THE IREIGATION AGE. 



153 



in places where the outside temperature runs from 

 110 to 140 Fahr. 



As an irrigation engine there is no limit to the 

 amount of power that can be practically utilized, 

 and for this purpose the conditions need not be so 

 very favorable as those mentioned above. Through- 

 out most of the tropical regions sun-power will 

 prove very profitable in irrigation. One advantage 

 of the sun-power, or in fact, of any condensing plant 

 for irrigating purposes, is that the water used for 

 the condenser costs nothing, as the main output of 

 the engine can be passed through the condenser first 

 before entering the irrigating canals. It is pointed 

 out that the interior of Australia was, at one time, a 

 fertile country, as is evidenced by the fossilized 

 trees. Here is an area of some 600 miles in each 

 direction which is entirely valueless. During a 

 drought there have been times when one-third of 

 the sheep raised on the margins of this desert died 

 from thirst, causing great financial loss. In this 

 locality the sun shines with an intensity sufficient 

 to produce an average daily temperature of 100 to 

 140 F. The occasional rains nourish the sparse 

 vegetation necessary for sheep, which are watered 

 from wells driven in the ground and pumped, gen- 

 erally by horse power, very often by hand power, 

 and sometimes by means of fuel oil, which, by the 

 time it reaches its destination brings the coal equiva- 

 lent up to some $20 per ton. By building sun en- 

 gine in this region, and pumping from the always 

 present underground water which in this region lies 

 at a depth of from 15 to 40 feet, this country can be 

 made productive and valuable. Throughout Eastern 

 India and Ceylon many thousands of square miles 

 of farm land can be improved three-fold by mechani- 

 cal irrigation. Hand pumping is mainly the present 

 form of irrigation used. 



In Egypt agriculture depends entirely upon irri- 

 gation furnished by the River Nile through its 

 periodic overflow. The English government built 

 the Assuan Dam at an enormous expense, and 

 widened the irrigable area about half a mile on each 

 side of the Nile, thus adding greatly to the tillable 

 portion of Egypt. Of course, when the Nile is in 

 flood infinitely more water than necessary is fur- 

 nished, but the demand is for a supply which can 

 be depended on from day to day, especially at sea- 

 sons of low water. This supply at present is fur- 

 nished by the hand labor of some 100,000 fellaheen, 

 who pump by means of a shadoof method. The sun 

 engine now installed and working in Egpyt does the 

 work of about a thousand of these laborers. 



Throughout Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and 

 Southern California there is room for any amount of 

 power for irrigating purposes alone. These states 

 show an average of 90 per cent sunlight, and the 

 cost of fuel is practically prohibitive in most of this 

 region. It is held that 10 per cent of the earth's land 

 surfaces will eventually depend upon the sun power 

 for all mechanical operations. Given inexhaustible 

 power, which is, of course, always obtainable from 

 the sun, and utilizing the nitrogen in the air for fer- 

 tilizer in the form of nitrates and such compounds 

 as calcium cyanamide, the human race will be en- 

 abled to draw directly on the source of all life for 

 power and sustenance. In this sun-power plant, the 



engine, condenser and the ordinary steam boiler 

 are to be compared. 



It is found that at this time the initial cost of the 

 sun-heat absorber in question is about double that 

 of a first-class boiler plant of equal power. The 

 great economy occurs in the item of fuel. In dis- 

 tricts especially suitable for sun power the cost of 

 coal, or its equivalent, is usually very high, the price 

 ranging generally from $10 to $30 per ton. To offset 

 this, no fuel at all is required by the sun heater. In 

 the matter of maintenance and repairs, also, the ad- 

 vantage lies with the sun power. It is estimated that 

 the repairs should not be in excess of 5 per cent per 

 year on the initial cost, inasmuch as the apparatus 

 works at low temperature, while the ordinary boiler 

 requires flue fases up to 2,500. This wear of the 

 parts must manifestly be much greater in the latter 

 form of the power plants. Many parts of the sun- 

 power plant, such as the metal heaters, piping, foun- 

 dation and insulation are practically everlasting, 

 barring accidental breakage ; the only item of repair 

 being the wooden frames and glass covers, and it is 

 found that after an installation of glass has once 

 been tested out by the heat and the badly annealed 

 sheets replaced, the remainder will last for years. 



This was evidenced by the small 18 by 60 heater 

 in operation for three years in Philadelphia. There 

 was a replacement of about 10 per cent, necessary 

 during the first three weeks ; thereafter the heater 

 ran three seasons and only two or three sheets of 

 glass needed replacement, these being accidentally 

 broken. Mr. Shuman holds that the future develop- 

 ment of solar power has no limit. 



Where great natural water power exists, sun 

 power cannot compete, but sun power generators 

 will, in the near future, displace all other forms of 

 mechanical power over at least 10 per cent of the 

 earth's land surface ; and in the far distant future, 

 natural fuels having been exhausted, it will remain 

 as the only means of existence of the human race. 

 There seems to be no question but that the Egyptian 

 sun power plant has satisfied all of the claims of the 

 inventor and has demonstrated the successful utiliza- 

 tion of the sun's heat for irrigation service in tropi- 

 cal countries. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



January 30, 1913. 

 From 



Syed Barhanuddin, 



Surveyor Irrigation Branch, 

 Care Syed Gous, Esq., 

 High Court Pleader, 



Ufzalganj, Hyderabad (Decan), India. 

 Editor IRRIGATTOK AGE, Chicago. 



Dear Sir: I am given to understand by Messrs. W. & G. Foxe, 

 book-sellers at London, that your journal is the best one on Irriga- 

 tion Engineering. I wish to become a subscriber of the magazine. 

 I shall be greatly obliged if you send me a specimen copy of the 

 paper and also inform me of its yearly subscription. 



Will you kindly suggest any best book on "Indian Storage and 

 Reservoirs" in which the principles and practice of irrigation are 

 fully dealt? 



I wish to send my brother to America to learn electrical and 

 mechanical engineering. Will not be kind enough to let me know 

 about the full particulars of the- best college in the U. S. A. which you 

 would suggest? Kindly send me a copy of the prospectus of th? 

 college, if you can. What may be the average expenses as regards 

 boarding, lodging, fees of the college, etc. In case you are unabU- 

 to send me particulars please let me know from whom I can obtain 

 such information. 



I believe you wouldn't mind sending me the regulations of the 

 University of Chicago. 



I hope that I will receive an early reply. 



Yours faithfully, 



(Signed) SYED BARHANUDDIN. 



