Word: wave
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...most common target for complaints (followed by automobiles, home repairs, government agencies, utility companies, landlords and retail stores). The columnists were only dimly aware of the magnitude of the mailorder problem until their get-together. Then passing mention of the phrase "five towels for a dollar" sent a tidal wave of groans across the hall...
...America's latest great wave of immigrants, Hispanics are learning another hard lesson: latecomers start at the bottom. Nearly 27% of Hispanic families in the U.S. earn under $7,000 a year; only 16.6% of non-Hispanic families fare as badly. For the second quarter of 1978 the Hispanic unemployment rate was 8.9%, while the national average was 5.8%. As a group, Hispanics are the most undereducated of Americans?despite their own deep belief in the maxim, Saber es poder (Knowledge is power). Only 40% have completed high school, vs. 46% of U.S. blacks and 67% of the whites...
Capturing the energy in ocean waves has been a dream of visionary tinkerers since at least 1799, when two Frenchmen filed a patent in Paris for a wave-power device. Now serious research into such contraptions is under way in both Japan and Britain...
...Britain, several wave-power machines are under development, of which "contouring rafts" are one of the most promising. Three rafts (see diagram) are hinged together by cylinders containing pistons; the flexing of the hinges in the waves forces the pistons to pump water, turning turbines that produce electricity. A small prototype string of rafts in the English Channel now produces a mere 1 kw., but its designer, Sir Christopher Cockerell, who also invented the Hovercraft, says that a cluster of 300 larger rafts could generate as much energy as a big conventional power station...
Some officials believe that wave-power machines could conceivably supply all of Britain's electricity needs. Says Alexander Eadie, Britain's Under Secretary for Energy: "Wave power is not just a boffin's pipe-dream. It is a credible proposition." The British government has doubled spending on wave-power research this year, to $5.5 million, and the Japanese have committed $5 million over the next two years. They are betting that these investments could pay off in decades ahead. Oil wells may dry up, but waves will never cease to roll...