HOW

- --

AND
WHY

(J/tmdlA, &Mflj

THE HOW AND WHY. WONDER BOOK OF

ENERGY AN,D POWER

Written by C. BRUCE SIBLEY
Illustrated by RAYMOND TURVEY

TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS LTD. LONDON

INTRODUCTION
Energy has always been (and always will be) the
cement of modern civilised society. First, there
were machines operated by the muscle-power of
man or the toil of horse and oxen. The wheel,
lever, pulley, inclined plane or ramp, and ' the
windlass helped early man construct wondrous
temples, palaces, and other structures which to
this day startle our imagination and cause us to
praise the engineering skill used by the ancients.
Of course, we must not forget another 'energy'
aid-the sail. Ships and boats rigged with sails
took early civilised man across charted and
uncharted seas, opening up new trade and increasing knowledge. The power of the wind was utilised
on land too, windmills were coupled to heavy
grinding stones used to mill corn .. Water power
was used for the same purpose.
Later, during the 18th and 19th centuries,
man's curiosity took him into deeper and deeper
regions of chemistry and physics. The new
knowledge gained from these studies resulted in the industrial revolution. Coal and 'steam power'
changed the outlook of mankind, practically every activity was touched by the invention of the steam
engine. No longer was man dependent .on the horse and ox, or on the whims of the wind-steam power
meant railways and steam driven ships. The world grew smaller.
,
Coal gas also played a major role in the industrial society, lighting homes, offices, factories, hospitals,
and streets. And the energy released by burning coal was used to heat the furnaces of industrial processes.
Coal gas also 'cooked' food and warmed the home.
Then came the internal combustion engine, powered by 'petroleum', a new fuel extracted from wells
of crude oil. By 1903, the first powered flight was made-propelled by a petrol-fuelled engine.
Meanwhile, electricity, once the curiosity and play-thing of 18th and 19th century scientists, had come
of age. The energy of dammed water and that of steam was harnessed to drive electric-turbines, thus
providing man with his second and possibly greatest industrial change. Electricity is the life-blood of the
modern way of life.
By the mid-1930's, mankind was exploiting water power, coal, gas, electricity and petroleum at a
rate that gave some experts cause for alarm. We were, they claimed, using up more and more energy and
therefore depleting stocks of coal and oil that could not be replaced. But in those somewhat carefree times
few took the warnings s~riously.
The 1930's also saw the dawn of a new science-atomic physics (or nuclear physics as it is called today).
Certainly this young science had its foundations back in the very early years of scientific investigation,
but without electricity and the development of sophisticated instruments and atomic machines, very little
progress had been made. Atoms are the basic building bricks of all matter-everything we know is built
from these incredibly minute particles. By the outbreak of the Second World War it was clear that the
atom was not only a fundamental piece of the universe-it was also the storehouse of considerable quantities
of energy.! The key to this energy lay with a process called 'nuclear fission' and the result was the atomic
bomb! Today, we have perhaps learnt the error or our ways because atomic energy is serving man in a
peaceful capacity; all over the world man is operating and constructing nuclear power stations which
generate tremendous amounts of electricity from the fission of relatively small amounts of uranium.
But time has caught up with us and the warnings of an energy famine are part of our everyday life.
Nobody chuckles and shakes their head when an expert warns that coal and petroleum will run out by 2025.
Or that uranium, the .precious fuel of nuclear reactors, will be depleted by 2050. Of course, we must not
ignore this trend. Each day we learn of some new idea or scheme for generating electricity-the lifeblood
of modern man. Some of these plans are discussed in this book but the reader must forgive me if no mention
is made of erecting huge mirrors in Space in order to focus the heat of the sun towards collectors on earth.
Or if I neglect the possibility of constructing vast floating cities which convert wave energy into electricity.
These are exciting ideas but we have no way of achieving them in the time that is left. Instead, we must
direct our attention towards schemes that do work-like using geothermal steam to generate electricity or
harnessing fusion power-fuelled by the almost unlimited supplies of deuterium extracted from our oceans.
Originally published in Great Britain by Transworld Publishers Ltd.
PRINTING HISTORY
Transworld edition reprinted 1976
Copyright 1976 Transworld Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
The How and Why Wonder Book Series is originated and published
in the U.S.A. by Grosset and Dunlap. Inc.
Published by Transworld Publishers Ltd., Century House, 61/63 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, London WS SSA .
Printed by Purnell & Sons Ltd., Paulton (Avon) and London.

The kinetic energy of streams and

they are moving around very fast
rivers is used by water-wheels. The
indeed. They warm up the air molecules
by colliding with them and do the same
windmill utilises the kinetic energy of
the wind. In recent years it has been
to the molecules inside the metal of a
suggested that these two age-old
saucypan of water. Then the molecules
. machines could be coupled to electric , of water start to bounce around too and
generators to provide electric power
the ~ater begins to boil. Some of the
water molecules get so agitated that
for small communities.
they 1eave the water and become a
vapour called steam. Steam, trapped
inside a boiler, is potential energy.
When released, it works by driving the
pistons
. (mechanical work) of a steam
.
, engme.
As we go further, we shall learn more
of the nature of energy.

MATTER=ENERGY =MATTER
Everything that exists in the universe is
made of stuff we call matter. Just as
'money' is the generalised name we
give to all world ~nUM-THE FUEL OF
dP' i\10DERN MAN .
37
HEAT(THERMAL)ENERGY
Caloric: an early heat theory
Modern theory of heat
How does heat travel?
How does heat make a gas expand and
perform work?
What is horsepower?
How does the steam-engine work?
What is a steam-turbine engine?
How does the internal combustion engine
work?
What is a diesel engine?
ELECTRICAL ENERGY
What is electricity?
What do we mean by the heating effect
of an electric current?
How is electric power measured?
Batteries: chemical energy into electricity
What is a secondary cell?
Making your own battery experiments
How does magnetism produce electricity
and how does electricity make magnetism?
How do electric motors work?

16
16
16
17
18
19
20
20

20
21
22
22
22
22
23
24
25
25
26

Who drilled the first oil well?

Why is oil and natural gas important to
our modern world?
How is petrol and other fuel extracted
from crude oil?
Who are the chief oil-producing countries?
What is the outlook for gas and petroleum?

37

ATOMIC ENERGY
What are isotopes?
What are radio-active isotopes?
When was radio-activity discovered?
What causes radio-activity?
What is atomic radiation?
What is half-life?
Radioactive uranium: fuel of atomic energy
Nuclear fission: tapping the uranium atom's
energy

40
40
40

ATOMIC PILES AND REACTORS

Atomic piles and reactors
Nuclear fusion-unlimited power for
mankind
Fusion reactors: the sun in a bottle

45
45

INDEX

48

38
38
39
39

41
42
42
43
44

44

47
47

are made up of even tinier particles

called protons, neutrons and electrons.
Until 1905, matter and energy were
considered as being quite separate
things. Then along came one of the
world's greatest minds, Albert Einstein.
Einstein's theories, backed by experimental evidence available at the time
(and subsequently) plus highly involved
mathematics, showed quite conclusively that matter = energy and energy
=matter!
This theory made use of the speed at
which light travels through a vacuum
(space), namely 186,000 miles per
second or 300 x 10 metres per second.
This speed is considered the maximum
speed at which anything can travel.
Einstein said that if you accelerate a
piece of solid matter towards the speed
oflight, it will change into pure energy.
Conversely, if we knew how, matter
could be produced from pure energy by
slowing it down. This pure energy is
mainly in the form of electro-magnetic
waves. (Seep. 16.)
Einstein's formula states: E - Mc 2
Where E = energy produced, M mass (weight per given volume) and c2
is the speed of light multiplied by itself.
To conserve means to save or preserve
intact. Therefore
The conservation of the conservation
matter and energy
of matter and '
energy means to keep them intact. It
has been understood since the 18th
century that matter could not be destroyed, only changed in )ts form.
Whereas the idea that energy cannot be
destroyed was not established properly
until the work of Einstein and others .
had proved the inter-relationship between energy and matter. Now, in the
light of modern scientific evidence, it is
an accepted fact that energy cannot be
destroyed or created, but just transformed from one form to another.

TABLE Q ELE
Atomic
Number

2
3
.4
5
6

7
8
9

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19'
20
21.
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33

34
35
36
37 .
38
39
40
41
42
43
44

45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52

Element

hydrogen
helium
lithium
beryllium
boron
carbon
nitrogen
oxygen
fluorine
neon
sodium
magnesium
aluminium
silicon
phosphorus
sulphur
chlorine
argon
potassium
calcium
scandium
titanium
vanadium
chromium
manganese
iron
cobalt
nickel
copper
zinc
gallium
germanium
arsenic
selenium
bromine
krypton
rubidium
strontium
yttrium
zirconium
niobium
molybdenum
technetium
ruthenium
rhodium
palladium
silver
cadmium
indium
tin
antimony
tellurium

Symbo I

H
He
Li

Be
B

0
F
Ne
Na
Mg
Al
Si
p

s
Cl

A
K
Ca
Sc
Ti

Cr

Mn
Fe
Co
Ni
Cu
Zn

Ga
Ge

As

Se
Br
Kr

Rb
Sr
y
Zr
Nb
Mo

Tc
Ru
Rh
Pd
Ag
Cd

In
Sn
Sb
Te

N um ber
of Protons Number Atomic
and
of
Weight
Electro.ns Neutrons

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
,9
10
II

12
13
14
15
16 17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
.34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44

45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52

0
2
4
5
6
6
7
8
10
10
12
12
14
. 14
16
16
18
22
20
20
24
26
28
28
30
30
32
30
34
34

38
42
42
46
44

48
48
50
50
50
52
56
56
58
58
60
60
66
66
70
70
78

At
Nu

--nf
40
69
90
108
120
140
1'60
.190
202
230
243
270
281
310
321
35,5
399
39.1
401
450
479
509 .
520
549
558
589
587
635
654
697
. 726

749
790
799
838
855
876
889

912
929

959
990

1011
1029
1064
1079
1124
1148
1187
1218
1276

'

.,

Elements of Atoms

ELEMENTS
Atomic
Number

-sr
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
. 61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76

77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
. 97
98
99
100
IOI
102
103

Element

iodine
xenon
caesium
barium
lanthanum
cerium
praseodymium
neodymium
promethium
samarium
europium
gadolin'ium
terbium
dysprosium
holmium
erbium
thulium
ytterbium
.lutetium
hafnium
t~ntalum

tungsten
rhenium
osmium
iridium
platinum
gold
mercury
thallium
lead
bismuth
polonium
astatine
radon
francium
radium
actinium
thorium
protactinium
uranium
neptunium
plutonium
americium
curium
berkelium
californium
einsteinium
fermium
mend~levium

nobelium
lawrencium

Symbol

Number N b r
.
of Protons um e Atomic
and
of
Weight
Electrons Neutrons

Yb
Lu

53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71

Hf

72

Ta

73
74
75
76

Xe

Cs
Ba
La

ce

Pr
Nd
Pm
Sm
Eu
Gd
Tb

Dy
Ho

Er
Tm

w
Re
Os
Ir
Pt
Au

Hg
Tl
Pb

Bi
Po
At
Rn
Fr
Ra

Ac
Th

Pa

u
Np
Pu
Am
Cm
Bk
Cf

Es
Fm
Md
No
Lw

77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
IOI
102
103

74
78
78
82
82
82
82
82
86
90
90
94
94
98
98
98
100
104
104
108
108
110
112
116
116
117
118
122
124
126
126'
125
125
136
136
138
138
142
140
146
144
150
148
151
152
151
155
153
155
152
154

1269
1313
1329
1373
1389
1401
1409
1442
1470
1504
1520
1573
1589
1625
1649
1673
1689
1730
1750
1785
1809
1839
1862
1902
1922
1951
1970
2006
2044
2072
2090
2090
2100
2220
2230
2260
2270 .
2320
2310
2380
2370
2440
2430
2470
2490
2490
2540
2530
2560
2540
2570

All chemical substances that go to

make up our proElem~nts of atoms
ducts, our world
and the universe, are built from 92
basic elements of matter. The Table
seen here, lists all of these elements and
also shows the additional 11 elements
produced artificially in nuclear ma..:
chines. Since there are only 92 basic
elements, there are only 92 basic atoms.
An atom is an extremely small particle, so small in fact that not even the
most powerful electron microscope can
pick one out individually. The central
core of an atom is called the nucleus
(nuclei if more than one ls being
discussed). The nucleus contains one or
more particles called protons. Protons
are positive charges of electricity.

