Prairie Sentinel
by Sylvia Thornton
Title
Prairie Sentinel
Artist
Sylvia Thornton
Medium
Photograph - Photograph Digital
Description
This photo taken along the North River Road between North Platte and Sutherland, Nebraska.
From Wikipedia:
A windmill is a machine that converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades.[1][2] The reason for the name "windmill" is that the devices originally were developed for milling grain for food production; the name stuck when in the course of history, windmill machinery was adapted to supply power for many industrial and agricultural needs other than milling.[3] The majority of modern windmills take the form of wind turbines used to generate electricity, or windpumps used to pump water, either for land drainage or to extract groundwater.
Windpump (known where they are in use as windmills) are used extensively on farms and ranches in the United States, Canada, 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.[33][34] 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). During the late 19th century steel blades and steel towers replaced wooden construction. At their peak in 1930, an estimated 600,000 units were in use.[35] 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 the main suppliers in North and South America.
Uploaded
April 1st, 2014
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