A USEFUL ANALOGY
All of the functions of the body are
operated by something very much akin
to electricity—mental energy—so that
aside from the fermentation which gluttony
makes possible, the mere drag of
handling of dead material in the body,
that the body cannot use, for two or
three days, is a wasteful draught on
the available mental capacity.
Using an electric power-plant as analogous
to the Mind Power-Plant of the
brain, and a trolley railroad as analogous
to the machinery of the body—analogies
which are very close by consistent
similarity—the loading of the stomach
with unprepared food, as in gluttony, is
like loading flat cars with pig iron and
running them around the line of the
road in place of passenger cars, thereby
using up valuable energy and wearing
out the equipment without any profit
resulting from the expenditure.
To those who are familiar with the
modern electric power-plant the analogy
between it and the human individual
equipment, or Mind Power-Plant, seems
very remarkable.
To those, however, who have not visited
an electric power-plant a description
is necessary.
DESCRIPTION OF A MODERN
ELECTRIC POWER-PLANT
Fuel, of course, is the source of the
power. Furnaces which are capable of
producing heat with the least consumption
of fuel, tubes within the boilers that
permit the freest possible contact of the
heat produced and the water to be turned
into steam, steam pipes that are flexible
and yet strong, machinery that moves
with the least friction in order to concentrate
and utilise the power of the
steam, and dynamos out of which electricity
is evolved, together with auxiliary
pumps and hoists and blowers and whatnot
other devices to help create, control
and economise the energy, are the essential
parts of an electric power-plant. To
insure economy and accuracy these are
made as nearly automatic as possible.
At one end of the furnace house there
is sunk in the cement floor a large iron
scoop or tray into which cartloads of
lump coal are dumped. This scoop-shaped
receptacle is also the platform
of a weighing machine so that each
load is weighed. In the bottom of the
scoop there is a trap-door, which, being
opened, permits the coal to drop through
between the teeth of a crusher where
the large lumps are reduced, usually to
the size of a small nut.
From the crusher the coal falls into
the buckets of an endless chain-hoist
and is conveyed aloft to great hopper-shaped
bins which occupy the entire
space under the roof over the furnaces.
Leading back from each bin to the constantly
moving grate bars of the furnace
underneath is a pipe which delivers the
crushed coal to the grate bars and distributes
it evenly over their surface as
fast as it can be received into the furnace,
regulated, of course, by the consumption
that is going on inside the furnace.
To accomplish this automatic feeding
each set of grate bars is constructed in
hinged sections, and forms a wide endless
iron belt which revolves and carries
the coal within the cavity of the furnace.
The coal crusher, bucket hoist, movable
grate bars, ash collectors and sifters,
pumps, blowers, lights and all other utilities
of the plant, as well as the great
travelling crane which can hoist and
carry many tons' weight—any part of
the enormous dynamos—from place to
place, are operated by electricity which
is generated in the dynamos.
Automatic gauges that measure and
indicate, and switch-boards that regulate
the energy created and stored in the
dynamos play important parts in the
economy and working of the plant and
are analogous to appetite and taste in
man.
ANALOGY ILLUSTRATED
The full analogy may be best illustrated
by arranging the similar functions
of the two energy-creating machines
opposite each other in parallel columns.
| ELECTRIC AND MIND POWER-PLANTS
COMPARED |
|---|
| ELECTRIC POWER-PLANT | MIND POWER-PLANT |
|---|
| Fuel. |
Food. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Selection of fuel as to
steam-making and economic
qualities. |
Selection of food for
nutritive value; normal
appetite serving as an
exact guide and gauge. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Crushing coal so as to
render combustion as
easy and complete as
possible. |
Masticating food so
that the juices of the
mouth can act on the
substance with greatest
freedom; taste being evidence
of the working of
the process.
|
| * * * |
|---|
| Automatic conveyal of
the prepared fuel, first to
the bins and then on to
the furnace as required.
|
Automatic reception of
properly masticated and
thoroughly insalivated
food into Nature's Food
Filter and emptying into
the furnace of the stomach
by Involuntary, or Compulsory
Swallowing. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Combustion in the furnace.
|
Digestion in the stomach
and intestines. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Generation of steam in
the boiler tubes and storage
in the boilers.
|
Generation of material
for vital energy and storage
in the body. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Steam.
