The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-12-08
The Use OF Wind-Power on Farms.

Some kind of mechanical power is al
most indispensable for farms. A light
power is usually required, and but few
farms require so heavy a power as to
call for steam-engine, which has so
many disadvantages, except for large
establishments, and is so costly in use,
not to mention the danger of it, as to
wholly preclude its use. Horse powers
are cumbersome and very eXactn upon
the horses, and yet from the necessity
for some power and the absence of any
better they are in almost universal use.
Windmills are very useful, but as they
are necessarily built very lightly they
are easily wrecked by a sudden storm,
and at the best require frequent tinker
ing and repair to keep them serviceabe
for their short life. But the wind is an
inexhaustible power and costs nothing,
and if it can only be harnessed and con-
trolled and if a machine for its utiliza-
ton can be constructed that will be
strong enough to resist any storms that
may occur short of one that would
wreck the barn itself, then this cheap
universal source of power might DO
made of general USE
And just here we might suggest that
a most valuable field for study and me-
chanical skill lies open to the inventive
genius of young farmers, and old ones,
too. 1t has been said, and with some
truth, that most of the valuable mechan-
ical inventions for farmers use have
been male by men who were not farm
ers. There are bright exceptions to this,
however. The invaluable manure
spreading machine, the bean harvester.
several useful potato-diggers and har-
vesters, and other noteworthy inven-
tions have been the work of farmers.
Why should there not be more of thesep
The winter season is one of leisure, and
long evenings may be made available
for the farmer and his boys with paper
and pencil and rule, or with the COM
mon American tool, the jack-knife, to
set their wits to work and invent and
model a serviceable and strong wind
engine specially designed for farm work.
A suggestion to this end may be given.
Take a hardwood shaft twelve feet
long set upright, with proper bearings
at each end furnished with eight vanes
four feet wide of light boards properly
Secured and braced Then we have
a wheel something like common
Water-wheel. But as water-wheel
presents only one side to the current,
so one side Of this wheel must be COW
cred by shield which protects it from
the current of wind. AS the winds
continually shift. this shield must move
with it, the movement being operated
by a vane fitted to the top of it, and
which may be quickly changed so as to
cover more of the wheel as the force of
the wind may be greater. And this
movement should be automatic, so it will
take place instantly as the winds force
changes either way. Thus we should
have a wind-wheel twelve feet long,
eight feet in diameter, exposing half its
circumference at the most to the wind,
or surface on each of the four ex-
posed vanes of forty-eight square feet.
With wind pressure of four or five
pounds to the foot, each vane would
give tho equivalent of a pressure of
two hundred pounds. A wheel OF this
kind might be made to furnish one,
half TO one-horse power, and would not
require any repairs for many years. It
would do all the light work of farm.
and might be put up and operated by
any person who can use ordinary tools.
at very small cest.--M Y. Times.