562 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 28 
There is, however, one point that is not so easily 
dispatched, yet it is one that will yield readily to 
study, that is, some device for automatically regulat¬ 
ing the speed of the mill. At present. I have seen no 
attempts at such a device. The cut-off, or guard, is 
raised or lowered by hand according as the wind is 
high or low, thereby exposing little or much of the 
surface of the fans to the action of the wind, and so 
keeping its speed within bounds and fairly well 
adapted to various velocities. This is necessary, for 
it is said that these mills, which respond to gentle 
winds almost as readily as the regular windmills, be¬ 
come engines capable of the destruction of the pumps, 
and even of themselves, in a gale. This is why they 
are called by that euphonious appellation, Go-Devil 
mills, because, as I am told, they go like that 
cloven-hoofed gentleman when the cut-off is low and 
the wind is high. Accordingly, the mill needs super¬ 
vision. However, in Nebraska, this matter is less 
serious than it may at first sight appear to be. because 
the prevailing winds, which are from the south, for a 
large part of the State are either gentle, or else blow 
at a uniform rate for weeks, or until some climatic 
change brings a veritable wind storm. These, too, 
have a rather steady and constant velocity, often blow¬ 
ing at the same rate for 
four or five days, from 
which it will be seen 
that frequent regula¬ 
tion of the cut-off is 
not necessary. In a 
word, the winds, 
whether zephyrs or 
gales, are almost wholly 
from the south, for the 
eastern half of the 
State, at least. It is 
this constancy of the 
prevailing wind which 
lends hope and encour¬ 
agement to the practi¬ 
cability and ultimate 
utility of the home¬ 
made mills. All the 
mills visited save one 
use one crank, where 
two might have been 
used—one at either 
end—thus working two 
pumps, and so doubling 
their efficiency. 
Then we may go one 
step farther, and in¬ 
stead of attaching the 
crank directly to the 
piston of tho pump— 
whereby one entire 
revolution is necessary 
for a stroke of the 
pump—we may so gear 
it that one revolution 
of the fans may make 
several strokes of the 
pump. Then with a 
fair wind and surface wells, a considerable efficiency 
may result. 
At North Lincoln, within the city limits, there are 
two Jumbo mills at work, which seem worthy of men¬ 
tion, because, though hastily and poorly made, they 
demonstrate the fact that they are useful and fully 
worth their cost. These are on the market gardens 
of Mr. J. V. Travis. Mill number one, which is capable 
of irrigating five acres of garden, cost $11. Mill num¬ 
ber two, Fig. 228, across the street, irrigates from two 
to three acres, though with a good wind, its capacity 
is five acres. The total cost of this mill was $8 The 
fans of this mill were nine feet long, the arms seven 
feet, making the whole about 16x9x14 feet The 
whole mill was well proportioned, and had the fans 
been of stout duck or light lumber, instead of thin 
burlap, it would have done good service. I watched 
it carefully in passing for several weeks, and noticed 
that it responded to light winds surprisingly, in spite 
of clumsy bearings and open fans. 
It seems that the first criticism against these home¬ 
made mills is their unfortunate proportions. The 
beam is too long, the arms of the fans too short. If 
the fans were but little longer than broad, or square 
for that matter, the farmer could build it more read¬ 
ily and keep it in better repair, and it would, prob¬ 
ably, last longer and do more work. The exact 
proportions of the fans seem to be a matter better 
determined by trial than by computation. Though 
our winds are, practically, from the south, and the 
mills are set east and west, yet, sometimes, the direc¬ 
tion of the wind is somewhat east or west of south. 
Accordingly, the fans are struck obliquely, in which 
case the long fans would offer more resistance to the 
indirect wind. In practical tests, fans from 12 to 16 
feet by six or seven feet, respond most satisfactorily 
to oblique winds. All these mills should be more 
compact and built with a little more care. 
I believe that common sheet iron could be used to 
great advantage in the construction of the fans. In 
many cases, these mills can be located between sheds 
and corn cribs, and thus expense for lumber and the 
trouble of boxing in the fans may be avoided. It 
will, also, offer this additional advantage that the 
mills may be smaller because raised higher, yet their 
efficiency remain the same. In a 15-mile wind, the 
Jumbo mill, with fans 14 feet long by 6ix or eight 
wide, gives about one-tenth horse-power. 
The ordinary tower mills, turbine mills and Jumbo 
mills, are subject to natural limitations as to height 
and size, and this fact has led to manv attempts at 
designing a mill of unlimited size, hence capable of 
unlimited power. A first-rate sample may be seen on 
a ridge near Lincoln, where the inventor has built a 
mill on the following plan : Heavy upright fans of 
wood, which present their faces to the wind—their 
edges running against it—revolve around an axis on 
trucks which run on a track made of light steel rails. 
