Tesla Thinks Wind Power Should Be Used More Now

The power of the wind has been overlooked. Some day it will be forcibly brought to the position it deserves through the need of a substitute for the present method of generating power. Given a good breeze, I have estimated that there is as much as half a horse-power to every square foot of area exposed. Imagine what energy is left unused with all this force at hand.

The contrivance that has been at the disposal of mankind from all time, the windmill, is now see in the rural districts only. The popular mind cannot grasp the power there is in the wind. Many a deluded inventor has spent years of his life in endeavoring to harness the tides, and some have even proposed to compress air by tide or wave power for supplying energy, never understanding the signs of the old windmill on the hill as it sorrowfully waves its arms about and bids them stop.

The fact is that the wave or tide motor would have but small chance of competing commercially with the windmill. which is by far the better machine, allowing a much greater amount of energy to be obtained in a simpler way.

Wind power has been in all times of inestimable value to man, if for nothing else than for enabling him to cross the seas, and it is even now a very important factor in transportation. But there are limitations in this simple method of utilizing the sun's energy. The machines are large for a given output and the power is intermittent, thus necessitating a storage of energy and increasing the cost of the plant. But there is no question as to its usefulness as a substitute for the energy derived from fuel, and the fact that this power is literally as free as air makes it a wonderful factor in the future of the world of industry.

Apart from the views expressed by Lord Kelvin regarding the future, when the coal supply shall have been exhausted, there is need of more attention being paid to it in the present day.

The man who cannot afford to have a furnace in his house may have a windmill on the roof. In this labor-saving age it is astonishing that farmers are the only citizens who call the wind their friend. Dwellers in cities toil up and down stairs hauling and carrying, while above them is a good-natured giant who can do all this work for them if they will but force him into service. Why wait for the coal supply of the earth to be exhausted before enlisting the aid of this vast aerial force?

The power to run elevators, pump water to roof tanks, cool houses in the. summer and heat them in the winter is above us, at any one's beck and call.

A little ingenuity will enable any householder to harness the wind and leave it to do the work that he has considered part of the curse of Adam.