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most of us what an immense waste of unutilised force is for ever going 
on around us. Take for example, the rays of thesun, though of course, 
this applies more particular!y to countries which are more abundantly 
blessedwith sunshine than we are. If we could only economically (for 
that is the knotty problem—that question of £ s. d.) utilise the 
wasted light and heat of the sun by concave reflectors, condensers, 
conyex lenses, &c., what an amount of work we might get from the 
mighty ruler of our universe. Then there is the power of the daily 
recurring tides, utilised at present only in floating ships up and 
down rivers—no small matter, by the way—but if we could only 
store up some, even a tithe of this immense energy, what work 
might we not accomplish with it. This is a scheme over which 
T have often pondered, but the only machinery I can in imagination 
devise, would be, I know, too intricate and ponderous to pay. 
What I believe to be the most feasible plan would be to collect and 
store up some of the prodigious water power running constantly to 
waste in the numberlessrivers, torrents, and streams in different 
parts of the world. When travelling in Norway, Switzerland, the 
Tyrol, or other mountainous districts, I have often been struck 
with the almost limitless power thus running to waste from the 
innumerable torrents rushing down from the mountains above, and 
the comparative ease with which it might be made available and 
stored in Faure’s or some other form of electric accumulators. This 
accumulator, I would remind you, is only a box 91n. high by 5in. 
in diameter, packed with a pair of lead plates coated with red lead, 
and sheathed in felt which is saturated with sulphuric acid and 
water. This is a simple and very portable machine and yet when 
charged with electricity from a battery, or revolving dynamos, is 
capable of receiving and storing up a charge of electric force or 
energy sufficient to lift one million pounds to the height of one 
foot. The cost of charging any number of boxes would be almost 
nil, for the motive power, which commonly necessitates a steam 
engine, t.e., expensive coal and more expensive machinery, is here 
supplied by nature in infinite quantity and without cost. All that 
would be required, would be a revolving water wheel, which would, 
as it were, “tap” the power of the torrent and thereby turn 
‘dynamos, by which the electric force would be generated and stored 
in the accumulator. It would then become merely a question of 
expense of transport of the accumulators, and that is really ‘ the 
rub,” for these torrents and streams are usually in more or less in- 
accessible districts and the cost of carriage would be a very expen- 
sive item. Think of the motive power, the heating, the lighting power 
to be derived from Niagara; but the Americans, though an eminently 
practical people, are not quite educated up to this pitch. 
To return to our own affairs we are all, I am sure, glad to welcome 
