VERMONT WIND-MILL— NOTES BY S. W. 



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THE VERMONT WIND-MILL. 

 INVENTED BY A. P. DROWN, OP BRATTLEBORO, VT. 



The advantage of using wind in preference to 

 horse or steam-power, has not been duly appreciated 

 by farmers and meclianics. All the difficulties in 

 using wind-power to advantage are overcome m the 

 mill above represented. It is ingenious, simple, and 

 a most perfect regulator of its own motion. It 

 spreads a wide sail to a light breeze, and a small 

 surface to a heavy one. An accelerated motion is 

 checked by the action of the mill itself as readily as 

 the steam-engine is checked by the action of IVatls 

 centrifugal governor. 



Its construction will be readily understood by 

 reference to the engraving. The radical feature in 

 which this machine differs from others, is simply this: 

 It governs the obliquity of its own fans, k, to the 

 wind by means of the centrifugal force of those fans. 

 Each is furnished with a helicle or spiral slot and 

 pin, made fast in the arm, as seen at (', fig. 2. In 

 case of acceleration, the tendi ncy of the fans is to 

 overcome a suitable coiled spring, or a weighted 

 lever, and to move further out on their respective 

 arms, and in so doing the spiral groove, or slot, slides 

 ou the pin, and turns the fan more and more edge- 

 wise to the wind, presenting less surface. When the 

 velocity of the wheel is diminished, the spring or 

 weight immediately draws the fans in an opposite 

 direction, and the same slot and pin turn them more 

 to the wind, always adjusting itself to the necessities 

 of the occasion. 



Farmers and others in want of a cheap motive 

 power, should look to the inducements offered of 

 putting up wind-mills upon their farms or premises. 

 It may be used very economically to pump water for 

 irrigating or draining land, watering cattle, or to the 

 tops of houses for household purposes. It may be 

 osed, and will operate very satisfactorily, to thresh 



and clean all kinds of grain, to shell corn, and grind 

 wheat, rye, corn, or any other thing to be ground, 

 cut, or mashed, such us apples, roots, vegetables, etc. 

 It is particularly adapted to churning, working but- 

 ter, washing, turning grindstones, sawing wood, cut- 

 ting straw and stalks, or fodder. It will bore and 

 mortise timber, drive small saw-mills, lath machines, 

 turning-lathes, &c., &c., and, if you wish, it well ven- 

 tilate your house exceedingly well. It will not plow, 

 harrow, cultivate, or mow, but any work which can 

 be brought to it may be performed ; and it will per- 

 form readily, without waiting to be caught, fed or 

 harnessed. The only food these mills require is 

 about one gallon of oil a year. They do not require 

 as much nursing and attention as horses or oxen, ohb 

 coat of paint will keep them clean and beautiful a 

 year or more. The attachments used to connect 

 them to different machines, so as to do different kinds 

 of work, cost less than the harness and equipage of 

 horses, and will last more than twice as long. The 

 expense for repairs is much less than that for the 

 shoeing and preparing of teams for labor. The same 

 amount of power costs less, and the wind power will 

 not die. Wind-mills will work by night as well as 

 by day, and will run steadily without a driver. They 

 are generally ready to work the greatest number of 

 hours when their work is most needed, viz., in the fall, 

 winter, and spring. They do not regard the ten-hour 

 system, but work early and late, summer and winter. 

 For further information, see advertisement. 



KOTES BY S. W. 



The pioneers of Western New York were quite 

 another variety of the genus homo from those farm- 

 er's sons who now go forth by steam to settle the 

 great western prairies. The former were used to the 

 axe from infancy; this well fitted lliem to encounter 

 the toil and privations requisite to subdue the heavy 

 dense forest which then covered every acre of the 

 country. The present race of young farmers are 

 much better used to the plow than to the axe, — a 

 fortunate change in mechanical training, — which now 

 fits them better to settle the great praii-ie west, where 

 the broad herbaceous plains are the rule, and heavy 

 timbered land the exception. Now the more expen- 

 sive balloon house, built of well economised sawed tim- 

 ber, often takes the place of the more cheaply erected 

 primitive log house; and the cast steel plow, with the 

 heavy team, is a sine qua non to a great paying crop 

 on the prairies; whereas, on the newly cleared forest 

 land, no plowing and very httle harrowing was neces- 

 sary to insure the pioneer a crop among the stumps 



