ENERGY SHORTAGES

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

—Rev. 6:6

1358 Fuel Shortage Happenings

London (UPI)—British police did their bit Wednesday to ease the oil shortage by advising officers to catch a bus to the scene of crimes rather than drive their cars, if possible.

In West Germany, a motorist held up a filling station attendant at gunpoint for a tank of gas, then paid for the fuel before fleeing. A British motorist told another attendant to “fill her up” and his tank would only take eight pence worth of gas.

Another newspaper showed an Arab in a Cadillac whipping past a Briton, chugging along in a small car at 50 miles per hour, the speed recommended for motorists by the British government.

Tanks suffered in France. The army’s armored forces were banned from taking part in the Armistice Day parade to conserve fuel.

When two streetcars collided in Antwerp, they could not be cleared because the firm contracted to tow them away had failed to apply for a permit to drive on Sundays.

Lisbon newspapers said 20 persons have been hospitalized with gasoline poisoning after taking too big a gulp while siphoning gasoline and reported that one man has filled his bathtub with fuel.

Stalled cars have become a common sight in Portugal where gasoline sales are limited to four gallons and stores reported a run on rubber hose and gas cans. Other countries said auto accessory shops were being flooded with order for gas tank caps with locks.

1359 Cars Of The Future

By the end of the decade, cars will be smaller and more fuel-efficient than ever before. From Detroit to Tokyo, auto makers are groping for ways to meet stricter laws prohibiting pollution, to satisfy consumer demands for safety and comfort and—above all—to keep the world’s wheels rolling despite the relentless rise in petroleum prices.

In the American market, the most noticeable change will be the auto’s steadily dwindling size. Detroit has already scaled down most models and all but abandoned the powerful old V-8 in favor of smaller, lighter engines. But that is just the start. By 1989, more than two-thirds of all cars produced in the U. S. will be compacts or smaller, compared with less than half the fleet today; the proportion with four-cylinder engines will rise from 25 percent to 70 percent.

1360 Thanks To No Gas

Mrs. Thelma D. Ruiz is one person who can be somewhat thankful for the gas shortage. Someone tried to steal her car but ran out of gas about 75 feet (25 m. ) from where it was parked and fled. Mrs. Ruiz said she had planned to fill the tank but got too busy with her relatives.

1361 Buses In Business

Commuters from Virginia townships have been saving up to half an hour on their journeys into Washington, D. C., simply by traveling on buses allotted the exclusive use of one lane of a highway. Motorists, ensnared in the suburban crawl have watched enviously as the buses roar past. Since the reserved-lane system started, the number of bus customers has swollen by 150 percent.

—Peter Gwyne

1362 Federal Car Standards

In September of 1976, federal standards on gasoline mileage took effect. For all 1978 models, the average for all cars sold by a single manufacturer must be at least 18 miles per gallon. The average, by law will increase each year until 1985, when it must reach 27.5 miles. Thus, the only way to meet such figures seems to be to build a lot more smaller, lighter cars.

1363 Power From Sun

French scientists have built high in the Pyrenees the world’s largest solar furnace. This amazing furnace, with its complex of nearly 20,000 mirrors, can concentrate enough sunlight to create temperature in excess of 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to Time, “Anchored against a reinforced concrete office and laboratory building, the huge concave mirror consists of 8,570 individual reflectors. For the furnace to operate efficiently, these small (18 inches square) mirrors must be pre cisely adjusted so that light will converge exactly at the parabola’s focal point 59 feet in front of the giant reflector.

“It takes only a minute for the powerful light from the reflector to cut a fiery hole through 3/8-inch-thick steel plate.”

1364 America’s Coal Resources

Coast to coast, America has almost 400 billion tons of coal that could be mined with known techniques. That is enough for 661 years at present rate of consumption. This potential storehouse of energy exceeds even the oil wealth of the Arab nations. One catch: a dirtier environment.

1365 U.S. Energy Consumption

Here are the White House’s estimates of the sources of America’s present energy consumption:

Oil…     …50%

Natural Gas…     …30%

Coal…     …15%

Hydro Elect…     …4%

Nuclear…     …1%

1366 Collecting Sun’s Energy

The Arthur D. Little Company of America has suggested putting into orbit, 22,300 miles above the earth, a lightweight solar cell panel which would be exposed to sunlight all the time. It would collect radiant energy and convert it to electricity. The electricity would then be converted, still in orbit, to micro-wave energy.

The micro-wave radiation would be at a wavelength selected to penetrate clouds with little loss and would be collected by an antenna on the earth. Glaser calculates that a 10,000 megawatt satellite power station, big enough to provide heat, light and power for New York, would require a collector panel 5 miles square.

1367 One Second Of Sun’s Energy

The sun radiates more energy in one second than man has used since the beginning of civilization. In one second, a typical quasar throws out enough energy to supply all the earth’s electrical needs for billions of years.

1368 A Comparison

The great projectiles which we fire in warfare, from the coast artillery, travel at a speed of about one mile per second. As the earth moves around the sun, it travels at a speed of about eighteen and one-half miles per second. Thus there is more than 300 times the energy in any part of the earth as it travels around the sun than there is in an equal mass of a great coast artillery shell.

Furthermore, some galaxies—each carrying billions of stars—travel as fast as 60,000 miles per second. What energy in creation!

1369 Epigram On Energy Shortage

•     Sign spotted on a London bus: “Owing to the Energy Shortage There Will Be No Last Bus on This Route.”

—Record News

•     Paul Van Den Hout, gold- and silversmith in Roermond, the Netherlands, beat the Dutch ban on shop-window lighting in his own way. Outside his shop he constructed a hand generator. Anyone who wants to see his window display illuminated need only crank the generator.

•     All in favor of conserving gasoline, raise your right foot.

—Slogan posted on California freeway

•     The bright young pupil looked long and thoughtfully at the second examination question, which read: “State the number of tons of coal shipped out of the United States in any given year.” Then his brow cleared and he wrote: 1492—none.

See also: Arab Wealth ; Ecology ; Inflation ; Oil ; Pollution.