Proton (positive)

Hydrogen-the simplest atom.

Electron (negative)

With the exception of hydrogen

atoms, . aff the remammg elemental
atonis also have neutral charges at the
nucleus in the form of particles called
neutrons. Up to about Calcium in the
Table, the balance between protons
and neutrons is about the same, but
after this, the ratio of neutrons to protons noticeably increases.
ALWAYS remember: the number
of protons in a given atom signifies
which element it is. This number is in
fact called the atomic number. For
example, an atom with an atomic
number of 5 would belong to the
element Boron and have 5 protons in
7

I1:

 5 Electrons
6 Neutrons
5 Protons

remammg elemental atoms we would

discover that the numher of electrons
orbiting the nucleus exactly equals the
number of protons residing there.
Electrons are negative charges of
electricity, approximately 2,000 times
lighter .iri weight than a proton or
neutron although they are larger.
Atoms distribute their orbiting electrons into a series of layers (correctly
called shells). If, at the end of arranging
A Boron atom .
its electrons into these layers, the atom
has less than 8 electrons in its outerits nucleus. An at9m with 34 protons
most layer, the atom will try to comand therefore an atomic number of 34,
bine with another atom or atoms to
is the element Selenium. So it goes on.
rectify
this deficiency. This is a basic
Both protons and neutrons weigh about
rule of chemistry and is the 'mechanism
the same a:nd have similar diameters.
whereby elements combine to make the
Because atoms are so small, their
millions . of different chemical com
weight is measured by counting the
pounds
that exist. The bonding of
total number of protons and neutrons
atom.s is extremely important in the
there are in the nucleus.
study
of fuels and energy, since the
.
This is called the atomic weight of an<
. atom. Thus an atom having 12 protons breaking of these bonds releases heat
and light energy.
and 12 neutrons will have an atomic
Special Note: Atoms consist of two
weight of 24. This is an atom of
of charged particle. Since it was
kinds
Magnesium. Uranium has more than
found that electrons repel each other
one atomic weight because it exists in
when
emitted by the negative elecseveral isotopic forms (see page 44),
trode of a cathode ray tube (plus other
but for the purposes of this section we
processes) it was natural to give these
shall use the most abundaritform of
particles a negative charge. On the
uranium which has an atomio \~eight
other hand, protons repel each other
of 238. This atom has 92 protons and
but attract electrons. Hence these
146 neutrons in its nucleus.

particles were given a positive charge.

Last, but not least, in our 'examinNeutrons possess neither negative nor
ation of the atom, we come upon
positive charge and are thus regarded as
particles called electrons. If we could
being neu~ral.
look into an atom of hydrogen, we
would see just one solitary electron
ELECTRON' SHELLS. Atoms arrange orbiting electrons into
circling the solitary proton at the
~hell-like' layers. When electrons 'jump' into higher or lower .
nucleus. If we were to examine the . shell layers they emit or absorb radiation. The electrons in the
The nucleus of any atom (except Hydrogen) consists of
clusters o( protons and neutrons. The nucleus illustrated
below is a uranium 'isotope.

outermost shell are the links by which atoms join together

to make the thousands of different substances which exist.

,,Nucleus

,, Electrons .
111'

Mechanical Energy
Levers are one of man's earliest inventions. Though
The lever
not as old as the
flint and iron hammers of primitive
man, they work on the same principle.
Levers enable muscle power to be put
to greater .advantage. Given the right
kind of lever, a man could move a bus.
In its simplest form, a lever consists of
a rigid bar or plank which. moves'
across a/ fixed point called either a
pivot ot}ulcrum. Three terms are used
to describe the operation of levers. The
weight to be moved is called the load.
The muscular force applied to the lever
.is called the effort. The mathematical
ratio between these - two (they are
measured in pounds or grams/kilograms) is called the mechanical advantage.
The simplest lever would be the
familiar toy-a child's see-saw: If Jack
and Jill were seated at opposite ends
of their see-saw and Jack weighed more
than Jill, Jill would be tipped up into
the air! If Jill sat further from the pivot
than Jack, her section of the plank
would be longer, the leverage wouldbe
in her favour and Jack would be shot
up into the air!
There are very many examples of
levers in our everyday world : the clawhammer, nut-crackers, boat oars,
pliers,' the human arm, the wheelbarrow
and many more.
Pulleys are basically modified levers.
They also enable
The pulley
man to lift objects weighing far more than himself.
Essentially, a pulley system consists of
a rope or chain running over a rimmed
wheel which is mounted into a metal or wooden block and supported by a
rigid bar or beam. It is far easier to lift
a load by pulling down on a rope than

by stooping over it and attempting to

lift it. Pulleys share the same terms as
levers : pivot. or fulcrum, load, . effort
and mechanical advantage. A fixed
pulley is a simple pulley and can only
provide a mechanical advantage of
ONE. This means that to lift ?5 Kgms.
load, 35 Kgms. effort must be applied to
the end of the rope. A movable pulley,
commonly called a 'block and tackle',
uses sev,eral pulleys in combination
with- each other. The mechanical advantage of this pulley system is FOUR.
This means that the effort required to
lift a load of 100 Kgms . .is only 25
Kgms.! Quite an advantage! When
using this form of pulley system it is
important to realise that the load moves
only a quarter of the distance that the
effort moves. This means that for every
metre of rope you pull down on, the
load will only move 25 mtrs. (25 ems.).
So you will need a rope at least 60
metres long if you are lifting loads
through a distance of 15 metres.
Levers and pulleys-aids to muscle power!

35 Kgms

,.

100 Kgms

- - -- - -- - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -- -

Handle
Cranking
arm
Drum

'

Axle

Rope

calculated by the following simple

formula:
weight of bucket x drum radius
crank arm length

e11ort required

Thus a bucket of water weighing 30 lbs.

(13 6 Kgms. ), a drum radius of 6
inches (152 ems.) and a cranking arm
of 24 inches (609 ems.) = a cranking
effort of 7 5 lbs. (3-4- Kgms.). Each
rotation of the cranking arm winds
approximately 3 feet (91 ems.) of rope
onto the drum, therefore we can easily
work out how many turns of the arm
are needed to bring -this load up a 66
foot (20 l metres) well shaft:

66 feet
20 metres
- ti = 22 turns or = 22 turns
9 metres
3 eet

Bucket of water
A wind lass.

When a load is moved through any

distance we measure the amount of
work done in units called f oat-pounds.
Metric calculations are not expressed in
centimetre-grams or metre-kilograms,
but are converted into . work units
called newton-metres, ergs, or joules.
One newton-metre = 10,000,000 ergs
= one joule = 073 foot-lbs.

The ancient builders of temples and

pyramids used
A windlass is a very old mechanical , The inclined plane
inclined planes
machine. Its
The windlass
extensively to erect these huge monuname probably
ments to religion and belief. Today we
originates from the old word windle
can see versions of the inclined plane
meaning 'to wind'~ A windlass consists
everywhere we look, only nowadays
of an axle and drum around which a
these useful mechanical devices are
rope or chain is wound when the axle
called ramps. Ramps are used by the
is turned. At first this .simple machine
local restaurant or public house to roll
was used to lift heavy buckets of water
barrels of beer and wine into their
from deep wells. Medieval castles also
premises or empty barrels onto a truck.
applied them in war machines and as a
we can see ramps being used for similar
means of raising and lowering the
purposes anywhere where loads are
drawbridge. Sailing ships also found
cylindrical, heavy, and only manthe windlass useful in hauling sails
and anchors. A windlass is most effipower is available.
Inclined planes serve to redistribute
cient when it has a thin diameter drum
the total foot-pounds work involved in
and a long cranking arm.
a particular task. For example : if a
The effort to be exerted on the crankman wishes to raise a 180 lb. drum of
ing arm to raise a . specific load is
10

'

Drum 816 Kgm

T
...

12 metres

Ramp 6 metres long

(__

the greater is its inertia. However, if an

object like a cannon ball is projected
through the air at speed, its inertia will
tend to keep it moving. Of course it
will eventually fall to the ground as a
consequence of another force called
gravity.
Gravity is a force that exists throughout the entire universe. Like magnet. ism, .it attracts objects. A large dense
planet' has more gravity than a smaller
less dense planet. Ii is gravity that holds
us to the surface of the earth and keeps
the earth circling the sun.
A simple demonstration of inertia.

. .' ...........
.............. ...' ....

: ~))))/\

Inclined plane or ramp-another aid to muscle power!

oil off the ground to the floor of a

warehouse that is 4 feet above ground
level, the total work involved will be
4 ft. x 180 lbs. = 720 ft.-lbs , work.
Now, no man (unless a weight-lifter)
can produce this kind of effort without
straining himself, especially if this effort
is required more than once. But if the
man uses a ramp of 20 feet he only
needs to. muster 36 lbs. of effort to roll
the drum up the 'incline' to its resting
place inside the warehouse. The 720 ft.lbs. are divided by the 20-foot incline.
We would be very surprised to see a
stone lift itself off
The force of inertia
the ground and
fly through the air. Objects do not
behave in this way. When they are still,
they remain fixed in their positions.
The ability of an object to maintain its
position of rest is called inertia. The
heavier, or more massive an object is,

...... ' ....

:;::: ;:-::::: ::: :-:-:::

Glass of water
Sheet of paper

Inertiar;":.~l;~":. ir[sit:~ck paper

;:ii::::::"::::: :.iL

from

under glass

::. :.. " :".:.: ;..>:

Another interesting fact regarding

inertia is that it tends to increase with
the speed of an object. If you tie two
balls to a piece of string, one ball at the
end of the string and the other about a
foot further in, then twirl them around
your head, the outer ball will possess a
greater amount of inertia. This is because it has to travel 'faster to cover a
greater distance in the sa~e time as the
inner ball traverses its path.
11

- --

----~--~~~-

- - ------:------,-- - - - - - -- - - --

A flywheel-powered car.

Flywheels make use of inertia. They

are as old as
What is a flywheel 1 civilisation itself
and are mentioned in the Old Testament, as part of a potter's wheel. The
inertia of a spinning-wheel tends to
flatten out any irregularities in the
power strokes of machinery to which
they are coupled .. Parts of machinery
that move back and forth or rotate
require the smooth influence of .a flywheel or they will vibrate too mu~h
and damage the machine. In addition,
the up and down and back and forth
motion of pistons, wheels and drive
rods requires to be as smooth as possible
so that the machine delivers its power
smoothly and regularly.
The early steam engine, for example,
needed a stabilising influence because
its parts were subject to a great deal of
vibration and oscillation. The -spinning
drive-wheel required a smoothing force
to prevent it from supplying irregular
bursts of energy. The inertia , of a
heavy flywheel coupled to the 'drive. wheel succeeded in providing this
stabilising effect. Today, all rotating
12 .

machinery has the influence of a fly'."

wheel. Look inside a car engine, at a
steam~roller, a record player motor and
tape recorder motor, and inside your
watch.
Several years ago, Swiss transportation
engineers deWhat are flywheel
d b il
d
driven vehicles 1 s1gne , U t an
_
operated a bus
that was powered solely by a large flywheel! The bus travelled from stop to
stop, its wheels driven entirely by the
mechanical energy stored inside a fly. wheel. Occasionally the driver of the
vehicle pressed a button which operated machinery that coupled the flywheel up -to an electric motor. The
flywheel was run up to a high speed
and then uncoupled from its energy
source .
In America, engineers are designing
and building very large flywheels in-

Motor vehicle engines use the

'inertia' of a revolving flywheel to
smooth irregularities in . power
strokes.

utilise equipment operated by hydraulic

pressure. In aircraft, missiles and space- .
craft, hydraulic power is used to open
and close valves and operate landing
gear. In a hydraulic system the fluid, or
gas, is confined so that a small amount
_of pressure applied to it at one point is
immediately transmitted to all other
points. The illustration below shows
this happening. If a 20 Kgm. weight 1s
acting on an area of 1 square centimetre, then a pressure of 20 Kgms.
per square centimetre is distributed
throughout the chamber. This principle
is the key to using a liquid, ot gas,
to transmit a force from one point
to another. Very great force can be
HYDRAULIC POWER. Effort applied to a small piston is
immediately transmitted to a larger piston or 'ram' which is
able to lift a weight many times that applied to the small
piston.

