The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1906-11-15
WINDMILL BILGE PUMPS.

The first patent automatic marine
steel windmill pump ever placed in a
sea-going vessel will be fitted next
! week on board the barge Pacific, own
| ed by P. Dougherty & Co., Baltimore,
Nd, and we will stake our reputation
on it being ''howling" success. The
whole outft-windmill and bilge pump
is being furnished by the Howell
| Bilge Pump Co., of 7 COenties Slip,
New York City.
G. Foster Howell, the originator of
this system, has been at work on the
project of equipping sea-going vessels
(other than those propelled by steam
or gasolene englnes) for year, and has
at last succeeded in bringing into oper-
alton his laudable plan of saving money
| to vessel owners and making money for
his own company.
Compared with the price paid for
gasolene pumps, with which many of
the newer vessels are equipped, the
windmill is vastly superior. In the
mill is only one half, or even less than
half, the cost of a gasolene pumping
outfit. Secondly, there being nothing
so cheap as air, whether stationary or
in motion, the windmill costs absolutely
nothing to operate, needs no attention
whatsoever, except to glance at the. lu-
bricators once day to see that drop
OF oil is being fed to the slow moving
machinery OF the wind engine.
Another, and very important point
of supremacy possessed by the wind
mill over the ''gasolene milr' is that
the former runs noiselessly and prac-
tically without vibration, while the
gasolene engine makes so much noise
that Gin the case of barges, where the
gasolene engine is located near the
sleeping quarters of the officers and
crew it is almost impossible for men
to sleep while the engine is working the
pumps.
Then again, the all important point
of safety, absolute safety, is attained
in windmill-driven pump. There is
nothing dangerous or unsafe about a
windmill pumping plant, nothing about
it to break or get out of order, and it
will last for years without repairs of
any kind. 1t is self-trimming, always
remaining head to wind, being fitted
with rudder, and is self-luffing. That
is, if struck by squall or a sudden
heavy gust of wind, the wheel is
automatically luffed up into the wind
and ceases to revolve. With gasolene
pumps there is not only the first cost of
the engine "a horse power motor be-
| ing necessary to successfully operate
the two No. 3 Edison or Russell dia-
phragm pumps, with which 80 per cent
of the schooners and barges are equip
ped) but also the expense, and the dan
ger, of the gasolene. Comparing the
two systems, the windmill bilge pump
will pay for itself in few years mere
ly out of the money saved i'll gasolene
alone, to say nothing of the time con-
sumed in sending ashore for the fluid,
and the time spent in putting it in the
tank, and the fear, on the part of the
officers, that at one time or other a
careless or intoxicated sailor MAJ
cause an explosion of the gasolene.
The smallest size steel windmill (only
4 feet in diameter) bilge pump will raise
from 1900 to 5000 gallons per day &C
will operate with mile breeze. Larg-
er sizes will, of course, pump greater
quantities of water, but when a vessel
is leaking more than 10000 gallons pei
day it is time to put her in the dry dock.
The price of these patent automatic
steel windmill bilge pumps is only from
$50 to $780, according TO size, complete,
and all 'bald headed schooners, or
schooners with their topmaSts down,
will be fitted with Howell's patent zap
piled for pump and counterbalance,
without extra charge This invention
"weighs" the small main shaft zone
inch in diameter) leading from the
windmill wheel to the pump, SO that
the rod practically has no weight upon
the driving wheel. The device is abso-
lutely automatic in action and will last
as long as the vessel lasts, needing no
attention but the one of "slushing' the
slow moving gears with a little grease
about once or twice month. Schoon-
ers carrying topmaSts, and nearly al
the older craft carry them, are not fit
ed with the counterbalance as the
windmill is placed abreast of the main
or mizzen masts, from two to three
feet from the mast, and clear of the
sail and boom, and the counterbalance
is not necessary.
The steel windmill bilge pump is in
tended for all classes of wooden sea-go-
ing vessels, but more particularly for
lightships, sailing ships, banks, briggs,
schooners, coal, lumber and oil barges,
and for houseboats, canal boats and
scows. Had the Nantucket Shoal light
ship been equipped with windmill
bilge pump last winter, when she
sprung aleak, she might have been
kept adoat until assistance arrived,
and would not have foundered. Moth
ing but the wireless telegraph saved
her crew from going down with her,
but they fortunately were rescued by a
steamer, a few minutes before the
lightship sank.
Vessels equipped with the windmill
pumping outfit still have their band
worked diaphragm pumps to fall back
on in the event of heavy leak which
the windmill would not be able to cope
with, and between the two systems a
large volume of water would be
pumped.
The windmill should be taken apart
and cleaned about every six months,
but it will not fail to work even if not
cleaned once year. 1t is to be hoped,
however, that we shall not have to or
ganize society for the prevention of
cruelty to windmills. Ship
builder.