Winds have generated power for centuries | Brief letters

Walsall's heyday | Wind power | Elon Musk's Hyperloop | Today programme | Worst deal ever"Walsall was never a pretty town", according to Roy Boffy (Letters, 16 October); this may be true now but has not always been the case. Its handsome villas and public buildings were remarked on in 1834 by William White in The History, Gazeteer and Directory of Staffordshire and he believed it needed to yield to no other town in Staffordshire in beauty and elegance. During the 19th century, Walsall added more civic buildings, many built to help improve the life of working people. The 20th and 21st century have not been kind to the town but that is not a reason to forget its history.Cathy SchlingLondono Regarding Paula Cocozza's article on "the resource that could power the world" (G2, 15 October), let us not forget that wind has indeed already powered the world in the political and economic sense, powering the sailing ships of naval and merchant fleets that set up the European empires that dominated the pre-20th-century globe.Beth CresswellHightown, Merseyside Continue reading...