LJKgm

deed. These will be used to store large

amounts of mechanical energy and
then, when necessary, be used to_drive
ordinary electric generators to provide
electricity. Many new materials and
flywheel shapes have been developed
and several technical reports have been
published about these research projects. One of the ,.most interesting of
these suggests the possibility of building a flywheel-powered automobile.
With its flywheel encapsulated in a
near vacuum to reduce friction and
occasionally coupled to a smaHylectric
motor; this car looks very promising
indeed. Think of it. No petrol to worry
r1bout-no pollution!
I
Liquids and gases have been found to
be most useful in
The principles of
performing
work.
hydraulics
Many of the,
machines used in industry and building

QOKgm

400Kgm

.I

applied by means of a hydraulic piston

which is designed to multiply the applied force 2, 3, 5, 10, 50 or more
times. For example, if a force of 10
Kgms. were applied to a small piston
having a diameter of 1 sq. cm. the
applied force would equal 10 Kgm. per

square centimetre. If, at the opposite

end of the chamber, this force is transmitted to the bas~ of another piston
having an area of 40 sq. ems. then the
multiplied force would be 40 x 10
= 400 Kgms. Th11s the large piston
would raise a load of 400 Kgms.

Chemical Ene rgy

For us, the sun represents the ultimate
source of energy,
How were fossil
and much of this
fuels formed ?
energy was locked
away in the ground innumerable geological eras ago. The vegetation that
grew on the earth millions of years ago
took r:nany strange forms that no
longer exist today, but one thing all of
these plants had in common with present-day plants is something -called
chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the green
colouring matter found in plants. It is a
very special substance because it enables the plant to use sunlight to manufacture chemic:;als important to its survival. Sunlight consists of different
wavelengths of electro-magnetic energy.
Visible light and ultra-violet light are
strong sources of radiant energy. When
sunlight falls on a leaf, the chlorophyll
uses the energy to change the chemical
structure of carbon dioxide and water
into sugar and oxygen. Sugar is a stepping stone to the production of more
complex substances called carbohydrates. When the trees and plants died
millions of years ago and became .
buried under thousands of tons of soil
and rock, the wood and vegetable
matter changed gradually into the carbonized substance that we know as
coal. When this coal is burnt it releases
the energy that began as sunlight millions of years ago. Some of this energy
14

Coal mining.

take-s the form of light but most of it is

heat. Petroleum and natural gas are
believed to originate from the microscopic animal and vegetable life that
lived in the seas of 600 million years
ago. When these .animals and plants'
died and sank to the sea-bed, they
became covered with thousands of tons
of sediment. Slowly, over a long period
of time, the chemicals composing them
broke down and were transformed into

Boiling po
point of gold 4845

a complex pattern of hydrocarbon

molecules. It is these chemical substances that are drawn from the deep
bore holes as crude oil and natural gas.

Boiling
point of water

212

~o

2660

100

Body
Anything which contains hydrogen and
986
37

.
temperature
carbon will burn
Why do fuels burn?
oo
32
and give off
energy in the form of heat and light.
-459
This reaction, called combustion, is
-273
caused by the .chemical union of
Lowest possible temperature
hydrogen and carbon with the oxygen
Fahrenheit, Centigrade and Kelvin temperature scales.
of the air. When this takes place, the
original substances contained in the
fuels. Three temperature. scales are in
fuel are replaced by new ones. The heat
use today. The Fahrenheit scale is
or thermal energy is produced when the
gradually
being replaced by the metric
chemical bonds binding the fuel together
Centigrade scale which is itself often
are broken by the application of heat. Of
supplanted
by the Kelvin absolute zero
course, it is necessary to start this rescale. Kelvin starts at the lowest
action by applying heat., but once the
possible
temperature, - 273 C or .
fuel catches fire, it perpetuates itself by
-459F.
burning as long as its supply of hydrocarbons and air holds out. The process
All fuels burn at different rates and
of burning is often termed oxidation
radiate varying
because combustion is made possible
What is the heating
amounts of heat
value of fuels.?
by the presence of oxygen.
and light energy.
drocarbon Oxygen atoms

For example, we need more paper than

atoms
_()~
g ~ coal to boil a can of water in a given
~fl.I u
time. The heat 'produced by burning
fuels is measured in units called calories
+ueat=tJ
(cals), in the metric system of measureor British Thermal Units (Btus),
ment,
't
u""
Carbon
in the British system of measurement.
Hydrogen
One calorie of heat energy will raise the
HYDROCARBON + AIR or OXYGEN
temperature of one gram of wa~er by
= COMBUSTION
one
degree Centigrade. One British
= HEAT and LIGHT ENERGY.
Thermal Unit will raise one pound of
water by one degree Fahrenheit.
Temperature-is the degree of hotness or
H
coldness in a
ow do we measure piece of mattemperature?
FUEL HEAT VALUE CHART
ter and these
extremes and all points between are
Fuel
Btu/lb.
cal/gm.
Wood
measured with instruments called
7,400
4,110
Peat
thermometers. Thermometers do not
9,900
5,500
Charcoal
measure quantities of heat but only
8,080
14,544
Coal
show how hot (or cold) one thing is
15,720
8,733
Coal Gas
compared with another. Thermometers
19,220
10,677
and temperatures are used, however, in
Petroleum
19,800
11,000
computing the heat values of different
Hydrogen
62,100
34,500

(_}(

. . +8

SHORTEST WAVES

LONGESTW

Visible Light
Infra
-Red

Gamma Rays

Radio waves

A.C. current

X-Rays

The spectrum of radiations.

