HARNESSING THE WIND.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9394, 15 March 1909, Page 3

HARNESSING THE WIND.

London, January 21. Money and power are blowing unheeded past every man’s door, and a correspondent of the Times yesterday draws attention to this reckless wa-ta of millions of horse-power in the wind. > The wind motor, says Mr T. F. Teats,, the writer of the letter, would solve the problem of a limited coal supply snd would do more work far more cheaply than gas or oil. “The modern wind motor,” Mr Teats writes, ‘‘is an efficient and economical power, and it can be depended on to work at least eight hour's out of the twenty four. Taking the average wind velocity at fifteen miles an hour, a motor 23ft in diameter will produce one horsepower at thirty-six revolutions a minute. „ “Since we are seldom without*a strong hreeae on our coasts, a quantity of power might be developed, at a cheap rate for lighting the coast towns or at least our lighthouses.” The managing director of Messrs jjobt. Warner & 00., of Queen Victoria street, windmill makers and engineers, told an Express representative yesterday that it was “an excellent idea.” , . “Windmills provide almost unlimited power in the most economical way,” he said, “and they are simpler in oonstrnotion and little liable to breakdown. “We erected a windmill seventeen yearsa go, and the owners provided five and a half tons of coal as an emergency supply, in case the machinery had to be driven by other power. After seventeen years there is still some of that coal left in the cellars—and the wind continues to do all the work without charge. “There is plenty of wind and to spare. In this country, for thirteen hours out of the twenty-four, the wind is blowing at from ten to twelve miles an hour. In a year there are on an average only fourteen days when the wind takes holiday. ”