THE SUN’S ENERGY—DANIELS 249 
Decade, if we want it. Shall we ask ICSU for an international com- 
mittee on solar energy ? 
What can industry do to accelerate the utilization of solar energy ? 
Among the most obvious aids would be mass production of large para- 
bolic mirrors of aluminum pressed out with dies, or of plastics with 
vaporized metallic films. Small, low-pressure steam turbines or 
steam engines, die-cast and produced in mass could help greatly to 
relieve human labor in some of the nonindustrialized areas. One- to 
ten- or fifty-horsepower engines of sufficiently low cost could find an 
immediate and large foreign market with some domestic demand, 
even if the engines are quite ineflicient. The development of thin 
plastics is needed for collectors of solar energy and particularly for 
the distillation of salt water. Special characteristics are needed such 
as wetting by water and opaqueness in the far infrared, but the chief 
demands are for low cost and ability to withstand years of exposure 
to bright sunlight. 
Storage batteries at less than one-tenth the cost of automobile bat- 
teries are needed, but they do not need to be small and portable. 
While laboratory research goes on for new ideas and new methods, 
studies of mass production of new materials and new machines by 
industry may well lead to rapid advances in the utilization of the 
sun’s energy. 
Solar-energy utilization is rapidly coming of age. Many people 
have become interested and steady progress will be made. But don’t 
expect miracles. We must go back to our Jaboratories and roll up 
our sleeves with ideas newly stimulated and try to extract more value 
from our sunshine. It is there for us, if we can be smart enough to 
find it. 
But I am confident that the scientists and engineers can and will 
bring a new era of prosperity and peace to the whole world. The 
“Atoms for Peace” conference of the United Nations in 1955 opened 
up a great new hope for atomic power. Perhaps Arizona’s “Sun 
for Man’s Use” conference will be just as important. The first 
half of our century may go down in history as the period of great wars, 
and it is not impossible that the second half of the century may come 
to be known as the beginning of a peaceful, power-abundant era in 
man’s evolution. We know now that through research there is a 
chance that we can have mechanical power and electricity all over 
the world; and a greater equalization of industria] productivity in 
all countries may tend to lessen war tensions. I believe that by a 
judicious combination of fossil fuels, atomic energy, and solar energy 
the whole world can have within this century all the mechanical 
power and material comforts that it wants. This development will 
not solve all the world’s problems, because man does not live by kilo- 
watts alone; but it will help. 
