing that a “solar motor” may be a commercial success. Perhaps this should have been expected of the land of sunshine, and yet, oddly enough, the machine comes from the foggy coast of New England. The Yankee notion is from Boston and has Just been set up at the ostrich farm

near South Pasadena. The sun’s heat is being used to make steam, which in turn funs an engine to pump water. Famous John Ericsson devoted years of thought and experiment to his sun motor, but It was never perfected. The motor shown in the illustration has, however, reached the stage of successful application, and is now on exhibition as a practicable machine, working a 10-horso-power engine capable of lifting 1,400 gallons of water a minute.

The main feature of this sun motor is a huge affair like a glass umbrella minus the handle. It is furnished with 1,800 mirrors, each about two feet long and three inches wide. It swings on a circle thirty-five feet in diameter and concentrates the sun’s rays on a boiler having a capacity of 100 gallons. It takes about an hour to generate steam, showing a pressure of 150 pounds to the square inch.

PRACTICAL SUN MOTOR.