POWER ON THE FARM 161 



of calm. It is evident that any system of lighting 

 about the farm or barn, or of cooking or heating, which 

 would be useless when the wind was not blowing, would 

 not be of practical application. 



AMOUNT OF ENERGY AVAILABLE. 



A moment's consideration of the problems involved 

 will show that they are not insolvable. In the first 

 place, the amount of energy which is exerted by the 

 moving currents of air is so great as to be almost im- 

 measurable. If only a small fragment of the total 

 energy of moving air could be utilized, it would sup- 

 plant every other known source of power. When you 

 consider that a wind-mill of only eighteen feet in di- 

 ameter will drive a dynamo of very considerable size, 

 and in addition to furnishing the working requirement 

 store up any desired quantity of force in a storage bat- 

 tery, you can readily appreciate the enormous energy 

 of the moving air currents. Particularly appealing to 

 the man of some means who desires to go on a farm 

 is this idea of harnessing the power of the air. It is 

 simple, clean, inexpensive, requires little attention or 

 regulation, and is utilizable in many different ways. 



There is no source of energy so mobile as electricity. 

 Now that the scientific world has come to the conclusion 

 that electricity is the fundamental constituent of the 

 atom, it lies at the very basis of all power and energy. 

 The electric force is easily applied to transportation, 

 the driving of machinery, to the production of heat, and 

 to the production of light Thus it has the elements 

 of universal application. The perfection of the elec- 

 tric engine and storage battery has made possible the 

 driving of carriages and even of carriers of freight, 

 the electric railway trains, both in the city and on 



