THE PHOTOCHEMISTRY OF THE FUTURE.
THE PHOTOCHEMISTRY OF THE FUTURE.
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DOI：
10.1126/science.36.926.385
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发表时间：
1912-09-27
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Ciamician, G
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Ciamician, G
现代文明是煤的女儿，因为煤为人类提供了最集中的太阳能，也就是说，在一系列世纪中，太阳能以一种形式被吸收。现代人为了征服世界，越来越急切地、轻率地挥霍着煤炭，煤炭就像神话中的莱茵河黄金一样，是今天最大的能源和财富来源。地球上仍然蕴藏着大量的煤，但煤并非取之不尽用之不竭。未来的问题开始引起我们的兴趣，这一点可以从以下事实中得到证明：去年，威廉·拉姆齐爵士在朴茨茅斯的英国科学促进会上和卡尔·恩格勒教授在卡尔斯鲁厄的德国自然研究与航空研究会上几乎同时讨论了这个问题。根据恩格勒教授的计算，欧洲今天拥有大约7000亿吨煤，美国也差不多，此外还必须加上亚洲未知地区的煤。煤炭的供应量是巨大的，但随着消费量的增加，煤炭的开采由于需要开采的深度更大而变得更加昂贵。因此，必须记住，在某些地区，煤的储量可能在耗尽之前很久就变得实际上无用了。
MODERN civilization is the daughter of coal, for this offers to mankind the solar energy in its most concentrated form; that is, in a form in which it has been accumu-lated in a long series of centuries. Modern man uses it with increasing eagerness and thoughtless prodigality for the conquest of the world and, like the mythical gold of the Rhine, coal is to-day the greatest source of energy and wealth. The earth still holds enormous quantities Of it, but coal is not inexhaustible. The problem of the future begins to interest us, and a proof of this may be seen in the fact that the subject was treated last year almost at the same time by Sir William Ramsay before the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Portsmouth and by Professor Carl Engler before the Ver-sammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte at Karlsruhe. According to the calculations of Professor Engler Europe possesses to-day about 700 billion tons of coal and America about as much; to this must be added the coal of theunknown parts ofAsia. The supply is enormous but, with increasing consumption, the mining of coal becomes more expensive on account of the greater depth to which it is necessary to go. It must therefore be remembered that in some regions the deposits of coal may becomepractically useless long before their exhaustion.