1925-03-14 — Page 7

SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1925.

THE CHINA, MAIL

HARNESSING THE

STEAM GUSHES MY CLOUDS 2240/7HE BAPE HILLSIDES - GY THE LEFT-ASTEAP WELL M ONGPATIOŻY, SHOWING CONNECTION

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"P/P JEAN PIERA FIL VRATES ofALAYCA

Boring for Volcanic Steam in the Alexander Valley, To Drive Engines. Which Will Operate Dynamos for the Production of Electrical Power On a Great Scale.

4BY KENE BACHEL

Wear putting our volcimer to work', 'for lighting farmsteads and towns and his no longer a mere dren; the for us ne power. thing being done, Ir Sonoma County, Cal, volcane has been successfully Furnessed and is producing steam for power.

Two "steam well," have been bored to depth of 370, fest, and are together vividing power which is reckoned by electrien engineers as equivalent to 1,500 kilowatts an hour.

What that means may be judged from the fart that big dynamos in modern power riations develop hardly more than 4,000 kilowatts per hour.

To operate those dynamos requires fuel or its equivalent in, water power. The former is expensive; the supply of the latter aynilaĹte at 'a' power station i necessarily limited. But the volcanic nothing, and in the steam usÎM Alexander Valley, of Sonoma County there are unliniites quantities of ju literally on tap |

The expretation is thai hundreds and eventually thousands of steam weils will be opened in the valley, producing electricity which can be distributed by wires over a vist extent of territory,

|

To hore the wella is cheap. Steam from the first one was used to bore the verond, near by, and from the same source comes the power that is now being employed to drive at third, half a mile further up the valley. As set the work is in an experimental stage.

In parts of the valley there is stemm to be found by baring one three or four feel beneath the surface. Indeed, there are many places/where steam gushes in clouds from the bare hillsides,

Boilers Underground.

The explanation is that, down below, subterranean river is flowing over candescent Pucks, is water being thereby converted into steam. In effect,

crist iH deep in the Earth's

1 Ax A. tremendous battery of boilers. source of power they are not likely to show perceptible impairment for many hundred of years to comes

Geologists say that the Alexander Valley was a feene of great volcanic activity within comparatively recent Less than 100,000 years ago

times.

CALIFORNIA

VOLCANOES

here were violent eruptions in that stein Tuxhes out with such violence so successful that at-the-prenent time.

neighbourhood, with enormous outlows offara. To-day there is quiescence, but at no very great depth the rocks are still at so high temperature that they would be fun if set free and poured but upon the surface.

Hence it will be understand why there is so much steam underground, and how it happens that the hot vaper, over an area of a dozen square miles, seeks release.

Not only in this respect does the region have a weirdness of its own. Some of the streams are black, verit able rivers of ink, their waters being actually utilizuble

writing. Hydrogen sulphide, acting upon iron in the water. produces this strange effect. this a plienomenon due to valennium.

for

A volcano is a chemical laboratory, in which nature does many remarkable things, using tremendous heat to make new combinations of elements. One of her high-temperature products "le the diamond, which, though we know it to? be a crystal of pure carbon, we have

imitate. tried in vain

Similar To Oil Wells.

The steam wells are bored like ardin- ary oil wells and with the same sort of equipment. They are lined with an iron ripe, or "easing" and at the outlet is set a, valve by which the flow can be controlled. Thus the steam, can be drawn as it is wanted.

When the control valves of the two now-existing wells are opened, the

that its roar can be heard for miles up and down the valley. One muy judge, then, of the pressure under which it is confined, und of the quantity of, steam available for operating turbine ongines La drive dynamos for the production of electricity

Hawa A Tremendous Source. Of Power. Experimental borings for stem in Hawaii, which have been in progress for some time, near the brink of the crater of Kilauea, have of necessity been inter- rupted recently, owing to dangerous Although fully active, Kilauea, in ruthuruLs of the volcanu. aelatively quiet ordinarily, the crater, half a mile in diameter, which the natives call the Pit, of Everlasting Firo, resembling a gigantic cauldron filled with molten lava that continually bolls and bubbles, throwing upward fountains. of living flame. It is the mouth of a great chimney that extends for down. ward into the bowels of the Earth.

If borings of sufficient depth can be nmde, steam unlimited quantities ught to be obtainable. The main dif- culty lies in, the extreme hardness of the rock, which is basalt, itself of it, igneous origin. To penetrate diamond drills are employed,

Volcanic Power In Italy. For several years past volcanic steam, cbtained from deep borings in Tuscany (Italy), has been used for generating electrical power on a very considerable scale. The enterprise, indeed, has been

the Italian government in making: experimental borings for steam on the slopes of Vesuvius and on Mount Etna in Steily.

The methods now being employed to create steam welle in the Alexander Valley of California are based upor 80 successfully in those adopted Tuscany, where, about 120 miles north west of Rome, puffing holes and boiling springs are plentifully scattered over forty square miles of a region which in ancient times must have been intensely volcanic.

Cluschi hit upon the idea of developing ditional springs by drilling deep holas in the vicinity of the natural ones. It worked out most successfully; but the unfortunate man, stumbling on the edge of one of his own pits, fell into it and was boiled to death.

