Abstract
PROF. A. C. G. EGERTON delivered the twenty-seventh Thomas Hawksley Lecture of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on November 15 last. At the outset, he emphasized the fact that the sun is the source of practically all power on earth. Its surface (photosphere) has a brightness temperature of 6,000° C, and radiates energy at the rate of 3·8 × 1033 ergs per second. This radiant energy works a great engine of 2·3 × 1014 h.p. wherein the sun is the furnace, the atmosphere is both working substance and cylinder, and space the condenser. Within the workings of this engine potential energy is being converted to kinetic; kinetic back into potential. Approximately 35 per cent of the energy of radiation is used in evaporating waters of the ocean and the land. On condensation the energy is released: some returns as kinetic energy of the rain or the rivers; some appears in the wind and thunderstorms.
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Power and Combustion. Nature 147, 122–123 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147122a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147122a0