The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-01-14
WIND POwER-WISD ENGINES.

The cheapest motive power in exist
ence is the force of the wind. 1t can be
utilized without preparation; no reser-
voirs, dams, or fumes are needed to
apply it TO our machinery, and the prop
er engine alone is TO be provided. In
some countries Wind-power is extensively
used. The traveller in Europe scarcely
loses sight OF windmill in his journeys,
and in places the landscape is thickly
dotted with them. Substantial grist
mills. which have faced the breezes for
centuries, still wave their arms, and
promise TO do so for centuries more.
Much pumping and drawing is done by
these mills, and thousands of acres are
either watered by irrigation or dried by
drainage, and rendered valuable and
productive by their help. A few years
ago windmill was an unusual sight in
this country, except in the very Oldest
portions. We were not a sufficiently
settled people, and did not remain long
enough in one place to make it profitable
to build such substantial mills as have
been so long in use in other countries;
We needed cheaper and more quickly
constructed mills. Those which we
could then procure were not satisfactory:
they were slightly built, and were not
able to take care of themselves when
the breeze became a gale or hurricane.
Recently our mechanics have turned
their attention to wind engines, and
great improvements have been made in
their construction. We have now a
choice of several kinds of them, all of
them useful, but differing chiefly in
their degree Of adoption to varying cir
cumstances AT the recent Illinois
State Fair there were no less than thir-
teen different wind engines on exhibi-
ton, from the small one, eight feet in
diameter, costing but 500, of but half a
horse power. and fitted for pumping
stock water or churning, to those of
thirty or forty-horse power, costing
wooden factory. Between these extremes
there are a number of mills capable of
adoption TO almost every purpose for
which power is needed on the farm or in
the workshop. A mill twenty-five feet
in diameter, costing about $500, has a
power of five horses; atwo-horse power
mill is about sixteen feet in diameter,
and costs about 1926. This cost is less
than that of a steam engine, and a wind
engine needs neither fuel nor skilled
attendance. Neither is there danger of
fire or explosion from accident or care
lessness. The wind engines are now
made self-regulating, and in a sudden
storm close themselves. They are also
made to change their position as the
wind changes, facing the wind at all
times. With these engines one may saw
wood or lumber, thrash, pump, hoist
hay or straw with the hay fork, shell
corn, grind Or cut feed, plane lumber,
make sashes or doors, or run any ma
chinery whatever. There is but one
drawback, when the wind stops the
mill stops. For work that may be done
when it is convenient to do it, as most of
the mechanical work on farm is done,
these engines are exactly what is wanted.
On the western prairies, and almost
everywhere, except in sheltered valleys
in the east, we have wind enough and
to spare, which offers to us a power that
is practically incalculabie and illimita-
BILE, and the means of utilizing this
power is cheaply given to us in the nu
merous excellent wind engines now
manufactured. Ia fact, SO cheaply can
these mills be procured, that it will not
pay for any person to spend his time in
making one, although he may be a suf
ficiently good mechanic TO do it.-Amer-
ican Agriculturist.