|
Blood in circulation. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Steam Gauge.
|
Pulse. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Engine.
|
Heart. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Dynamo, with its numerous
coils and extensive
friction surfaces.
|
Brain, with its complex
convolutions in constant
frictional activity. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Volt Gauge, indicating
the power available.
|
Strength, indicating the
available energy. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Electricity.
|
Mind. Energy. Nervous
Force. |
| AUXILIARY OPERATING MOTORS |
|---|
| Electric motors attached
to the separate
parts or machines of the
plant, connected by wires
and drawing power from
the dynamos.
|
Nerve-cell motors attached
to glands and
muscles, connected with
the brain by nerve-fibres
and drawing on the mental
or nervous energy for
power. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Automatic switches
regulating the transmission
of power to the motors
in response to their
fluctuating requirements.
|
Sensitive nerve ends
terminating in each cell of
the body and penetrating
each gland, signalling, on
being touched, for power
to eject digestive secretions
or oily mucus as demanded
by the needs of
digestion, also, supplying
automatic power to muscles
employed in exterior
work or in moving the
food substance on through
the process of digestion
and afterward disposing
of the excreta—ashes and
clinkers, as it were. The
ganglions are the switch
boards of the body. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Automatic demand for
fuel as required in the
progress of combustion
to supply the waste or
useful consumption of the
electricity.
|
Appetite, indicating requirements
of the Mind
Power-Plant for replacing
the cnstant waste of
the constant waste of
tissue consumed in running
the machine. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Good Draught, forced
if necessary.
|
Optimistic Thinking,
forced if necessary, for it
is necessary to health. |
| * * * |
|---|
| PROFITABLE MANAGEMENT |
|---|
| Intelligent Engineering.
|
Intelligent Self-Knowledge
and Self-Care, assisting
Nature in her
good intentions. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Economic stoking.
|
Feeding only what is
actually required for sustenance. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Overloading and choking
the furnace with irregular
and dirty coal.
|
Overloading and choking
the stomach with
unmasticated, unsolved,
unconverted, and, therefore
indigestible food. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Neglect of cleaning,
oiling and repairs.
|
Nature is not neglectful;
she does well and
quickly all the lubricating
and repairing of the
Mind Power-Plant whenever
strain is removed
and she is given the required
rest, or time to
accomplish the work between
meals. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Unnecessary ashes and
clinkers, encumbering the
plant, depositing dust in
the journals of the machines
and requiring
much power to handle
and remove.
|
Unnecessary fermenting
excreta, resulting from
unfiltered and unprepared
food, depositing
poisonous sediment in the
blood channels, straining
the intestines, ossifying
the cartilages, crystallising
in the kidneys and
bladder and drawing excessively
upon the available
energy of the nervous
centres and the available
brain energy for power to
handle and discharge. |
| PROFITABLE DIRECTION AND USE OF ENERGY |
|---|
| Good wires leading to
profitable uses.
|
Creditable aims in life. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Good insulation or isolation
of circuit wires.
|
Concentration of purpose. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Resistance Coils.
|
Self-Control. Reserve
force. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Success, evidenced by
profit.
|
Success, evidenced by
energy conserved and happiness
secured.
|
| UNPROFITABLE DIRECTION AND USE OF ENERGY |
|---|
| Small wires leading
anywhere or nowhere.
|
Aimlessness of purpose
and timid, lazy or selfish
isolation from sympathetic
currents and constructive
occupation. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Current carelessly
grounded and electricity
wasted.
|
Energy wasted in idleness
or worry. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Crossing of wires resulting
in waste of power
and possibly causing fire.
|
Crossed temper—Anger—wasting
valuable
energy and possibly leading
to rash acts causing
life-long regrettable foolishness. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Placing flat cars on
an electric trolley line,
for instance, loading them
with pig iron and purposelessly
running them
aimlessly around the circuit,
thereby wasting the
electricity and wearing out
the cars and the line.
|
Importing worry
through anticipated evil
on an hundred-to-one
chance of its being realised,
thereby wasting
energy and paralysing the
digestive and repair
functions of the body;
painfully wearing out the
body itself. |
| * * * |
|---|
| Allowing cars to run
wild instead of keeping
them under control.
|
Permitting Anger to
run away with cool discretion. |
