THE STORAGE OF WIND-POWER. 269 
at $50,000,000, while the present company expect the work to be done inside of 
$30,000,000. 
Its construction will give shorter routes between the ports of the Gulf of 
Mexico and those of the Atlantic coast, both domestic and foreign. Its use by 
vessels will avoid the dangers of the passage through the Florida Straits. The 
distances from New Orleans to New York by this canal would be shortened 497 
miles, and between New Orleans and Liverpool 412 miles. Gen. Stone, the 
engineer of the company, is expected to have his report of the recent surveys 
ready in a few weeks, and a meeting of the directors will be held in this city 
sometime during the month of August to hear and act upon this report. — National 
Republican. 
THE STORAGE OF WIND-POWER. 
The great question of all questions at the present day, in the line of invention 
and mechanical application, is : How can we best turn to account the natural 
forces which are in play about us ? Setting aside for the present the direct use 
of electricity as a motive power, we have two fluids at our command, air and 
water. Both have from time immemorial been pressed into the service of 
man, and yet even at this moment, with all the modern advances in practical 
science, we are only on the threshold of the workshop in which we ought to have 
full command. It is not too much to say that of the power exerted by the move- 
ments of water and of air throughout the world, the percentage utilized is so small 
as to be practically inappreciable. Let our inventors look to this, for it is a field 
which promises well. 
The idea of using the power of water-falls at a distance, transmitting the 
energy by means of — say compressed air, or electric wires — has been often sug- 
gested and tried, but thus far with no very satisfactory results. The loss of 
power through the agents employed in transmission has been so great as to much 
impair the economic value. But let us take up another line of thought, and see 
if we cannot start some inventive brain into a plan which will bring out something 
practical. The power to which reference is made needs no transportation ; it is 
ready at hand ; it is simply the wind. 
It seems incomprehensible that such a ready and potent agent should escape 
practical use so completely as it does. The probable reason for this is that the 
ipower is destitute of all uniformity, and has on that account hitherto been deemed 
unmanageable ; sometimes furious, sometimes absolutely nothing, and at all times 
oinsteady and capricious. 
Before referring again to this feature, let us estimate for a moment the 
amount of power at our command, within a given space, if we can only control 
and utilize it. We will assume an area 40 by 150 feet, no larger than the flat top 
of many a manufacturing establishment, store, etc. Within this extent it is 
entirely .practicable to place thirty-two wind-wheels, each twelve feet high by 
