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"  With a proven record of supplying clean, natural energy to mariners ever since they first took sails to sea, wind power is an attractive\u2014if inconsistent\u2014alternative to diesel engines, which consume gallons of oil. In March 1925, Popular Mechanics featured an innovation called the &amp;quot;rotor ship,&amp;quot; invented by German engineer Anton Flettner. The vessel was hailed as &amp;quot;the first new development in sailing ships since the earliest navigators discovered they could utilize the wind&amp;#039;s power.&amp;quot; Buckau, the first of the rotor ships, featured two hollow towers of steel, 10 ft. in diameter and 65 ft. tall, mounted on pivots powered by 9-hp motors. The towers utilized the Magnus effect\u2014wind currents striking a rotating cylinder exert a force approximately at right angles to the direction of the wind. After an initial jumpstart from the motors, the cylinder&amp;#039;s motion caused the ship to advance, PM reported. Its designers claimed the vessel outran other sailing ships as well as freight steamers.  More than 80 years after the rotor ship&amp;#039;s birth and demise\u2014engines proved most practical at the time\u2014engineers are searching for modern methods of harnessing the winds to propel cargo ships. The Association for Innovative Propulsion Concepts is now testing the SkySail parafoil, a type of kite that supplements the engines of a cargo ship\u2014and that&amp;#039;s caught PM&amp;#039;s attention once again. \u2014Kate Winick TECH WATCH DAILY: SkySail Pulls Shipping Industry to the Green SidePLUS: Browse More Classic PM Covers From the Last Century! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a2345/4235579/>