The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-04-28
The Windmill on the Farm.

stream or tide. Both of these powers,
with reference to the adaptation to
irrigation or pumping out rice fields.
The latter device, claimed to be an
invention of Mr.. Barker, is an old one,
and probably the same, or upon the
same principle of what is known as
Collidon's swimming wheel upon the
periphery of which are blades or buck.
cts extending the whole length of the
wheel, the whole so set as to rise or
fall with the tides and to present their
revolutions to the proper impact OF
the rising or receding stream and
communicating motion through its
spindle to cog wheels, and spindle to
the inside of the bank.
I have often wondered that upon
rice field banks and at the barns that
wind mills we're not in general use.
Although they were invented hun
dreds of years ago, and were construct
ed upon the rudest principles and
were still effective, it is only within
the past fifteen or twenty years that
they have been built and recommended
upon really scientific principles. The
wind mills of to-day arc no more like
the original old-fashioned mills Of
long ago, which the Knight de la
Mancha mistook for giants with more
arms than Briarus, than the modern
steam engines are like Blasco's engine
on the principle of Aelopole of Hero,
invented 100 B. c., or even with the
eventual improvements of Watt that
followed in 1869.
Our imperfect knowledge and mex
p%erience with the new and improved
appliances furnished by the best and
most skilfully constructed wind mills
of the present day may account in
part for why they are not more gener-
ally used at the South. Methinks
that the poet who wrote, that God S
mill grinds slow, but sure" may have
had the suggestion inspired in his
reverie by the creaking of an old-time
wind mill, as it started and stopped,
and futtered and Topped its wings, by
fits and starts, just as prosperous o.
adverse breezes happened to ruff1e it's
extended fanges. If he was a phi
losopher, he, no doubt, stood with pa
thence to see the wheat winnowed from
the chaf, or the full-grown grain
ground to powder, with e%xactness into
the hopper below. A breath now is
sufficient to start machinery Of a set
Element. The wind mill of to-day is
a certain factor and is estimated as is
done by steam engines as indicated
horsepower" and as duty which is
the measure of power. They are
regularly and scientifically computed,
and no one need be at a loss with the
new inventions and appliances that
are rife to adapt a power Of wind to a
projected duty. These desiderata are
of course best ascertained, computed
and applied by the skilled and ex-
perienced manufacturers of wind mills
and air motors that are in vogue all
over the country, and about which |
do not pretend to know anything.
The general use of wind mills all
over the Northern and Western States
and in Europe, where they are en-
ployed for every purpose that steam
engines of limited power can fulfil,
would seem to indicate that their
utility, if not necessity, has been ex-
perienced. Their use is not confined
to fiat countries merely, in absence Of
water powers, Their universal prev
alence in Holland is not only because
it is a fat country, but because Of
their cheapness in comparison to any
other power. In Switzerland, in Bel
GUM, in thrifty Germany, in all parts,
they may be seen everywhere. Along
the banks of the Rhine, from Mayence
to Cologne, where the country is COM
paratively fatter than along some Of
the vinc.clad hills along the other
banks of the same river, where the
streamlets furnish moderate water
| powers, every lot and barn has its
Inevitable. wind mill.
At almost every country place and
town plot in New England and in the
| Eastern, as well as the Western States,
they are used for threshing, grinding,
irrigating and lifting. At the seaside
resorts along the coasts they are
indispensable for the water supply
from bored wells.
With the new modes of self-regula-
ting their fans to the force and velocity
of the winds, there is no danger of
their being destroyed by gales, or
being retarded by the gentlest b~reezes,
for in the one instance they contract
themselves automatically and expand
in proportion to the strength of the
current, and so nicely balanced and
adjusted are they that they are not
even dependent upon a steady draft
to continue their propulsion.
The utility of wind as a source Of
power is no longer a doubted OF un-
certain question. The problem of
Harvesting it for the uses to which
other elements are applied and have
yielded obedience, has undoubtedly
been perfected in the several contri-
vances that have made the modern
wind mill to be sought as subservient
to furnishing energy. The very light
ming, the most subtle Of all elements,
if it may be so called, is furnishing
hitherto dormant power, why should
not the wind?
The vital feature in a power wind
engine is its maintenance at right
angles to the wind line without swerve
or veer, except as the wind changes
it's line of action. A wind mill, it is
said, must be at least thirty feet above
all wind distractions, or at least
thirty feet above the houses or trees
in lear proximity.
There are few places in our agricul-
tural sections where these powers
might be available, that cannot fulfil
the desired conditions, particularly in
our rice field sections where they
might be of vast utility, and with
corresponding advantages of cheap
ness. Now, which are the best is yet
to be determined. T. G. W.
Beaufort, april 16, 1897.