The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1895-11-07
A KANSAS WINDMILL.
All About Its Erection and the Amount
of Work 1t Accompanies.

of Work 1t Accompanies.
Here is an interesting story of what
a Kansas man can do with wind power,
as told originally i'll The Rural New
Yorker by himself. He says:
When I came to Kansas, bought a
homestead with two wells about 70 feet
apart. Later put IL foot geared mill
on the one farthest from the house and
attached grinder to it, l put build
ing over it. 1t was built with bins on
one side and corncrib on the other, AZ
feet long and 20 wide, II feet to the
square. 1t had two floors, with cellar
under part of it, 1 had two hole l. x.
L. corn shelter on the first floor and the
grinder on the second floor.
I built slanting hopper in the tower
about six feet from the floor at the low
est end, with slope enough for the grain
to run out I had a spout from the lower
end to the hopper of the grinder. This
bin held about 90 or 25 bushels. The
chop bins were on the first floor. The
chop fell direct from the grinder into
these bins. | had hole for each bin,
and a keg with hole in the bottom
which turned to whichever bin wish
ed the chop to drop into.
From the cellar had square funnel
shaped hole dug, lined with fiat stone
and mertar, but got it partly lined
with boards afterward. Outside Of this
funnel l set the elevator. This funnel
was straight on one side, and the straight
side was of matched boards Above the
funnel stood the corn shelter at the end
of the corncrib. The elevator carried
the grain up into the bin in the tower,
from which it went on the grinder.
One year we had nearly 5000 bush
els of corn, Of which perhaps 1000 went
through the shelter and the greater part
through the grinder. Very frequently
we mixed other grain with the corn to
grind-oats, rye, barley, wheat, etc. ),
and our ground feed was better than we
generally got when we had it ground. l
could grind from 20 to 100 bushels in a
day, depending OH the wind and the con-
dition Of the grinder and the fineness Of
the grist. l also ground hundreds of
bushels for neighbors. To this mill
were attached as needed corn shelter
and grinder, two pumps, a churn and
grindstone. | also had the fixtures to
attach a wood saw, and could attach
either drag or circular saw. The mill
pumped the water for nearly 100 head
of cattle and horses, and sometimes so
to 60 hogs. This water was pumped
from the we'll at the mill. The other
was used largely for irrigating the
kitchen garden and for home use. 1t
was attached and driven with elbows
and cable.
In a strong wind l could run the
shelter, grinder, elevator, two pumps
and churn at the same time. The grind
stone was run from the corn shelter
pulley, so could not run the grindstone
when Smelling corn. The advantage Of
my arrangement was that l did not need
to carry any grain, excepting to shovel
the ear corn to the table of the shelter,
which was in the crib. The corn came
through a hole in the partition end Of
the crib to the corn shelter. The shelled
corn dropped through a Slated floor to
the elevator, thence to hopper in the
tower. When I had my hopper filled, |
could go about my other business. l
frequently was away several hours,
while the mill and grinder were doing
good and satisfactory work