That clever scheme of his 'did, how- ever, so augment the output of horie acid that production jumped to mote than 2,000 Lona a year, and the industry altained such importance as to bring into being a number of towns and villages in a region which previously had heen penetically uninhabited.

Harnessing The Pulling Holes, The water from the springs wast evaporated in huge cauldrons, wood being used for, fuel. But after a while wood besume too scarce, and dear, und then it was, in 1827, that a Frenchman, Comte Francëls de Lurdere conrgives the notion of employing steam from the puding holes to furnish the heat. This method is still in use, the wntur being. '' drawn into immense pans lined with leni, beneath which the volcanic steam in conducted through colls of alumínium pipe.

Not until some time after the dawn. of 'the twentieth century did it occur to the engineers in charge of the bori ueld works that steam from the puffing holen might turned to profitable. account for power. It was just bou nineteen years ago that Prince Ginori. Conti, the chief managing director made the first experiment in that line, putting a ensing down one of the holes... capping it with a control valve, and turning the steam through a pipe into a piston engine. The engine ran beauti- "fully.

It was obviously an important dis covery, and great was the delight of everybody concerned., Without delay the building of a bigger and more efficient engine was undertaken. Un... fortunately, a very serious difficulty soon became manifest. The steam from the puffing holes contained corrosiva. chemical salt which attacked the

Solution Of The Puzzle. This problem was finally solved by using the volcanic steam only as fuel to make steam from pure water. The apparatus that handles the steam as it comes from the puffing holes has pipes) of aluminium, proof against the action' of the corrosive sults.

One might suppose that the drilling. of many holes would have a tendency to diminish the pressure at the holes already bored, but experience has proved this not be the case. The pressure con tinues uniform and constant, showing no signs of lessening. Usually the wells are drilled to a depth of about 400 feet, fetching steam at sixty feel.

Natural Steam Walls Characteristic. of the plutonic mani-machinery and prosently disabled it. festations on the island of Vulcanò are "puting holes" that discharge steam, and which are evidently the outlets of With much better prospects of c- small openinga that extend far down cass, it is driving a number of experi-into the depths. In the Tuscan Valley mental steam wells on the small island already mentioned such puffing holes called Vulcano, which is one of the are numerous. They are in fact natural Lipari group (all of them more or less ates well, some of which have been netively volcanic), north of Sicily. harnessed for the production of 'electri- A glance at the map will show that cal power, though most of the wells the great active volcano of Stromboli,, used for the purpose are artificial

borings.. the "lighthouse of the Mediterranean' 150 called because the reflection of its. hogs in the sky at night can often be scen. from a distance of 100 or more niles), is located on an istand forty-odd miles north-west of Messina. The Lipari Inles are subsidiary peaks of Stromboli that emerge above the sea.

Vulcane was supposed by the unclents to be the home of the blacksmith, god Vulcan, his workshop being directly beneath it. The island is frequently eruptive with some violence, and at all times clouds of steam may be an pouring out of rocky crevices in many places. There is more than reasonable expectation that by systematic boring, will prove practicable to develop batteries of steam wells, which may perhaps yield power enough to supply all of Sicily and even southorn Italy

Bubniarine through

cables), with electricity for lighting and industrial purposes. Inasmuch as Italy has no cost, the economic help thus afforded would be of inestimable value.

The puffing holes go down through granite trala to great depths where exceedingly high volcanic-temperatures prevail. Subterranean streams, it is supposed, flow through the hot rocks down below, and thair waters, converted into superheated vapour, rush upward, secking emergence through the ground. The springs occupy depressions which aro little craterlets.

The water of the springs containg much borle acid, and for more than a century they have yielded large cam- raercial supplies of that valuable pro- duct. An Italian enginoor named

Better Wella In California. It is reasonably to be inferred that the steam wells in California will show the same constancy of pressure, and that they will deliver undiminished quantities of.steam for hundreds of years to come, conditions being altogether similar to those observed in the Tuscan Valley, In the Alexander Valley, however, the aleam emerges from the boringe in much greater volume and at a higher pressure..

Another advantage claimed for the valenie steam of the Alexander Valley is that it contains no corrosive chemical salts, A that it can probably be used direct (as it is already being employed on a small scale) for driving enginef to operate dynamios for the production. of electrical power.

WORLD THEATRE

To-day Only, at 5.15 & 9.15 p.m.-

MONTE BLUE

and

IRENE RICH

IN

Their Most Wonderful Photodrama

DEFYING DESTINY

A ROMANTIC DRAMA CENTERING AROUND THE LIFE LONG LOVE BETWEEN A DAUGHTER OF WEALTH AND A SON OF POVERTY. ALTHOUGH SCARRED BY FLAMES AND PUBLIC OPINION THE MAN NEVER LOSES THE GIRL'S LOVE AND TRUST. THE MICTURE HAS A STORY TO TELL AND IN BUSINESS-LIKE WAY GOES AHEAD AND TELLS IT. THERE ARE NO THRILLS, NO ELABORATE SCENIC SIDEPLAY, JUST A REGULAR PLAIN ENTERTAINING TALE THAT'LL PLEASE ALL THE FILM

FANS.

