Wind pumps of Limon

Windpumps—better known in the United States as windmills, or American-style windmills—are used extensively on farms and ranches in the central plains... more

by Steven Taylor

Title

Wind pumps of Limon

Artist

Steven Taylor

Medium

Photograph

Description

Windpumps—better known in the United States as windmills, or American-style windmills—are used extensively on farms and ranches in the central plains and southwestern United States and in Southern Africa and Australia. These mills feature a large number of blades, so they turn slowly with considerable torque in low winds and are self-regulating in high winds. A tower-top gearbox and crankshaft convert the rotary motion into reciprocating strokes carried downward through a rod to the pump cylinder below. Such mills pumped water and powered feed mills, saw mills, and agricultural machinery. The farm windpump was invented by Daniel Halladay in 1854. In early California and some other states, the windmill was part of a self-contained domestic water system including a hand-dug well and a redwood water tower supporting a redwood tank and enclosed by redwood siding (tankhouse). Eventually, steel blades and steel towers replaced wooden construction, and at their peak in 1930, an estimated 600,000 units were in use. The multiple-bladed wind turbine atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel hence became, for many years, a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America. Firms such as U.S. Wind Engine and Pump Company, Challenge Wind Mill and Feed Mill Company, Appleton Manufacturing Company, Star, Eclipse, Fairbanks-Morse, and Aermotor became famed suppliers in North and South America.

Uploaded

November 22nd, 2013