Heat (Thermal) Energy

Heat was little understood some 150
.
years ago. Many
Caloric: an early heat peculiar ideas
~~~
. .
were produced m
an aL~mpt to explain the character and
properties of heat. One such theory
involved the suggestion that all matter
was filled with an invisible fluid called
caloric which leaked out of materials
when they were cut, hit, rubbed or
drilled. Hence, if a saw blade became
hot after it had been busy cutting down
some trees, it was stated that it was hot
because hot caloric had seeped out
from the wood!
You have seen that all matter, solid,
liquid or gas, is
Modern theory of
composed of
heat
molecules and
even tinier particles called atoms. Each
molecule is attached to its neighbour
by strong. electrical forces generated
from within the atom by the orbiting
electrons. If you could magnify the
surface of any material and examine it
closely, you would notice that instead
I

16

of seeing a smooth surface, the material

would be pitted with holes and bumps.
This is the outer molecular structure of
the material-nothing is smooth on the
molecular scale! Suppose we .were to
rub two such surfaces together-what
would happen?
The dips and -bumps would catch
together and dislodge molecules- from
their positions in the material. Since
every molecule arid atom is linked 'arm
in arm' within the structure of a
material by the powerful electric forces
of electrons, a considerable amount of
Glass may seem to be a smooth material but 'molecularly' it
isn't. Rub your hands or anything else together and heat will
be produced from the friction caused by rubbing these uneven
surfaces together.

opposition, called friction, is produced.

When this friction is overcome and
molecules and atoms are torn from
their 'electronic bonds', the electrons
show their 'annoyance' . by radiating
some energy in the form of an electromagnetic wave.
The Spectrum of Electromagnetic
Waves covers a very wide range of
radiations, many of which are familiar
to you . .
A glance at the spectrum chart (see
page 16) reveals just how familiar these
radiations are. X-Rays, Ultra-Violet
Light (as used by sun lamps), visible
Light, Infra-Red (Heat), Microwaves
(Radar, TV, VHF Radio), Short,
Medium and Long Radio waves-all
are electro-magnetic waves. Each of
these radiations belongs to a specific
portion of the EM Spectrum-each
has a particular wavelength. Thewavelength of radiation emitted by moving
electrons depends on the energy level
being applied to the molecules and
atoms. In the case of rubbing, hitting,
drilling and cutting a materiaJ, the
frictional forces are sufficient to cause

the electrons to emit heat (and light, if

the friction is very intense). Sometimes,
as in the case of setting light to a fuel
(or anything for that matter), the applied heat will cause the electrons to
become even more excited and to
radiate greater amounts of light energy
than before. Whatever the stress placed .
on a material, heat is always generated
by the breaking of molecular bonds.
All electromagnetic waves (including
heat) travel
How does heat
through
empty
travel?
space (vacuum)
by a process called radiation. This
radiation travels at 186,000 miles per
sec.o nd or in metric units: 300,000,000
metres per second. This speed is slightly
less when the wave passes through the
air or other gases. When travelling
through solids and liquids the speed
can be greatly reduced. Some materials
reflect heat waves back in the .direction
from which they came. These materials
are called reflectors and, in "the case of
heat (and light as well), are usually very
shiny or white.

Black paint uses chemicals and oils which absorb more solar heat radiation than the chemicals and oils used by white paint.

Black car absorbs heat

White car reflects heat

17

Black painted objects make excellent

absorbers of heat-they collect heat and
get very hot. Metals get hot too,
because they are conductors of heat.
The free electrons, and those still bound
to their orbits around the nucleus,
vibrate when hit by heat energy and
relay the heat throughout the conductor by a process called conduction at a
speed well below that of direct radiation. There are other materials that
are very poor conductors of heat and
consequently are extremely good for
'trapping' it. Cork, wool, dry straw,
wood shavings and sawdust, fibreglass wool, plastic foam, asbestos and
still air, all make excellent insulators.
Finally, heat also uses a third method .
of transportation-convection. The
best example of convection at work is
the earth's atmosphere. The sun heats
up the air which rises and lets colder
air rush in and fill its place before
heating up and rising too. So it goes on.
Atmospheric convection is one of the
fundamental energy systems of the
earth's weather machine. You can also
see convection taking place in a beaker
of heated water. In fact heat usually
travels through liquids and gases by
this process, though conduction (and
radiation) .can also take place.
CONDUCTION. If you touch a hot saucepan handle without
a glove for protection, you will soon realise th11t metal is a
good conductor of heat! Different metals conduct at different
rates.

Handle made of a 'poor

conductor' protects hand from
I / /
hot metal of pan
.
/
\

, \
Radiated heat\

"'-"

- - ~7~t!~t!K;)
-,j
\.
~

~,

'-

18

v~> ~

Convection currents

>; --

Heat from gas ring ""'

Metal of pan conducts heat
and water temperature
rises to boiling point

AIR CONVECTION CUR.RENTS

Colder air rushes
in to fill space
left by wanit air

CONVECTION. Smoke rising from a fire shows that 'h ot air

rises. Water being boiled over a fire circulates from bottom
to top: The earth's surface, warmed by the sun, heats the air
closest to it, causing it to rise and circulate. These are all
examples of convection.

Whenever heat energy travels

through a solid, liquid or a gas, each of
them will undergo expansion. The molecules tend to stretch the bonds holding
them together and if sufficient heat is
supplied to a solid or a liquid these
bonds will break and the solid will melt.
Liquids will evaporate into a gas. We
shall read about expanding gases in a
moment.
Each time one gram of water changes
into steam it abHow does heat make sorbs 540 calories
a gas expand and
of heat and experform work 7
pands to 1, 600
times its normal volume. The 540
calories absorbed by the steam are
called hidden heat or, to give it its
proper name, latent heat. It is obvious,
therefore, that a great deal of poten-

.~ ... .....
..~ . ..

::: ::

~.~~~ "~'" '" ~,_,_. .,., . ,. . . ., _

....
. .... ....
: ._ '. : . Steam

: .,...
_.....,..
_:_

. . . . . . . ...
. . .. ,
.. ' .
.: . . . . .. ... .. :.,-._ . .
..;:_..... : . .. -...
... .. .

... . ..

. .. -::.

Molecules of'steam'
- ~+---- moving about inside a boiler

Turbine

.. . . .

. -.-

:.:.:1". ."::.:

"

....

... _._ .. ..

STEAM ,: MECHANICAL WORK: Steam 'trapped' inside a boiler is 'potential' energy. Steam released from a bqiler is
'kinetic' energy and capable of performing mechanical work.

ti al energy is locked up inside a steamengine' s boiler. If the steam is forced to

. occupy less space than it needs for
expanding its 1,600 times, its pressure
will rapidly increase to a high value. If
we could examine the individual molecules of a gas under such pressure we
would quickly realise that the entire
mass of gas molecules is engag~d in a
hither and thither motion. The greater
the pressure, the more the molecules
collide and crash into the walls of the
boiler at a tremendous rate of activity.
This causes the gas to become hotter
and expand still more. When the steam
is allowed to ~scape from the boiler and
is directed against the blades of a
steam-turbine or released into piston
cylinders, a considerable amount of
mechanical work is performed by the .

kinetic energy of the steam.

Horsepower is a unit of power invented
.
by James Watt
What 1s horsepower? h
. '
t e steam-engme
pioneer. Watt wanted to sell his steamengine to farmers but they were heavily
biased in favour of their horses. Watt
set out to prove that his engines were
more powerful than horses. A horse
was coupled up to a rope running over
a pulley and descending into a 220 feet
deep mine-shaft. The end of the rope
was tied to a lo"ad of 150 lbs. The horse
took 60 seconds to lift this load to the
top of the.shaft. Watt worked out that
if it took a horse one minute to do
33,000 ft.-lbs. of work, one horsepower unit would be equal to 33,000/
60 = 550 ft.-lbs. per second.

James yvatt used horses to demonstrate the 'work power' or 'horse power' of his steam-engines.

Watt's steam -engine

Horse

19

Load

Load

Generating electricity from steam power.

Electric generator

Applied heat

Called a heat-engine, the steam-engine

.
functions by
Hovy does th~ steam- burning coal in a
engme work .
f.
l
d
Ire-box p ace
underneath a boiler. The heat released
by the burning fuel raises the temperature of the water and changes it into
steam. The kinetic energy of the steam
is released into the front portion of the
cylinder and then into the rear. This
has the effect of pushing a piston (o~
pistons) backwards and forwards. The
to and fro movement of the piston is
coupled to a driving shaft which is in
turn coupled to a wheel. Thus, as the
piston moves backwards and forwards
the mechanical drive is transmitted to
the wheel and it is made to rotate and
perform work.
of the heat-engine,
called a steamWhat is a steamturbine, is more
turbine engine?
efficient than an
ordinary steam-engine. The steam is
produced as before but this time it is
released as a powerful jet which falls on
the blades of a turbine. A turbine is
merely an up-to-date kind of water
wheel. Instead of paddles, this wheel is
equipped with strong metal blades set
Another form

20

off at an angle and mounted as seen

here. The turbine drive shaft is coupled
to the shaft of an electric generator.
When the high kinetic energy of the
steam hits the blades of the turbine it
rotates at high speed and transforms
mechanical energy into electric power
via the generator. Modern steamturbines are made to withstand steam
pressures of more t4an 2,000 lbs. per
square inch and steam temperatures of
500C. Large installations are capable
of producing 70,000 horsepower!
The internal combustion engine makes
u'se of the properHow doe_s the in.ternal ties of expanding
combustion engme
.
p t l
work?
gases.
e ro
vapour and air
are mixed together inside chambers
called cylinders. These cylinders .are
. equipped with pistons that are coupled
to a common crankshaft. The crankshaft is coupled to the wheels or propeller by a drive-shaft and gears.
Each cylinder head is fitted with a
device called a sparking plug. These
plugs are arranged to discharge a spark
of electricity into the gaseous mixture .
at correctly timed intervals. The ensumg explosions, one following after

Spark-plug

:;:~r

~t!,i:

:Jtf/?~----11--<t;\~.\\~

THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE. Petrol and air are mixed in the chamber directly ;,bove the piston head. When
~his mixture is compressed by the upward motion of the piston, a spark is used to ignite the fuel, which explodes,
delivering a mechanical downward thrust on the piston. This 'power stroke' drives a piston rod which drives a rotary
crankshaft coupled to the wheels of a vehicle or propeller shaft of a vessel, machine or aircraft.

another7 transmit- a mechanical motion

to the pistons, which move up and
down, cranking the crankshaft and
driving the wheels of a car or the propeller of an aircraft or ship.
The combustion processes in a petrole n gin e and a
What is a diesel
diesel
oil engine
engine?
are different. In
the diesel engine, air is drawn in first
and compressed to a much greater
degree than in a petrol engine. This

causes the air to become heated to a

temperature ofperhaps 800C. At this
point a small amount of diesel fuel is
injectec;l into the cylinder. Because of
the high temperature already existing
inside the cylinder, th~ diesel ignites
immediately and a power stroke (the
motion made by the pistons and connecting drive rods when .energised by
the explosion of the fuel) is transmitted_
to the crankshaft and thence to the
wheels, or ship's propeller, via the
drive-shaft. (See illustration below.)
[i~!!!!!!!!!!!!!I+ Diesel fuel

injected into
cylinder

~
Crankshaft

._:;:~i; ~~~~e

')'J

1h11
@~

Valve opens to
. release exhausted L:.: :., :, .:~
: ..........----1..:.::::.:.i

gases when piston

reaches the bottom
of its power stroke
21
Shuts ready for
subsequent
compression
stroke upwards

=-

Electrical Energy
Most metals (g9ld, silver, copper, tin,
brass, platinum,
What is electricity?
aluminium and
mercury) are considered .extremely
good conductors of electricity. Other
materials-rubber, . glass, ceramic,
plastic, dry wood, wax and cloth-do
not conduct electricity and are called
insulators. All conductors possess
atoms that permit several of their
electrons to wander hither and .thither
through the conductor-these are
-called free electrons. Any material
having free electrons is a potential
generator of electricity. As you will
recall, electrons are negative particles
of electricity, thus a wire connected
across the terminals of a battery will
permit its free electrons (and those of
the battery) to travel through it on their
way to the positive terminal of the
battery. This flow of electrons is called
a current of .electricity. It is rather
similar to our earlier example involving
water being stored behind the walls of
a dam. The battery is the dam and the
electrons, water. The pressure of the
electrons waiting at the battery's terminals is measured in units called
volts. The number of electrons passing
through a circuit in the period of one
second is measured by a unit called
the ampere or amp for short.
The motion of 'free electrons' within

.
.

aconductor.

.......
............
...
.....
...
.....
.....
.
.
............ .......................
...............

.
---!
-

Free electron flow

'

Conductor

Negative terminal

22

Positive terminal

Even good conductors offer some

resistance to the
What do_ we mean by flow of electrons
the heating effect of
an electric current?
through them:
When this happens we get rubbing and collisions
occurring inside the molecular structure of the conductor. In other words,
our old friend friction has reappeared!
Friction, as you remember, causes heat.
This effect is used by an electric fire or
lamp, in large industrial furnaces and
by the ordinary domestic electric
cooker. In these examples, engineers
have deliberately designed their equipment to exploit resistance to produce
heat ,energy, but in other instances they
must avoid using high-resistance conductors and parts otherwise they will
lose valuable electricity as heat!

In electrical engineering, engineers like

to measure
How is electric power
b
d
measured 1
energy emg use
in uni ts called
watts (w), kilowatts (lOOOw) or megawatts (1,000,000w). This is a measure
of the rate at which energy is being
used ; in other words, the power rating of
an electrical machine or system. Power is
measured in watts per second, kilowatts
per hour, or megawatts per hour /day or
year. For example : the domestic electricity supply is measured in kilowatthours (kw.-h.). Thus an electric light
bulb left burning for 150 hours would
consume the equivalent of 15 kw .-hrs. of
electrical power if the bulb were rated
at 100 watts .
The British Board of Trade has in
fact introduced a unit called the B.o.T.
Free electrons (electriC current) moving through the lamp
filament collide with other atomic particles, bumping each
other and producing friction. Friction causes heat and light.

Filament heats
up and glows

\ +
Battery
Current

Current

Unit for measuring electrical consumption and 1 B.o.T. unit = 1 kw.-h.

The first proper battery was constructed about
Batteri~s: chemic:a!
1799, by Alessanenergy mto electricity d
l C ll d
ro Vo ta. a e
a Volta Pile, this battery was made
from two dissimilar metals, copper and
zinc, laid on top of orie another with
salt-water moistened linen cloth between each sandwich. Quite large Volta
batteries were built and a number of
people received serious, even fatal,
shocks from them-SO ALWAYS BE
CAREFUL WHEN EXPERIMENTING WITH ELECTRICITY. IT CAN
KILL!
Light bulb

Current

Brine clQth

Zinc plate

'

confusing to you but these metals are

said to be less 'electropositive'. The
term electropositive means-to give
away positive charges not collect them!
Scientists have compiled tables of
the 'electropositiveness' of the various .
metals and a few other elements. These
give different voltages if they are immersed in a standard electrolyte and
measured against a standard electrode.
Using a standard electrode made of
platinum black wire saturated with a
flow of hydrogen gas bubbles, which
gives a zero output volt~ge, we can
now proceed by inserting our samples
of different metal electrodes one by one
and measure their individual output
voltages and their polarity (whether
positive or negative). The table of
electro-positive elements gives an
indication of the wide range of output voltages that are available to the
cell or battery designer.
+ 1 69 volts
+ 150
+ 0 34
-013
-014
-0 25
-0 40
-077
Aluminium~ 1 67
Magnesium--"- 2 37

Gold
Silver
Copper
Lead
Tin
Nickel
Cadmium
Zinc

Copper plate

VOLTA PILE. Try making one out of pennies and zinc washers.

Any metal which dissolves easily

into a solution of acid and distilled
water (called an electrolyte) is said to
be highly electropositive. This means
that the atoms in the metal are chemically attacked by the electrolyte and attracted away from their positions in
the metal structure. During thi& re-
action the atoms become positively
charged ions because they leave a few
outer electrons behind them. Thus the
electrolyte becomes filled with positive
'ions. The 'orphaned' electrons have a
negative charge and impart this charge
,
to the metal.
Other metals . behave in reverse.
They 'steal' positive ions from an
electrolyte and so make themselves
more positively charged. It may seem

The simple cells that you buy in the

electrical shop today use the same
basic principles as Volta's battery. In
Dry cell.

-------Carbon rod

Current

this case the first electrode consists of

a zinc container (the negative terminal). A rod of carbon serves as ' the
positive electrode and terminal. Separating these two 'electrodes' is a chemical paste.
The chemical paste mainly serves as
an electrolyte (pronounced electro
light). The paste causes some metals _
to give up their positive ions- and
others to collect them and thus in this
case the zinc terminal collects a great
number of electrons and becomes
negatively charged. Meanwhile .the
carbon rod terminal becomes highly
positively charged (an electrode that is
short of electrons and highly attractive
to them).
Now, if a small electric lamp is
connected across the terminals of this
battery, we will see evidence of the
electrons flowing through it from
negative to positive. The friction in the
lamp element causes heat and even
light energy to appear. Thus some of
the electricity flowing in this circuit is
being converted into heat and light
, energy. This type of cell (or battery) is
called a dry cell or battery. The word
cell is used to describe a battery that
only consists of two electrodes. Batteries, like those used in your transistor
radio, c~msist of several cells sandwiched together to provide more
power.
Secondary celL

Battery

Battery charger
Current

Accumulator

+
24

Zinc
.----'L.......o

Weak
sulphuric acid

G. Leclanche, in 1865, invented a new

.
type of battery
~~~t is a secondary calied a wet cell.
It was the forerunner of the lead acid accumulator as
used in motor vehicles. A wet cell
consists of two electrodes c,f dissimilar
metal immersed in a solution of acid
and distilled water. In the modern
accumulator the negative plate and
terminal is a grid covered with spongy
lead. The positive plate and terminal is
a grid covered with lead peroxide. The
electrolyte is sulphuric acid mix~d with
distilled water. When the two plates
are immersed in the electrolyte, the
acid attacks. the spongy lead and lead
peroxide and large numbers of electrons collect on the spongy lead. Meantime, the lead peroxide steals positive
ions (atoms deficient in .electrons) from
the electrolyte. The voltage of a wet
cell is usually about 2 volts. This cell is '
able to supply greater amounts of
current for a longer period of time
than a dry cell can. After a period of
time the electrolyte requires restrengthening and provided this is done fairly
frequently the wet cell will last a very
long time. When the current falls and
no more useful power can .be taken
from _this cell, it is not thrown away,
like its dry cell relative. Wet cells can
be recharged with electricity from an
external source and then they are once .
more available for work.

