278 



THE IBKIGATION AGE. 



CHEAP STRUCTURES IN WASHINGTON, UTAH, AND COLO- 

 RADO. 

 . NEED OF ADJUSTMENT TO STAGE OF WATER. 



A 6-foot wheel located at North Yakima, Wash., 

 is shown in Fig. 5. It is heavily framed of eight 2 

 by 4-inch arms radiating from a 6-foot shaft of 5 by 

 5-inch stuff. The paddles are 1 foot wide and 6 feet 

 long, each carrying a 1-gallon tin can on either end. 

 These cans are nailed to a beveled seat, which tips 

 them enough so that they are full or nearly so when 

 they leave the stream. But even allowing that the 

 twelve cans discharge their full capacity, the efficiency 

 of the wheel when observed was only 9 per cent. This 

 low efficiency is due mainly to the faulty design of the 

 paddles. They are so wide in proportion to the size 

 of the wheel, and they dip so deep in the water that 

 the wheel wastes its energy in churning the water, both 

 as the paddles enter and as they leave the water. The 

 advantage of balancing a wheel of this size by placing 

 buckets at both ends is probably too small to pay for 

 the extra fluming required. 



This wheel is nearly twice as heavy as the one 

 first described (page 10) and it requires three times 

 as much water to run it, yet it raises less water. It 

 is very substantial and requires little attention. It 

 cost $18. As it contains only eighty feet of lumber, it 

 could easily be reproduced for less money, as its simple 

 construction would require no special skill. Not being 

 adjustable for high and low water, it runs to great 

 advantage just when there is the best supply of water 

 to operate it. 



CHEAP AND EFFICIENT. 



Another wheel of the same design is small and 

 well built, and, considering that it runs in a current 

 moving only one foot per second, is remarkably efficient. 

 It has a simple and effective device for raising and 

 lowering the bearings, which is shown in Pig. 6. The 

 buckets are all on one side and raise the water much 

 higher than necessary to reach the flume. The wheel 

 cost $13 and contains about seventy-five feet of lumber, 

 including the supports but not the flume. 



AN OLD WAGON HUB AS A BASIS. 



An ingenious wheel installed in a ditch near Mor- 

 gan City, Utah, is shown in Plate I, Pig. 2, and in 

 Fig. 7. It is built by inserting spokes of 1-inch ma- 

 terial three feet long in an old wagon hub. The spokes 

 are made rigid by two sets of braces. The paddles are 

 eighteen inches long and eight inches wide, and the 

 twelve buckets hold nearly one gallon each, being tilted 

 slightly by wedge-shaped blocks placed beneath them. 



The shaft is supported on one side of the wheel 

 only, being made fast to a tree at one end and resting 

 on a post near the wheel. The wheel is but half the 

 width of the ditch, a small gate closing the other half 

 when the wheel is in use. This arrangement doubles 

 the velocity of the water when the gate is closed and 

 affords a means of regulating the amount of water 

 raised. The wheel irrigates one-fourth acre of garden, 

 and could be made to serve a much larger tract. 

 (To be Continued.^ 



Subscribe for the IRRIGATION AGE. 

 $1.00 Per Year. 



THE VALUE OF THE WINDMILL ON THE FARM. 



It Is Adapted to most Purposes for which Power is Required The 



Source of its Energy is Free and Exhaustless Testimony 



of Users as to the Work Accomplished Equipment 



Needed for Electric Lighting. 



BY J. B. REYNOLDS, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS, ONTARIO 

 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



Today in any good farming section of this conti- 

 nent, one of the most conspicuous features in the land- 

 scape is the windmill. Coming from Palmerston to 

 Guelph last summer, the writer counted from the car 

 window, as many as eight windmills in sight at once, 

 and all along that road could be seen from three to 

 eight mills in view at one time. The windmill, of 

 course, is limited in its adaptability and steam and 

 other forms of power have permanently displaced it 

 for many purposes. But for certain specific purposes, 

 and among them the pumping of water, the windmill 

 is not only thoroughly reliable, but it is the most eco- 

 nomical motor now in use. 



The windmill requires to be controlled, and in mod- 

 ern machines is automatically controlled, in two par- 

 ticulars; it has to be thrown into the wind, and the 

 speed has to be regulated so that steady work may be 

 done in variable winds. The first control is effected by 

 means of a vane on the same shaft as the wheel, with 

 its plane at right angles to that of the wheel. The 

 wind catching this vane throws it around until its 

 plane is parallel to the direction of the wind, and hence 

 the wheel pulled broadside to the wind. If, however, 

 the wind should become too strong, either the mill has 

 to be pulled partly out of the wind or else the different 

 sections of the wheel are tipped, so that the wind is 

 made to strike more obliquely and, therefore, with less 

 effect, upon the surfaces of the .vanes. The wheel itself 

 is pulled bodily out of the wind by a side vane, with 

 its plane parallel to that of the wheel, and on an arm 

 that carries it out from the center bearings. When the 

 wind becomes very strong, it forces its side vane around 

 out of the wind, and with it the wheel. The individual 

 sections of the wheel are controlled by a coil spring 

 about the main shaft. A high speed of this shaft 

 causes this spring to tighten, and by means of con- 

 necting rods to draw the individual vane somewhat out 

 of the wind. By these means a fairly uniform speed is 

 maintained in a variable wind. 



USES TO WHICH THE WINDMILL MAY BE PUT. 



Under this head windmills are classified as power 

 and pumper. The power mill has on the end of the 

 wheel shaft a beveled gear, which engages a similar 

 beveled gear on a vertical shaft. This vertical shaft 

 extends nearly to the barn floor, and here a similar 

 beveled-gear arrangement runs a horizontal shaft, from 

 which, by pulleys and belts power may be carried to 

 machines on the barn floor. The pumper has on the 

 end of the wheel shaft a solid wheel to which a rod is 

 attached eccentrically, thus imparting an up and down 

 motion to the rod a motion necessary to pumping 

 water. 



The same wheel may be made to drive machinery 

 or to pump water by fixing both of the above attach- 

 ments to the wheel shaft. 



The writer sent out recently some inquiries to 

 owners of windmills, respecting the uses to which these 



