88 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



gas, and whatever liquid of condensation may be mingled with it, are 

 discharged by the ejector from the condenser into the low pressure boiler, 

 the ejector being worked by the higher pressure into the high pressure 

 boiler. As a result the low pressure boiler is continually receiving ammonia 

 and heat from the high pressure boiler. This excess of ammonia in 

 the liquid form is pumped by an ordinary pump from the low 

 pressure back to the high pressure boiler, while the excess of heat is con- 

 tinuously being converted into the mechanical work done by the engine. There 

 is also the extinction of such part of the heat in the high pressure ammonia gas 

 working the ejector as is due to the work dooe by it in forcing the contents of the 

 condenser into the low pressure boiler. Of course the cylinder, heat condenser, 

 the low pressure broiler, and their connections are protected from receiving heat 

 from the atmosphere and surrounding objects by a non-conducting substance. 



The plan proposed is far from chimerical. It is based on well demonstrated 

 thermodynamical principles. The whole is definite and precise, both in theory 

 and mechanical detail, nor can it be shown, a priori, that there is not a fair pros- 

 pect for success. There can be no doubt that the product of the pressure and 

 volume of the contents of the condenser which are to be forced into the low pres. 

 sure boiler, is less than the product of the pressure and volume of the ammonia 

 gas which leaves that boiler to operate the engine, and that this difference which 

 has not been produced by the external application of artificial cold, but by the 

 working of the machine itself, is available for the production of power for indus- 

 trial purposes. All that remains is to give the system a practical test in order to 

 ascertain whether the mechanism proposed will act efficiently enough to realize 

 the expected result. Should this prove to be the case, the steam engine will, within 

 the near future, be certainly superseded by the zeromotor, for the great item of 

 coal, whose cost is the principal expense of operating the former, will be wholly 

 eliminated with the latter. If it can once be practically shown that a very much 

 cheaper, lighter, and a far less bulky mechanism than the steam engine, including 

 for the latter its boilers, and, in case of steam vessels, the coal bunker and its con- 

 tents, can be employed for the production of power to any amount without the 

 use of fuel, nothing can prevent its introduction into general use for all industrial 

 purposes, with the vast result of a great cheapening to mankind of every article 

 of manufacture, from the daily bread of the poor to the luxurious textures which 

 robe the rich. The whole world is concerned in the solution of this problem, and 

 the poorer the person the greater is his interest in it. The source of heat for the 

 steam engine is the continually diminishing supply of coal — a diminution that will 

 be severely felt some centuries hence ; but the source of heat for the zeromotor is 

 as inexhaustible as the sun himself, and will last undiminished as long as he 

 shines. 



The success of the zeromotor is of more importance to the Navy of the 

 United States than to the navies of the great maritime powers of Europe with 

 which it may come in collision, because those powers have colonies and coaling 



