Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

I taught at the junior high here in Fort Scott several years ago.

To give you an idea of the time, some of my students are retiring now. I taught life science in the seventh grade. We grew plants and dissected cows eyes as our highlights. I had a plastic skull with a movable lower jaw. Dr. Cooper, a dentist, had to work on it so it wouldn't have misaligned teeth. Someone stole it.

In earth science in the eighth grade, students collected rocks.

They got extra credit if they collected a rock while they were on vacation. I have a great rock collection. One of the highlights was to take the four-inch telescope out at night to look at the stars and the moon.

Along with that, we would have a wiener roast. My amazement was to see a skinny girl eat a whole package of wieners.

In physical science, in the ninth grade, we had a Science Club.

We went on field trips, the students did research papers and we had a Science Fair and slide rule contest.

Now I'm getting to the point of my thesis. One of my students who is now a well-known doctor built a fuel cell.

To explain a fuel cell, it generates electricity by using hydrogen.

Everyone knows about H2O, hydrogen dioxide. What you may not know is there is a lot of attraction between the hydrogen and oxygen. It is possible to separate the oxygen molecule from the hydrogen by using electricity.

This separation is like stretching a rubber band. (Electrolysis) The free oxygen molecule will gladly combine with something that is combustible to relieve the stress. This will release its energy.

The release of energy we call fire. The hydrogen molecule is also highly combustible. I would keep a Coke bottle full of hydrogen and when things got a little unruly, I would set it off. Fire would shoot out about a foot with a very loud bang.

The difference between the oxygen and the hydrogen is as follows: The oxygen was causing a substance to be consumed (broken apart) by oxidation. In the case of hydrogen, it was being consumed by oxygen in the air. Under certain conditions, the hydrogen molecule will combine with a substance and give off electricity.

That is what we call a fuel cell. Now if we can separate water and use the products it would solve some of our problems.

I propose that we use wind power to generate electricity. Then we use the electricity to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. We use the hydrogen to generate electricity in fuel cells for electric cars.

We use the oxygen to increase the miles per gallon of diesel engines by giving them a squirt of oxygen along with their squirts of fuel. Every time I go toward Uniontown and then south, I see a ridge.

The highway that goes over that ridge south of Uniontown, I can imagine seeing that ridge covered with windmills generating electricity. It doesn't matter that he wind doesn't blow all the time, because the electricity doesn't need to be constant to do what we want it to do. We can store the oxygen and hydrogen no matter how strong the wind is.

If nothing else, we could use the hydrogen and oxygen to run a steam engine. I just thought of that.

Hill DeMent

Fort Scott