| With the increased costs of energy derived from | | | | From 1850 to 1970 more than 6,000,000 windmills |
| fossil fuels, many consumers are interested in | | | | were installed in the United States. The main |
| alternative sources of energy. Unfortunately the | | | | application was pumping water for livestock and |
| market trend tells us that little to no relief in oil | | | | providing farm homes with a water supply.In the |
| prices is in sight. A great source of power can be | | | | late 19th Century, the first windmill to generate |
| harnessed from the wind using electricity | | | | electricity was born! This was the Brush postmill in |
| generating windmills. Below is a brief history of | | | | Cleveland Ohio, and the year was 1888! The rotor |
| wind power, and how it came to be.Wind power | | | | was approximately 17 meters in diameter. This |
| has been harnessed for many, many years. | | | | windmill had a gearbox with a high spin ratio |
| Nobody knows for sure when man started using | | | | attached to a DC generator.By the middle 1920's, |
| the wind's power to grind flour or pump water, | | | | several small scale systems were found across |
| but it is thought that the first windmill appeared in | | | | the Midwestern plains and used to supply farms |
| the Persian region. From there this windmill | | | | with electricity. These systems generally had a 1 |
| technology spread back to northern Europe. | | | | to 3 kilowatt output.1941 saw the largest wind |
| Windmills crafted by the Dutch were used | | | | generator to date. This generator's capacity was |
| primarily to pump water.Windmills were definitely | | | | 1.25 megawatts. It was known as the |
| not the first structures to harness the wind. This | | | | Smith-Putnam machine. The rotor measured an |
| award belongs to the sailboat. More than likely, | | | | astonishing 175 feet in diameter.Today, many |
| founded in small scale (small canoe with an animal | | | | wind turbines are in operation from small scale |
| skin as a sail) the sailboat became the only way | | | | residential systems that are affordable to the |
| to cross large areas of water. The sailboat | | | | homeowner to large scale wind turbine farms that |
| evolved into large ships moving great distances | | | | are used to supply a large amount of electricity |
| by using only wind as a source of power.Windmills | | | | to utility customers.For more information on wind |
| on a smaller scale showed up in America in the | | | | power, visit us online at is one of the alternative |
| mid 19th Century. The Aermotor and Dempster | | | | energy sites Will Reece owns and operates. |
| design were invented and many are still in use. | | | | Please visit us today! |