WIND POWER — CARLILL. 151 



an hour. Again, taking the average of nine observatories on the 

 eastern coasts and inland, a wind velocity of 4 miles an hour and 

 upward is experienced for 7,106 hours in 12 months, and the most 

 usual velocity experienced at these stations lies between 11 and 13 

 miles an hour. In both areas there are certain stations at which 

 these figures are much exceeded, some places recording a working 

 breeze for more than 8,000 hours, and one or two stations giving 

 a most usual wind speed of 19 miles an hour. For the reason already 

 given the average both in duration and intensity may safely be 

 taken as an underestimate. 



It is clear that a power which is presented to us in such quantity 

 is worth using for purposes other than pumping, and that wind- 

 power stations might with great economical advantage be established 

 in all those parts of our islands which are remote from the coal- 

 fields. The objection from an engineering point of view would 

 doubtless be that such power would have to be developed in small 

 units. If the only object in generating power were to use it on a 

 large scale such an objection would be conclusive. We are never 

 likely to construct a wind engine which would develop even a 

 thousand horse-power at one spot; and there are of course certain 

 specific objects for which a larger power than this is required, such, 

 for instance, as the extraction of nitrogen from the atmosphere, or 

 the preparation of aluminum. But if the power at the generating 

 station is required simply for the purpose of distribution in small 

 units over a large area, then the object might equally be attained by 

 local generation in small quantities. It becomes purely a question 

 of economy, in which the determining factors are the original cost 

 of construction, the expense of maintenance, and the loss of power 

 through leakage in transmission. 



It is these factors which distinguish the case of electric generation 

 in industrial districts. Here there is power required which must be 

 got from coal; it is required, moreover, in different quantities, for 

 different purposes, and in different parts of a certain well-defined 

 area. It would be wasteful in the extreme — or, rather, we should 

 say it is wasteful in the extreme — to have a number of generating 

 stations working on different systems, serving adjoining portions 

 of the area. The committee which has been investigating this sub- 

 ject has presented a report in which there is no trace of doubt, reser- 

 vation, or hesitation whatever. It shows that our existing system 

 of electrical generation involves an absolute waste of 50,000,000 

 tons of coal a year. There are 600 electrical undertakings in Great 

 Britain, and their average size is one-thirtieth of the size of a really 

 economical power-station unit. In only one part of England lias 

 an ideal electrical station been established, and that is on the north- 

 east coast, with Newcastle as its headquarters. Electrical power is 