:id

First you will need a meter. Those of

.
.
you not equipped
Making your own
h

d
battery experiments wit a meter nee
not worry. Just
purchase a very cheap compass from
your local toy shop. Fix the compass
to a block of wood with some adhesive
or-transparent tape. Next, wind several
turns of single strand wire around the
block as shown here, leaving the two
ends bared and ready for connection.
Now take an orange, lemon, grapefruit
or prepare an eggcupful of vinegar.
Next, take two strips of dissimilar
metal (copper, lead, steel or aluminium nails) and wrap the bare wire from
the coil (as shown here) around them
and immerse .into the fruit or liquid
(DON'T EAT THE FRUIT AFTERWARDS!). The moment you dip (or
push) the two wires into the acid of the
fruit or vinegar, electricity will flow
through the coil and cause the compass
needle to swing around from its usual
position.

We . have just seen an .experiment in

which the magHow does magnetism netic needle of a
. produce electricity
c 0 mp a s s w a s
, and how does
electricity make
moved when an
magnetism 1
electric current
flowed near it.
This is in fact how man first discovered
that there is .a close relationship between electricity and magnetism.
The discovery that electricity could
generate its own magnetism and that
magnetism could generate electricity
led to the development of the electric
motor and generator.
There are two kinds of electric
generator. One type produces what is
termed direct current (DC) and the
other makes alternating current (AC).
Essentially the only major difference in
the construction of a DC and AC
g~nerator lies in the design of its
commutator. A commutator is simply
AC and DC generators.

Making a meter and performing simple cell experiments.

Compass
(needle swinging)

Slip-ring
commutators

Spli,t-ring
commutator

Vinegar
25

i:

Electric motors find wide application in the modern world.

a metal split-ring or a pair of metal

rings, as shown here. The remaining
part of the generator consists of a
powerful permanent magnet, mounted
so that its lines of magnetic force 'cut'
across the turns of a coil that is
mounted to a shaft, or spindle. When
the shaft is rotated by the mechanical
force of a heat engine, turbine, or
. electriC motor, the magnetic field cuts
across the wires of the coil and causes
the electrons within to move, producing
a flow of electricity. Because opposite
sides of this coil are moving through
the north pole of the magnet in one
moment and the south pole in the next,
the electrons within the wire keep
reversing their direction of flow- they
alternate the current! Extracting this
current from the coil by means of the
two single commutator rings provides
the user with AC current. If a
split-ring commutator is used instead, the brushes taking electricity
from the commutator are automatically switched over every half revolution of the coil, thus maintaining a flow
of DC current from the generator.
Once we have undersfood the principJe
behind the operHow do electric
ation of DC and
mot ors worl< 7
AC generators
we can readily understand the operation of electric motors. Electric
.motors are very important to our every-

26

day life. They perform an infinite

number of tasks in industry and other
fields. Electric motors convert electrical energy into mechanical energy, such
as driving the machine tools - in a
factory or control systems in aircraft.
How do they work? Once again we
have a strong permanent magnet
mounted so that its lines of magnetism
'cut' a coil mounted on a spindle. If
the commutator is a single split-ring it
runs on DC current. If the commutator
is made up from two slip-rings, it must
be fed with AC current. We have already learnt that a coil moving through
a magnetic field has electricity induced
into it. Now we have reverse situation. This time we are feeding current
into the coil. What happens now? The
electrons flowing in the coil will set up
their own magnetic field w~ich inter-

Basic parts of an electric motor.

Current

Brushes
Current

acts ' with the permanent magnet's field

causing the coil to rotate. Thus electrical energy is being converted into
mechanical energy.
The word hydro is the Greek word for
water . And a
What is hydrohydro-electric
electricity?
scheme is orie
that utilises water as a means of generating electric power. Well over one
third of the world's electricity is generated from the kinetic energy of water .
falling under the influence of gravity.
Huge dams have been constructed
across the paths of rivers and valleys.
Within a short space of time millions of
tons of water, in the form of vast
reservoirs, build up against these
massive man-made barriers. No other
, form of 'fuel' has the same qualities as
water. As well as being non-diminishing, its cost is lower .than any other
form of energy, once the initial costs
of building the dam and electrical
installation have been recovered. In
some places, such as India, Pakistan,
Egypt,
America,
Australia and
Uganda, the system is associated with

large irrigation and drainage schemes

as well. The water built up behind the
dam is released through pipes at the
base of the dam where the pressure is
greatest. The kinetic force of the water
gushing from these portals of escape is
directed onto the blades of banks of
water-turbines, the modern equivalent
of the age-old waterwheel. The turbines
revolve at very high speeds and their
shafts turn a series of electric generators.. The electrical output of hydroelectric plant can be very great indeed.
For example : the Australian Snowy
Mountains Scheme, completed in 1974,
has a generating capacity of 5,000
million kilowatt-hours annually! Over
90% of the electricity used by Sweden,
Norway, Portugal, Switzerland and
some South African States is produced by hydro-electric schemes and
still only a small proportion of the
water energy available has been exploited. In Europe, including Britain,
about a third of the 'potential' of
water-power has been utilised in this
way; ~n America only a quarter, while
in Canada, Africa and Russia-Asia the
fraction is very small indeed.

Besides generating valuable electricity, dams have other important applications.

PURPOSES OF A DAM
D omestic

z:~""".:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::1 water supply

.,...________________________________....._

.I

The electric power generated by power

stepped up by a device called a transstations, whether
!
armer; if the generator is supplying
How is electricity
220 volts at 1,000 amps, the transsteam or waterdistributed?
d riven (or
former changes this into 220,000 volts
at 1 ampere. The transmission lines of
atomic!) is distributed by a network of
transmission-lines covering the entire
the Grid carry the power all over the
countryside. This system is called The
country under the watchful eye and
Grid. We have all seen evidence of the . control of central and sub-control
grid as we travel across the country by
switching centres. When the power .
car or by train. Tall steel towers, many
reaches the vicinity of a town or city or
of them over 130 feet high, straddle the
industrial complex, it . undergoes
land like tall giants marching from one
another transformation. This time it is
hill to another. The cables they support
stepped down to different voltages and
carry very high voltages, as high as . supply-currents according to the .users'
220,000 volts at a current of 1 ampere.
need .. For the ordinary home the voltThe current is AC, alternating, because
age. is -stepped down by sub-station
it is easier to transmit electricity in this
transformers to 220, 120 or 115 volts.
way.
Industrial users require considerably
A typical example of a country's
higher voltages for their various
Grid System would be as follows. The
processes.
electricity supplied by the generators is

The' Nat ion al Grid System: How t he nat ion gets its e lectricity,

Transformer

Pylon
(Grid system)
Current

Distribution transformer

Steam, water or atomic power

station generates electricity

28

New Methods

'?f Generating

A great deal of publicity has been given

to these devices
Wh at are f ue I ce II s 1
.
.
.
recently, mamly
as a result of their use in spacecraft.
However, fuel cells are not new. The
first such cell was described by Sir
William Grove, in 1842, but the invention was not taken up, probably because of other, more exciting, developments involving steam power. Almost
100 years were to pass before it reappeared. A fuel c.ell consists of a
vessel containing an electrolyte and
two porous electrodes (one the negative
. terminal and the other the positive
one)i The basic process taking place
within this cell is burning but not like
the burning we see iii a fire-rather a
slow oxidation. The fuel , can be a
number of gases but hydrogen is often
chosen. The other porous electrode
receives a supply of oxygen. The electrolyte separates these two gases,
making sure no 'direct' combustion
occurs. As the reaction begins, oxygen
atoms are transported .towards the fuel
electrode where they give up some of
their electrons and make the . fuel

Basic principles of the fuel cell.

Oxygen---+
-- o 0
Oo

0
.0 0
0 0
0

0
~

s=

<?

0
Oo O

~00
~

0
0

Ooo

0
0

If we take two wires, one iron and the

other copper,
What is thermotwist two ends
electricity ?
together and put
them into a flame-an electric current
will flow from the opposite ends! This
device is called a Thermocouple and the
heat-to-electricity effect is called the
seebeck Effect. Until comparatively
recent times, thermocouples were only
useful as high temperature measuring
devices (and low temperature). The invention of the transistor and the
existence of high temperature radioactive substances, changed the entire
future of the thermocouple. Transistors
are ,devices that were first invented in
1948 and largely replace the valves in
most electronic equipment. Their invention has led to the miniaturised
electronics of today.

S
~
-

.0 0
0

0 00

Meter

ooo ~

W:ter :/:}:}:{}})

electrode negatively charged. Water is

also produced during this chemical
reaction and collected in a separate
container. In theory, there should be a
chemical to electrical conversion
efficiency of 100% but to date only a
figure of 60% has been realised. It is not
yet possible to name all the reasons
why 100% efficiency is not attainable
because scientists are still researching
into these matters. We still have much
to learn about electro-chemistry.

THERMOELECTRICITY: The junction of two dissimilar

metals generates small electric currents when heated ,

00
0
0

0 0
0

oo

---Fuel

Electricity

Fuel

29

The materials used to fabricate transistors are called semiconductors. Two

types of semiconductor have been made
called P and N type.
If a thermocouple is constructed
from these two types of semiconductor,
the electricity generated at the P and N
junction is greater than that obtained
from a wire thermocouple. Using the
advanced techniques of the electronics
industry enables the construction of
blocks of P and N thermocouples.

At the present time the efficiency of

converting nuclear heat into electri~ity
is only about 15% but scientists hope
to double this within the next few years.

Since the dawn of history, man has

been intrigued
How is electric power and puzzled by
obtained from the
tides 1
the phenomenon
of the ocean tides ,
caused by the gravitational pull of the
moon and sun. Tidal heights vary a
great deal around the world, and in
A solid-state t hermocouple.
some places, in certain bays and
estuaries, the sea's rise is very much
more than normally encountered else- .
Cold side
where. For example, in the Gulf of
California at the mouth of the Colorado River, the tide reaches just over
30 feet and at the Bay of Fundy, on
the Atlantic coast of Canada, it
reaches 50 feet! In the Severn Estuary,
in Britain, the tide is more than 45 feet
high. Other coastal regions with a high
Hot side
tidal amplitude include Argentina,
Australia, New Zealand, Korea and
Russia. To date, there has been much
Heat
Heat
discussion about the electric-generating
potential of these tidal motions, especially in regard to the sites located
Thus one can have dozens of thermoin Canada and New Zealand but as
couples mounted together and covering
yet neither country has gone ahead and
just one square foot. The electric power
constructed Tidal Generating systems.
available from these banks of couples
Only one country has in fact gone into
is of the order of many volts and
currents of several amperes can be
this exciting new area of electric-power
drawn from them. At this point we
generation-France. The French Rance
must turn to atomic energy to complete
River Project is situated on the estuary
the picture. Various materials can be
of the 60 mile long Breton river, about
made highly radio-active by leaving
two miles upstream from the medieval
them exposed to the powerful radia-
town of St. Malo. Here a 2,300 foot
tions of an atomic reactor. Once these
dam has been erected with an overall
materials have been made radio-active height of 85 feet from the river bed to
crest. Twenty-four horizontal-axis
they become hot and radiate a great
amount of heat. Now, if we were to
turbines are mounted into the structure
surround such a source of free heat
of the dam. These machines are comenergy with a coat of thermocouples
bined with an electric generator section
made from semiconductors, we would
and will generate electricity on both
have a compact source of electricity.
the ebb and flood tides. Therefore they

t t i i i

30

Dam
Open _sea

Tide flowing irt

---1

Tide flowing out

Basin fills

...

