CATCH THE WIND: A Book of Windmills and Windpower

The Dennises' readable report makes you want to believe in the future of this free, clean, and limitless alternate energy source. Beginning with Hammurabi but sailing on rapidly to Medieval Europe where all air belonged to the Church, the survey settles down in Holland with a quote from Descartes: ""God made the world but the Dutch made Holland."" Though windmills there were demolished wholesale upon the switch to steam, a preservation society has saved many and those as yet unrestored are in heavy demand as residences. Over here, most windmills are found in the East, especially in Long Island's Suffolk County, though David Halliday's 1854 variation was a factor in settling the West. Thanks to a Whole Earth Catalog listing, one company's orders jumped from 375 in 1970 to 1,000 the next year, and now NASA, the NSF, and numerous universities are taking wind power research seriously. If power companies have not, suggests Bucky Fuller, it might be because they can't monopolize wind over a pipe or wire. And, conclude the Dennises, if the device doesn't sound futuristic enough for progress-oriented Americans, then call them aerogenerators--and consider Gary Soucie's reminder that ""at the brink of the abyss the only progressive step is a backward one."" The answer might be blowing in the wind.