DON'T MISS YOUR LAST CHANCE.

COMMENCING SUNDAY at 6.00 & 9.15 p.m. The Greatest Dramatic Stara 1. MOZUKIN

LESSIENKO

The Most Sensational Photodrama

"THE MORPHINE'S PREY

SCREENLAND

"KOENIGSMARK."

perfect, example of the romantic school,

The story revolves around Romahed is forever dear to the human heart. In these days of Princess Aurore Tamesethore fervid and frantic Democracy we cold be no romance without

princess and Rooul, Vignerte a seem to turn instinctively back to the days when knighthood was young Frenchiman engaged as tutor in dower," At a time when the of her ward; a boy prince and proudest thrones of Europe were future ruler of his people.

The scene is laid in the Grand swept away in a tornado of Ke- publicanist, we seem to delight | Dutchy of Lautenbourg, in which m pictures showing the glazing We may easily recognize any of splendour of the court of Le Roi the two dozen small principalities Soleil, or the sombre shadows of abounding in Europe before the the mountain fastnesses. of Hentzun

War.

has been brought out in this picture in a very successful manner.

The story shows the power of an unfortunate passion in its evil aspects, and it depicts in the same time the greatness of the sacritice of the man, who when unable to passion, overcome his dreadful quietly steps aside to give place for those whom he thinks more fit This photoplay was and useful. directed by the distinguished actor himself, and under his able hands the highest dramatic efforts were attained.

"THE GAIETY GIRL"

Mary Philbin is a gleaming meteer across the motion picture horizon. Literally the Cinderella of the Screen," she rose, practically over night, from a practically un- known player to the biggest box- office attraction in the history of Merry-Go- motion pictures.

There are guards and gloomy halls, jewelled women and courtly From the drab sobriety of our

gentlemen, splendid receptione and garb we love to look at gentlemen dazzling court functions. A family dressed in silk and lace, and from skeleton discovered by the young ladies dressed in strange though French, duels and conflagrations, costly scantiness we let our eyes and in the end the grim spectre of Winder to the richness of the war threatening to engulf the crinoline. After the frenzy of country. How the woman of the the foxtrot, the stateliness of the story saves the man she loves, minuet comes like a balmy breeze rises above intrigues and hatreds, in a hot summer night. It is one and in doing so saves her people of the strange riddles of the human from war with all its horrors Round, Universal's spectacular heart that we must love what we all this is portrayed with conlove-story of old Vienna, did it. have destroyed. We are much summate artistry and never erring like a child having tired of a toy | faste. and broken it and then Badly gathering the pieces in its little hands weeping.

This remarkable screen star first attained notice when, as a Chicago high school girl, she was proclaimed a winner in a beauty contest, and "THE MORPHINE'S PREY." following this she was brought to Universal City, First-ahe played number of small rolce. Because of her fragile beauty and a latent spark of genius, she was cast for the little organ-grinder in Morry

True, we want to see democracy. triumphant in the end, we Want common humanity to win over The world's greatest dramatic exalted privilege, but we like to stars are presented in this most see the victory against a rich back gripping photodracas: The Master ground of aristocratic splendour. Work of a truly great artist Go Round Maybe future generations will out The artistic genius- of Mr. She dominated the picture. grow this longing probably this Mozukin coupled with his infinite Millions wept and, smiled with her. will be the case. But we who understanding of human nature, At once her name became almost have grown old in the accustomed has made this picture a Slide Of a household word. tab order of thinge cannot help a little Row Life Itself. In this fine proThen followed Fools High- heartache, cannot help asking dustion Mr. Mozikin, neaisted way and as Mamie Rose, sometime Where are the snows by the highly-talented Madame wistful little clothes mender of the Pefoy enterynau Ffensibly, the

inore became the purely romantle filmy ever produc

World Theatre.

teutonic

Based

"finest writers (of mos Action, Pierre Be with all the fineness of touch, of which the

vyr; dramatic exactions and the talk

the

WORLD THEATRE

BY SPECIAL REQUEST

ROMANTIC

“KOENIGSMARK”

Will Be Shown Again On Tuesday, 17th,

A PRODUCTION SO PERFECT THAT IT'LL BE PRE- EMINENT AMONG THE GREATEST PICTURES OF THE YEAR:

A MASTERFIECE OF THE SPECTACULAR IN MOVING FICTURES, FORTRAYING A MOST SUBLIME LOVE STORY, WITH SUMPTUOUS AND GORGEOUS SCENES, 11. REPRESENTS BEYOND QUESTION OF A DOUBT THE SUMMIT OF MOTION PICTURE ACHIEVEMENT.

With Special Music at Reduced Prices:

COMMENCING FRIDAY NEXT, 20th.,

The Fausous

MERRY-GO-ROUND GIRL AND FANDOM'S FAIREST FAVOURITE

MARY PHILBIN

THE GAIETY GIRL"

JACK DEMPSEY

"FIGHT AND WIN"

REMEMBER THE DATE