Water
empties out

Generating electricity from the tides.

can generate power with water flowing

in either direction.
The Rance Tidal Generating Project
became operational in 1967 supplying
240 Mwatts of electricity to the French
Grid. It now supplies 560 Mwatts.
* Mwatts ,=One million watts.

The precise cause of the earth's internal

heat is uncertain.
What is geothermal
One theory sugenergy?
gests that the
core is still molten after 4 5 thousand
million. years. Another plays with the
idea of pressure and natural radio. activity. Whatever the real cause one
thing is certain-the temperature of the
rock increases by 1C for every 100 feet
descended! Finally, at the crustal base
we cart measure temperatures around
750C. The earth's crust is approximately 25 miles thick over the land and
only 5 miles thick under the sea bed.
Somewhere in between these levels
man mines his minerals and fuels. In
addition to these valuable commodities vast quantities of water have also
been discovered, trapped for thousands
of years below ground and under such
enormous rock pressure that it is boiling at 260C rather than the more
normal 100C. When .this water is
permitted to escape to the surface
(where the .air pressure is only 14 5 lbs.
per square inch as compared with the
rock pressures of many tons per square
inch) it flashes over into super-heated
steam possessing high kinetic energy.

Geothermal energy (earth's heat) owes its existence to the earth's molten .core and. tot.he huge pressures and complex
reactions taking pla~e several thousands of feet below the surface .

. .: ; :

~ .:

. : , :

.. ... ...... ...... . . . .

. The first scheme to utilise geothermal

Once the building costs have been paid
steam to generate
.
.
for, the running
What 1s the future of costs of a geoHow is geothermal
electricity was
geothermal energy 7
h
l
energy used to

t erma power
generate electricity? started way back
in 1904 at Larstation are a lot less than one that is
derello, in Northern Italy. Today, this running on coal, oil, or nuclear fuel.
field is contributing some 380 megaThe steam is there, ready made, and
watts of electricity to the consumer.
waiting to be tapped and used to drive
In 1950,. the New Zealand governelectric-turbines! Many people believe
that the vast underground deposits of
ment authorized a similar scheme at
Wairakei, on North Island. Her~ there
super-heated steam should be exploited
is an active volcano attended by several
by underdeveloped nations, where the
powerful steam geysers and hot springs.
vast majority of deposits seem to be
By 1958, the tapped steam was gener- . located. For example, recent surveys of
ating electricity. Today, some 300
Ethiopian resources have revealed
megawa.tts are being supplied to the
massive quantities of geothermal
energy-enough to power all o f Africa
New Zealand economy. During the
early part of 1960, the United States
for 50 years! But leaving the power
began its own geothermal power
problems of new nations aside just
scheme at a place called The Geysers . for one moment, the industrialised
located about 90 miles north of San
nations of the world are already sufferFrancisco. Initially this field was pro- , ing from a very serious energy shortvidirrg approximately 12 5 megawatts
age. Demand is outgrowing supply.
of electricity but by 1973 it had been
Should not these countries also make a
increased to 400 megawatts!
concerted effort to tap the hidden
wealth below their soil and thus, to a
large extent, solve their energy
problems?
The earth's water resources.
The atmosphere
0001%
Lakes, rivers and streams
00.091%
Ground-water and soil
0625%
'

DISTRIBUTION OF THE WORLD'S WATER RESOURCES

.... Ice caps and glaciers

215%

Oceans, sali~e lakes and inland seas

97209%

32

Turbine
Generator
.

Grid system

Geothermal steam producing electricity.

Besides matter ex1stmg as a solid,

liquid or a gas,
What are magnetothere is a fourth
hydro-dyriamic
state
of matter
generators 1
called plasma.
When a gas is heated to an extremely
high temperature it becomes ionised.
That is to say, all of its atoms lose some
of their outer electrons and the gas then
consists of free electrons, and atoms
with a positive charge, called ions.
When a gas is made into a plasma it
can conduct electricity quite well.
' The present energy conversion
efficiency of a standard coal or oilburning power station is just about 40%.
That means that some 60% of the heat
energy gained from the fuel is going Up
the chimney! In a world hungry for
energy, this state of affairs cannot be
tolerated as it once was. Engineers are
constantly inventing new ways of recapturing this wasted energy and increasing the overall efficiency of their
energy-producing systems. It looks as
though plasmas can help solve this
headache. How?
H&W E&P-C

A device called a Magneto-hydrodynamic Generator, or an MHD generator for short, is fuelled by plasma and
produces electricity. Now, the temperature of the flue gases rising from a
conventional power station's boiler
furnace is around 2,000C. Thus we
have our basic material for creating a
plasma. Unfortunately, flue gas contains certain impurities which lower
the conductivity of the plasma, so
vaporized quantities of the conductors
potassium or caesium are injected into
the flow. Now we have a very hot
plasma that is also highly conductive.
MHD generators.

33

When this plasma i~ thrust at jet speeds

through a powerful magnetic field,
electricity is induced into it. If special
electrodes are then inserted into the jet
stream, the heavy current can be extracted from the plasma. Tests carried
out in America, Britain, France,
Germany, Japan and Russia show that
MHD generators are of great benefit to
conventional power station efficiency.
Adding the output of an MHD generator to that obtained by conventional
means raises efficiency by 15%. Electrical engineers call these machines toppers because they 'top up' the output
of electric power stations.

One of the most fundamental problems

associated with
How do we get
space
exploration
electrical power
is that of generfrom the sun 1
ating
sufficient
electric power to run the complicated
electronics aboard satellites and space
probes. The same problem arises with
manned space vehicles. Batteries and
fuel cells, plus a few pocket-sized
nuclear reactors, have been hoisted
aloft and have filled the bill quite
successfully. These systems all get
heavier as the generating requirement
increases, and at this time it has become
highly expensive, if not impracticable,
to launch very heavy loads. Thus some
considerable thought has been directed
at improving the device known as a
solar cell. Solar cells are quite old in the
range of 20th century inventions. Before finding application in space they
served (and continue to serve) as
devices for measuring the intensity or
presence of light. They were primarily
developed for use as photographic exposure meters. However, as soon as the
first satellite went aloft it wasplain that
photocells, as they are also known, had
34

Sun

Meter

,.,.. :;:::.:\.:.::,:/\.':\:~./':':;:;:.. /:_::;;:;:::.:f:\'.!(::;;.:t---~-+1---

c onductor

Photosensitive material

PHOTOCELLS. Certain materials prod uce electricity when

they are ill umi nated with sun light.

a future up there in space. The principle

involving the operation qf solar (or
photo) cells is simple to explain though
complex in terms of atomic theory.
Sunlight consists of several forms of
radiation. Some of this radiation is
particle in nature whilst the remainder
is electro-magnetic. As we saw earlier
in this book, electro-magnetic -waves
cover a wide spectrum of frequencies
and wavelengths-light, heat, X-rays,
gamma rays, radio and TV are all
members of this. family.
When light waves fall upon certain
materials they cause the electrons to
free themselves from their atomic
bonds and produce an electric current.
If a thin wafer of . this material is
placed between two conducting plates,
the electricity generated by the light
can be tapped and used externally to
power something else. Of course, the
amount of electricity obtainable from
a single cell is quite small, but if huge
panels of cells are constructed the
current output increases substantially.
One of the most publicised solar cell

generators was that used by the United

States Manned Orbital Laboratory.
The spacemen had .to disengage one
such panel after it had become stuck
and threatened to ruin the planned
miss10n.
In recent years we have seen various
Solar power on
projects attemptearth
ing to harness the
sun's heat to generate electricity. Huge
mirrors reflect their captured heat rays
into pipes and boilers containing water.
The .water boils, produces steam, and
this is used to drive an electric-turbine.
Other experiments use the focused heat
to melt metals and other high temperature matei:ials, to study the effects of
high temperature. In other words, solar
heat has only been put to research
purposes to date. No large-scale plants
for generating electricity . have been
undertaken. Yet the energy of sunlight
is there for the taking!
During the design of solar cells for
space applications, it was necessary to
manufacture various filters to cut out
heat and ultra-violet light. These
radiations will seriously damage . the

cell and shorten its life. A great deal of

knowledge was amassed as a consequence of this research and a new type
of cell has emerged-the heat-cell I This
cell is manufactured in cylindrical
form. It consists of an evacuated glass
tube with thin films of radiationselecti ve materials running through its
centre (as shown in the illustration).
The first film is made of silicon
which absorbs heat energy. This heat
is transmitted through the next film
which is made of some high temperature working material. The last film,
made of gold, returns the heat like a
mirror. Thus heat, once it has entered
the cell, becomes trapped there and the
temperature of the cell rises consid~r
ably. If some fluid were to be introduced into the channel running beneath
the cell, the heat would be conducted
into it, raising its temperature. Th~s is
precisely what is done in a large-scale
design by American scientists. Long
tubular heat cells are bolted together to
make mile-long parallel banks of 'heat
collectors. The ends of these parallel
pipes are connected to one large feed
pipe and, at the opposite end, to a

Solar radiation: A newly applied source of energy.

Sun

Experimental house contains

solar roof tiles used to
heat water
Water boiler

Turbine is connected
to a generator

Above: U.S. astronauts repairing the 'solar. panels' (photo

cells) of NASA's orbital laboratory.
Right : Section of a heat-cell plant ..

large fluid-exit pipe. Instead of water,

sodium is used as the heat-carrying
fluid. This metal melts at 99C and
boils at around 880C. Since the cell
heats up to 530C, this substance is
better than using water, which boils at .

I00C.
36

Heat cell

The heat carried off by the sodium

passes through a vast underground
heat exchanger whfoh stores the heat.
and simultaneously transforms water
into steam, via a separate coil system.
This steam drives a conventional steamturbine to produce electricity. It has
been estimated that a 3 square mile
heat-cell plant coupled with a milliongallon heat exchanger could . provide
1,000 megawatts of electricity at a
heat/electricity efficiency of 53%!
Basic layout .of a heat-cell plant.

Main sodium feed pipe . _ _

Ill
...

Pump

Hot sodium exit pipe

:l_(lil i l~:;1: /.j'.!i: Generator

--::====1

Although as far back as Babylonian

times, men col. Who drilled the
lected the small
first oil well ?
.
trickles of crude
oil which sprang from the ground or
rock faces and used it as a medicine
and as fuel to light lamps, the proper
commercial exploitation of crude oil
did not really begin until the first drill
struck oil in_ 1859, at Titusville,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Edwin Drake, a
retired railway conductor, was the first
'oilman', his well hole was only 70
feet deep and provided his employers,
the Seneca Oil Co., with 30 barrels of
crude oil a day which in turn .earned
them $650 per day. (One barrel of oil
=42 US gallons or 35 British imperial
gallons.) Within a few hours of striking
oil, 'Drake's Folly' (as it was called
by sceptics) was surrounded by hundreds of prospectors and would-be
investors. By the end of one year, the
whole surrounding area was, populated
with scores of wooden derricks.
'Drake's Folly'-man's first oil welL

T_urbine

Condenser
Coil system
Heat exchanger

Petroleum-.The Fuel of
Modern Man

Fuels and products from crude oil

Gas
Chemicals

El 0

Petrol and aviation spirit

Diesel fuel oil

Lubricating
oils

Ointments
.and drugs

~------\ -~
.
.

