Emilio Salgari and the Energy Harvesting from Gulf Stream

Some researchers and engineers are hoping to harvest renewable energy by means of sea turbines, placed, for instance, in the oceanic currents. Recently, in March 2014, it was announced that some first tests have also been conducted in the Gulf Stream off Florida's coast. In this paper, we will see that the hope for energy harvesting from this oceanic current is not recent, but it is, at least, a hundred-year-old. In fact, we find the description of mills in the Gulf Stream in a novel, entitled ''The Wonders of 2000'', written by Emilio Salgari (1862 - 1911), Italian adventure writer and pioneer of science fiction.