382 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



ALLAN TEMKO. I have two short questions. One might be ad- 

 dressed to Mr. Swidler at the national level and Mr. Bennett at the 

 State level. 



The Woodside powerline controversy, mentioned earlier, was a 

 direct result of the large-scale Federal investment, $125 million, on 

 the Stanford campus for a linear accelerator, and, indeed, the power- 

 lines on the peninsula of San Francisco, very large installations there, 

 are all heavily affected by large-scale Federal investment, say, in the 

 Lockheed plant, at Sunnyvale, which is a big power consumer. Is 

 it possible for the Federal Government to take an overview of this 

 magnitude, to anticipate needs which often conflict with other forms 

 of development? The same complex of powerlines has marred the 

 city of Forest City, a large-scale, so-called new town, only a short 

 distance away; powerlines go through the center of that new, so- 

 called planned community. 



The second short question, perhaps to Mr. Wilcox: What of re- 

 search and development which might be of only marginal immediate 

 interest to the private utility companies and the manufacturers, 

 such as wireless transmission of energy, or say the application of an 

 invisible wire amplitron, which the Raytheon people conceived? 

 Can the Nation in some way hasten large-scale application of such 

 revolutionary devices? 



Mr. WILCOX. I would say this is a very great distance in the 

 future. I know of no feasible way now to transmit even small 

 amounts of power which could be utilized by you or by me in our 

 homes by this method. 



And while I will not say that we will never do it, I will say that 

 the time is very much in the future, so far away, that I think it is 

 generations rather than decades. 



Mr. CISLER. Mr. Swidler will answer the first part of your 

 question. 



Mr. SWIDLER. Or a part of it. I think everyone would concede 

 that there are high-priority areas where additional expense of under- 

 grounding is warranted, and, indeed, there is a good deal of under- 

 ground in the congested centers of most of our major cities. 



An English article had a good phrase for it. It said that under- 

 grounding should be reserved for areas of high congestion or "places 

 where the visual amenities are in the highest category," pointing 

 out that for one mile of undergrounding of 275,000 kv. (a voltage 