Bitumen (tar) for road

surfaces and roofing

The distillation of crude oil into valuable fue ls and chemical products.

What caused this 'black gold' craze?

Why was Drake's
Why is oil and
discovery so exnatural gas
citing
and comimportant to our
modern world?
mercial? The
story is fairly
simple to relate. Drake's employer, an
American called Bissell, had read a
scientific paper which claimed that if
crude oil were distilled on an industrial
scale, a whole new range of useful
chemical products would become
available to man. Not the least of these
claims boasted a more satisfactory fuel
oil for lamps and heating-Kerosene
or (as it is known in Britain) paraffin.
Of course, Bissell was not aware of
an even greater potential arising from
such a distillation process-petroleum!
Motor vehicles, aircraft, and . dieselpowered ships were still half a century
away. Petrol was considered 'waste'
during the early days of the oil
industry! The method by which
petroleum and diesel oil are used to
propel vehicles has already been dis38

cussed in the 'heat engine' sections

of this book. Today's world could not
function without petroleum and other
crude oil by-products : millions of
motor cars, trucks, aircraft, ships,
locomotives, furnaces, heaters, machine
tools, and petrol-powered utilities rely
on this precious fluid. The natural gas
too (that is often trapped with the
crude oil) is also put to good usedriving the wheels of industry, heating
offices and factories, and cooking food.
Crude oil is a mixture of light and
heavy hydroHow is petrol and
b
l" ht
other fuel extracted
car 0 n s- 1g
from crude oil 1
oils like paraffin
and petrol, and
heavy oils such as those used to lubricate machinery. Before crude oil can
be put to its manifold uses, the light
parts must be separated from the heavy .
. This is accomplished by placing the
liquid in a 'fractionating column'
which employs different temperatures

at which different constituents vaporize

and separate.
The chief oil-producing countries are:
America, VeneWho are the chief
zuela, Arabia,
oil-producing
Kuwait, Iraq,
countries?
Persia, Russia,
Mexico, Indonesia and Borneo. More
recent finds of vast depqsits of natural
gas and crude oil in the North Sea have
assured Britain and her European
partners of an oil boom during the
1980's, and still more undersea surveys
are being carried out all over the
world.
Recent years have seen tremendous
changes in the
What is the
oil ind us try.
outlook for gas
Foremost among
and petroleum 1
these is the discovery and exploitation of deposits
located beneath the North Sea. Another
is the economic power of oil. When the
last Arab-Israeli war took place, the
Arab oil states decided to put pressure
on Britain, Europe and the U.S.A. by
cutting oil supplies and increasing the
price per barrel. This had a catastrophic
effect upon the economies of these
nations and many were forced to re- '
tract their aid to Israel in exchange for
new oil agreements. Even if there were
no troubles in the world and we all had
access to every barrel of oil that is left
in the ground, the demand for this
precious commodity will outstrip reserves by the . year 2015-that is only
40 years away. If this is an overoptimistic prediction this major calamity could occur before the end of
the 20th century!
So, with this sobering thought in
mind, many scientists and engineers
are already seeking ways and means of
extending the reserves of gas and oil
still left in the ground.

An oil rig. First, the oil company constructs a tower called

a derrick. From inside the derrick hangs the drill which consists of a steel bit fixed to a hollow pipe. The pipe is rotated
and the bit penetrates deep into the earth's crust. Additional
lengths of drilling pipe are coupled up and casing tubes are
fed into the hole to prevent its walls from collapsing. Heavy
mud pumped into the drill keeps the bit cool, carries rock
fragments .back up to the surface, and stops high-pressure
water, gas o~ oil from gushing up out of control, smashing
men and machinery.

Derrick

Atomic Energy

In some - atom.s, such as hydrogen,

boron, carbon,
What are isotopes?
nitrogen, oxygen,
uranium, chlorine and copper, it has
been .found that although they possess
the correct number of protons and
electrons, their individual neutron
number varies. To a chemist this is of
little consequence since he is only concerned with the number .of outer
electrons existing within atoms. Atoms
of the .same element whose neutron
count varies from one atom to another
are of great concern to the nuclear
physicist however. Let us examine these
multi-personality atoms, or isotopes as
they are more properly named. For

hydrogen (H 20) it should not be

surprising if the water that contains
the 'heavier' hydrogen atom is called
heavy water although its proper technical name is Deuterium. Heavy water
will not harin you if you drink it or
wash in it yet it plays an important role
in the production of nuclear weapons
and atomic energy.
Deuterium atom

Hydrogen atom

Neutron

Proton

Proton

l 00 Chlorine atoms

75 Chlorine atoms
have 17 protons
and 18 neutrons
in their nuclei

25 Chlorine atoms
have 17 protons
and 20 neutrons
in their nuclei

instance, if you examine 100 chlorine

atoms carefully, you would discover
that 75 of them have 18 neutrons in
the nucleus. The remaining 25 have 20
neutrons at the nucleus. In either case,
the 17 protons also living in the nucleus
positively identify the substance to be
chlorine. Hydrogen is made of two
isotopes. Approximately 2 atoms in
every 10,00p hydrogen atoms possess a
neutron as well as a proton, whereas
the other ~ ,998 atoms only have a
proton nucleus. Since water contains
40

Hydrogen can also be changed into a

. . - . third isotope of ~hat are rad10-act1ve itself by deliber1sotopes 1
,
'
ately forcing two
deuterium atoms together, at very high
speed. This feat is made possible by
using a machine called a particle accelerator or by using neutrons effiitted
by a nuclear reactor to bombard deuterium. This new isotope, called Tritium, is radio-active. It emits nuclear
radiation. Tritium is used in the manufacturing of Hydrogen Bombs.

..

Two neutrons
Proton

Tritium atom

Positive particle repelled by first cylinder and

attracted by negative

D-

Charges on cylinders now reversed

Particle accelerator; are machines that bombard atoms with

very high-speed particles. These particles are accelerated
down long .metal cylinders by a series of tubular electrodes
(seen above in a non-straight line). The electrodes are fed
' with electric charges which 'attract' the particles towards
the target.

In 1896, Henri Becquerel, a French

scientist, became
When was radioc u r 10 u s o ve r
activity discovered?
something very
strange which had taken place in his
laboratory. Becquerel had placed some
photographic plates into a drawer in
his desk. The plates were well wrapped
up in light-proof paper. Several days
later when Becquerel came to use the
Becquerel examining his 'invisible' light effect.

plates he was surprised to discover they

had been exposed to 'light'. On further
investigation he discovered a jar of
uranium salts in the drawer above the
one he had placed the plates in. Was
this ehemical substance emitting lightinvisible light? Tests showed this theory
to be correct and so, without appreciating it at the time, Becquerel became
the first man to discover an invisible
form of radiation-one that came from
a substance and not the sun or a lamp!
Becquerel's work was quickly investigated by scientists all over the world,
but two other scientists in France,
Marie and Pierre Curie, led the way.
These two shared a Nobel Prize in 1903,
with Becquerel, for their discovery of
the new elements radium and polonium. The Curies origiqated the term
radio-activity.
The Curies-discoverers of radium .

At the beginning of this book, in the

section concemWhat causes radioing the nature of
activity?
matter, it was .
stated that there .were 92 natural elements and about 11 other artificially
made elements. Each element is identified from another by the number of
protons existing within its nucleus. A
glance back at Table 1 confirms this.
The table also shows the atbmic weight
of atoms and if we subtract the atomic
number (the number of protons or
electrons in a certain atom) from the
atomic weight, we shall get a number
representing how many neutrons there
are at the nucleus. You will see that as
the atoms get heavier (higher atomic
weights), so, too, the number of neutrons-to-protons increases. We do not
understand why, but if more atomic
particles are added to a nucleus than it
can tolerate, in the form of either
protons or neutrons, the atom becomes
unstable and starts emitting radiation.
Several elements are naturally radioactive in this way, radium and uranium being the most well known of these.

/.
---- Unstable
nucleus
--+e Radiation

l>-<m~.....--

or continue for as much as 45 thousand

million years (the age of .the earth
itself!). Radio-active substances emit
four types of radiation. These are :
alpha and beta particles, positrons and
gamma rays. Alpha particles are made
of two protons and two neutrons bound
tightly together (exactly the same combination that is found in the nucleus of
helium). Whenever elements emit alpha
particles, they are transmuting (changing) into a range of lighter elements.

Alpha particles

Neutron
Proton

Beta particles are fast-moving electrons. These have amazingly been created by the splitting up_of a neutronthe remaining piece left behind in the
nucleus is a proton! Hence, beta emitting elements tend to increase their
atomic number and transmute into
heavier elements.
Beta particle

+-Alpha/Beta/Gamma
radiation

The atomic radiation emitted by a

radio-active
What is atomic
element
can last
radiation?
for a split second

42

Positrons are created when a proton

splits open and out pops a particle the
size of an electron but possessing a

positive charge. The other piece of the

proton that is left behind in the nucleus
becomes a neutron. Hence, positron
emission results in the element becom.:..
ing lighter-it transmutes into a lighter
element.
Gamma rays have a different origin.
When radio-active atoms emit particles
and thus decay or transmute into
lighter or heavier elements, they upset
the electrons that are orbiting the
nuclei. The electron receives a kind of
shock every time the mass of the atom
changes. This shock or jolt causes the
nucleus to emit extremely high frequency radiation. This radi-ation, like
radio waves but considerably shorter in
waveleng~h, is called gamma -radiation.
Gamma r'a diation is believed to be the result of instabilities
occurring within the nucleus of an atom which, in some way,
upsets the electrical /atomic forces of electrons existing in
the shell closest to the nucleus,

e+-- Inner electron shells

In the course of discussing radioactivity the

What is half-life?
mechanism
of
radio-active decay or transmutation
was explained to soine extent. However
what may not be apparent is a factor
ca1led half.:../ife. If we had about a pound
of uranium (which is naturally radioactive) and could weigh it and examine
it after a period of 4 5 thousand million
years had elapsed, we would notice that
only half of the uranium is still radiating as a lump of uranium. After this
period of time has elapsed again, halfof-the-half of the remaining uranium
will have transmuted whilst the I /4 remaining is still a lump of uranium.
Thus the uranium is decaying with a
half-life of 4,500,000;000 years.
As you can see from the chart of
uranium half-life, several other radioactive elements called Daughter Products decay at various half-life times
until eventually practically all that is
left is the stable element-lead.
URANIUM TO LEAD TRANSMUTATION SEQUENCE CHART
Isotope
Half-Life Time
Uranium-238
4,500,000,000
years
Thorium-234
24 days
Protactinium-234 1 8 minutes
Uranium-234
2,500,000 years
Thorium-230
80,000 years
Radium-226
I ,620 years
Radon-222
4 days
Polonium-218
3 minutes
Asta tine-218
I 3 seconds
Lead-214
27 minutes
Bismuth-214
20 minutes
Polonium-214
000016 seconds
l 3 minutes
Thallium-210
Lead-210
22 years
5 days
Bismuth-210
Polonium-210
139 days
Thallium-206
42 minutes
Lead-206
Non-emitting,
stable element

All radio-active elements decay into

lighter elements until they finish up as
stable elements. Thus, after an isotope
has decayed one half-life, the amount

left decays at the rate of:

x ~ x x x

2 x2x2 x2x2.

into infinity.

Uranium 238 for example

.!

1/16~f;;)~f;;~t;;;~;::==~=:i::==================----.
8

4.5 9, 0

1/32

.13.5

180

.22.S

Thousands of millions of years

RADIO-ACTIVE DECAY AND HALF-LIFE. Uranium-238 takes 4500 million years for 'half' of its former self to change (decay)
into another substance, simultaneously losing 'half' of its former radio-activity. After another 4500 million years, the
amount of U-238 remaining is only a quarter of its former self and radio-activity. And so the process continues.

Uranium never occurs free in nature

but is extracted
Radio-active. ~ranium: from the minerals
fuel of atomic energy
d
pitchblen e and
carnotite where it shares room with
radium. When extracted, the uranium
exists in six different isotopic forms,
but only two isotopes make up the
bulk of the uranium used by man.
u~238 (238 is the atomic weight) makes
up about 99% whilst U-235 forms
about 0-7%. U-238 has 92 protons
and the same number qf orbiting electrons, as does U-235. The only difference between these isotopes of uranium
is in the neutron count. U-238 has 146
and U-235 has 143 neutrons! Both
isotopes have approximately 3 neutrons
to 2 protons in their nuclei and this
results in instability and the atoms
become radio-active.

44

Just prior to the outbreak of the

Second World
Nuclear fission:
War;the German
tapping th~ uranium
physicists,
Hahn
atom's energy
and Stiassmann,
discovered a vital secret of the atom.
They ,were bombarding ~ome ura,riium
with various atomic particles in an
atom-smashing machine when they
were amazed to find evidence that some
of the uranium was splitting into two
lighter elements, barium and krypton.
Radio-activity was beginning to be
understood and ' so therefore was
transmutation and half-life decay, but
this was something quite new-an
effect that avoided the usual drawn-out
decay lasting millions of years. Elements were being created in a split
second by a process called fission
(splitting).

BoD?barding .....-.... ~eu\t~

particle
--~ . . , .
JV.
Chain reaction

[ >

..

-~"
~ -----. . . . .

Nucleus

~.

'

:.s

Two other German scientists, Frisch

and Meitner, showed that fission resulted in the release of energy. By this
time the war had begun and several
British and American scientists approached the President of the United
States to warn him of the danger of
Hitler's scientists developing this discovery into a weapon of terrifying
proportions. The race was on.
But you may well ask, "How can the
tiny amount of energy released by one
fis~ioning atom lead to an atomic bomb
and its dreadful destructive force?"
Well, the answer lies in the process of
fission itself. If you can collect a certain
amount of uranium-235 together, the
uranium will undergo a fission chainA piece of uranium the size of a golf ball (or ping-pong ball)
contains the same amount of energy as would be consumed
by suddenly switching on 37,000 million one-bar electric
fires! This Is equivalent to exploding 9000 tons of TNT
(roughly half the power of the Hiroshima atom bomb).

o
e

One pound of
uranium-235

37,000 million electric fires

reaction that is triggered by the presence of some spare neutrons. These

neutrons are either 'spontaneously' released by the uranium or come from
the background radio-activity of the
surrounding air and ground. Each time
an atom is split (fissioned)two or three
more neutrons pop out and hit other
atoms and split them open. So it will
, continue until, after only a tiny fraction
of one -second, the entire quantity of
U-235 is involved in a chain-reaction of
fission. Now this brings us to the energy
produced. Each time an atom fissions,
it radiates about 0000000000032 watts
of energy-mostly heat energy.
Tiny irideed-but just one pound
(4536 grams) of uranium-235 (about
as big as a golf-ball) holds about
1160,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
atoms! If all these atoms fission at once,
the total energy output will soar to a
fantastic 37 million milliori watts! That
is the same as switching on 37,000
million electric fires!

Atomic Piles and

Reactors
During December 1942 a group of the
world's greatest
Atomic piles and
scientific minds
reactors
were completfog
the finishing touches to a strange-lo0king pile of graphite bricks, tubes of
metal, and a tank of heavy water.
Cables led away to banks of instruments scanned anxiously by technicians
and the experts. Enrico Fermi, their
leader, made some adjustments to the
tubes of metal and waited. Suddenly
there was a shout, "It works". Man
had built his first operational atomic
pile-the colossal heat of fissioning
uranium was being produc~d safely by
a controlled chain-reaction.
45

Atomic bomb

Remote handling of radio-active materials. Most radio-active

materials are too dangerous to handle directly. Surprisingly
perhaps, uranium and plutonium can be touched with bare
hands, but only in their metallic 'non-dust' form.

As already implied in the previous

section, U-235 is the best isotope for
fission, the only problem being that it
is the least abundant (remember only
07% of U-235 exists in uranium ore).
Thus very complex equipment is needed
to separate U-235 from its heavier
mate U-238. Whilst U-235 is be~ng
separated it is of the utmost importance
to ensure that it is stored in small
amounts or it will fission uncontrollably. The amount of U-235 that will
fission in this deadly way is called a
critical mass. Atomic piles hold several
rods of U-235, sufficient quantity to
Nuclear reactors supply vast quantities of electricity by
producing heat from their 'fissioning' cores, changing water
into steam and conventionally driving steam turbine electric
generators. A gas or fluid circulates the core and transfers
the heat through an exchanger. which in turn changes water
into steam.

REACTOR

provide more than the minimum critical

mass. So why is there no explosion? The
answer is because some of the neutrons,
that would ordinarily bring about
rapid chain-reaction, are slowed down
by the graphite and captured and absorbed by rods of cadmium, . that are
inserted between the rods of U-235.
Graphite, deuterium and beryllium
compounds make good moderators of
neutrons. Thus using sufficient cadmium control rods and - moderating
material ensures that the chainreaction taking place inside the U-235
proceeds at a slower rate than that
which occurs inside an atomic bomb.
Nowadays, we tend to refer to an
atomic pile as a nuclear reactorterms and descriptions are always
changing. A typical design of a nuclear
reactor is shown here. The .heat produced by the reactor is used to heat
water and turn it into steam. From
here on we have a normal steam-intoelectricity process.
The ma~vel of atomic energy is that
it requires only a few pounds of uranium to run a nuclear submarine all
/ around the world and back. Or a few
thousand pounds of uranium per mega:. watt of electricity generated by a
nuclear power station.

Hot gas
Hot gas heats
water to steam

Electricity

Uranium Rods give

off heat and heat up gas

: . . .-.
:. Gas ~W~a~tjer~~Condens.er_ _
Cool gas blower

Cooling
Tower

A few , years after the ending of the

Fission seemed to be the only easy way
Second World
to produce the heat of the sun and use
.
Nu~le:ir fusionWar the detonit
to cause a fusion reaction. At least
unhm1ted power for
. '
f
that was the story until scientists began
mankind
atlon o a new
and far more
experimenting with plasmas. Remember : a plasma is the name given to a
terrible weapon, the Hydrogen Bomb,
heralded a new age of energy- thergas that has been made so hot. that its
monuclear energy. Instead of fission,
atomic particles become ionised. Ionithese new weapons use a process called
zation means that the atoms lose some
fusion. Fusion occurs when light atoms,
of their electrons and thus become
such as ordinary hydrogen, deuterium,
positively charged. Meanwhile the electrons wander freely about the gas
or tritium~ are made to collide together
making it a good conductor. Because
at high speed. As a result of these
collisions a number of these lightplasmas are conductors of electricity
weight atoms fuse together to form the
they respond like a wire or coil does to
element helium. Each fusion releases
magnetism. This is the means by which
man hopes to contain a thermonuclear
some energy. This is believed to . be
the process whereby the sun produces
reaction. During the last 20 years or so,
several machines have been built to
its vast output of energy. On earth we
require temp,eratures similar to that
study the mechanism of fusion and to
try to maintain the very high temperaencountered inside the sun, i.e. 1i
million degrees, if such fusion is to be
tures needed to 'cause fusion to occur
achieved. We have such a source, in
continuously. None of these machines
was successful. Then the Russians
the form of a fission explosion. An
ordinary atom bomb is therefore
designed and built a machine called a
merely a detonator for a thermo- Tokamak. Tokamaks -operate in the
following way:
nuclear Hydrogen Bomb!
.::.( :'.'. .:_: ~: ;'.':\:/:~{ .' : 'J::.->.~t->.i :;; :.~-:.- ~-. : ~:-\:(;>.::. ~< :~>:r_..'::":<~

Because there are estimated to be unlimited amounts

~usi!>n reactors : the of deuterium in
sun m a bottle!
ordinary sea
Water, scientists believe that once they
have learnt how to harness the heat
generated by a thermonuclear reaction,
the oceans will provide mankind with
an almost endless quantity of fuel.

.l. ;
-
"'.
,. --.
Ionization

Plasma

Positive. !
ions

Electro-;.J

.. . . . . .

.........

.t

'f

~.

.-"'.

:~;. : Plasma gas

<:: fuel input

..........

High frequency current :.;<

pulse input ( 1) ..;::.:~

..
..-. ~ .
i .. :

.;

J:
....

' C':

. . Plasma
h b --..
: ~ : c am er

: :y.
,....
. ..

v' ;

..

. . t .

"

..:

.,..'

\': High frequency

; :.
:{ current pulse input (2)
::~:
.~ " : . ,._ . : . .. . . . . . . .. . .. . . Radiation shield .. ".
. ~::c ~; .. ~. . .,. ~ : .. :r ...~. : - :~: : .':,r ::. :":'".,.. .' ,C-."..". .~:',r.:;"',.' . .,>.c.":.
Tokamak fus ion generators .

The heart of a Tokamak consists of '

a douglinut-shaped chamber. The
interior of this chamber is filled with a
gas and minute amounts of deuterium.
Heavy electro-magnets are clustered all
around the doughnut. When all is
ready, the gas inside the doughnut has
an extremely heavy electric current
47

pulsed through it, whereupon it heats

up to a very high temperature and
changes into a plasma.
As long as the current is kept passing
through the plasma it will generate its
own powerful magnetic field. This field,
in conjunction with those that are
produced by the magnets clustered on
the outside of the machine, keeps the
intensely hot plasma away from the
sides of the doughnut. One touch of
this filmy plasma would immediately
vaporise the metal walls of the chamber! The'heat generated by this plasma
should, under ideal conditions, set off
a deuterium fusion reaction which
becomes self-sustaining! Each fusion
releases less energy than that attained
from uranium fission, but since one
gram of deuterium contains about 100
times as many atoms, the total amount
of energy released by a fusion reaction
involving one gram of deuterium is
approximately three times as great as
that given out by a gram of fissioning
uranium! Once scientists havemanaged
to operate a fusion reactor successfully,
with_o ut problems, its vast amount of
generated heat can be used to change
water into steam and thence to drive
electric turbines and other machinery.
At the present time, several other
nations are involved in their own
Tokamak experiments but so far nobody has been able to maintain a high
enough temperature, nor have they
managed to contain the plasma properly in its central position within the
doughnut. Several Tokamaks bave had
the same containment problem-the
plasma -touching the sides of the
chamber and damaging the machine!
Despite these setbacks, scientists and
engineers still believe that a fusion reactor will be working before the end of
this century and that these machines will
produce all the heat energy man is ever
likely to need for thousands of years!
48

1.N DEX
Atomic Energy, 40
AC Current, 25
British Thermal Units
Batteries, 23, 24

(~~us),

15

Chemical Energy, 5, 14
Conservation of Energy, 6
Coal, 14
Calories, 15
Chain-reaction (atomic), 45
Diesel Engines, 21
Direct Current, 25
Ergs, 10
Electric Power, 22
Electric Generators and Motors, 25, 26
Foot-Pounds (Ft-lbs), 10
Flywheels, 12, 13
Fuel Cells, 29
Fission (atomic), 44
Fusion (thermonuclear), 47, 48
Grid System, 28
Geothermal Energy, 31, 32
Heat Energy (thermal energy), 4, 16, 17
Hydraulics, 13
Horsepower, 19
Heat Engines, 20
Hydroelectricity, 27
Inclined Plane (ramps), IO
Inertia, 11
Internal Combustion Engines, 20
Joules, 10
'

Kilowatt-Hours, 22
Levers, 9
Mechanical Energy (potential/kinetic), 4
MHD Generators, 33
Newton-Metres, 10
.
:Nuclear Reactors (Atomic Piles), 45
Pulleys, 9
Petroleum (and natural gas), 14, 20, 37, 38, 39
Steam Power, 18, 19, 20
Solar Energy, 34, 35, 36, 37
Thermoelectric Power, 29
Tidal Power, 30
Tokamak Fusion Generators, 47, 48
Waterwheels, 5
Windmills and Windlasses, 5
Watts, 22

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