Though constructed with unusual care, and built of 
the best material, it is a matter of doubt, at present, 
whether it has any energy left to pump with after 
carrying its own load. However, the designer and 
builder of this merry-go-round type of mill has shown 
such marked engineering ability that I can but be¬ 
lieve that it is worth the time and pains he has 
bestowed upon it, and that, ultimately, a powerful 
and valuable mill will result. 
Near the same region another farmer has invented 
a merry-go-round of very peculiar design. A semi¬ 
circular hood guided by an immense vane revolves 
upon a circular track, thus at once protecting half 
the fans from the wind, and exposing the other half 
to it. This is certainly a much more complicated 
mill than that merry-go-round which is surrounded 
by a great barn-like box, ip which half of each of the 
four sides is boxed in to turn the wind while the other 
half is open to receive it. Thus the mill, without 
further adjustment, is ready to catch the wind at any 
quarter. 
The matter of irrigation is of paramount impor¬ 
tance in this State, and as the supply from streams 
has a limit which we are rapidly approaching, it is 
apparent that the windmill must be pressed into 
service. Not that the windmill is sufficient for ex¬ 
tensive irrigation, but simply that, by conserving the 
water it pumps into suitable reservoirs, it can be used 
in emergencies to tide certain crops over a dangerous 
week. To cite a specific case : One gardener, to my 
knowledge, turned a %-inch stream from his wind¬ 
mill on his cucumber patch, not only saving it 
thereby, but netting as a result, $100 on his sale of 
cucumbers for pickling during the month of Septem¬ 
ber, 1895. 
The cheapness of the Jumbo mill puts it within the 
reach of many for experimental work in agriculture. 
That is, if one suspects that a little irrigation would 
greatly help this or that crop, he can easily try the 
experiment without sny heavy outlay. When Mr. 
John Tannahill, of Columbus, Platte County, Neb., 
found that, while his apple trees flourished, they 
bore no fruit, because 
the joung apples fell 
off early, due appar¬ 
ently to the lack of 
sufficient moisture, he 
decided to try irrigat¬ 
ing his orchard. In¬ 
stead of purchasing an 
expensive mill with 
which to try his experi¬ 
ment, he built a Jumbo 
mill, which, because of 
the results achieved and 
the lesson it teaches, is 
one of the best known 
mills in the State. The 
mill irrigates four acres 
of orchard and six acres 
of garden. All the fruit 
within the irrigated 
portion remains on the 
trees to maturity. 
Those trees beyond the 
irrigated portion lose 
their fruit as formerly. 
The experiment tends 
to show that irrigation 
by windmill power is 
one means of saving an 
important fruit crop. 
The actual efficiency 
of the homemade mill 
may be judged of in 
part from the follow¬ 
ing : By measurement, 
a handmade mill, cost¬ 
ing $12, hasan efficiency 
of four-fifths, while a 
neighboring shop-made 
mill of the same size gave an efficiency of five-fifths. 
That is to say, the owner of the latter paid just $38 
for the additional one-fifth. Or, to express it differ¬ 
ently, four such handmade mills, with an efficiency 
of about sixteen-fifths, can be purchased at the price 
of one regular mill whose efficiency is five-fifths 
Making due allowance for error, thisisanunexpected 
and remarkable showing in favor of the homemace 
product. The author believes that an old mill may 
be reclaimed at a cost of $4 to $5, yet its efficiency 
equals one-half or two-thirds of the efficiency cf the 
original mill whose cost was many times as much. 
See Fig. 234. 
The old mill is allowed to lie where it falls, or the 
fallen tower is converted into kindling wood, and the 
other parts sold at the junk shops at the price of old 
iron. In consideration of the vast area in which the 
windmill is a necessity for raising water, it is at once 
apparent that the number of neglected and discarded 
mills is enormous, and I believe that the bulk of them 
are worth more than a half cent per pound. Where 
the mechanical parts are in fair condition, it is a mat¬ 
ter of trifling expense to replace the arms with wood 
or gas pipe, and to attach these sails of duck, or bet¬ 
ter still, of galvanized iron, of the proper shape, and 
to set up the tower, and reinstate the mill with a fair 
substitute for its original self. An ingenious farmer 
or his sons could purchase such a discarded mill at a 
purely nominal price, and at an expenditure of from 
$6 to $10, they could reinstate it, yet its efficiency, as 
I believe, would differ but little from that of the 
original mill. 
A sketch of the unique two-fan windmill designed 
and built by Mr. Elmer Jasperson, of Ashland, Saun¬ 
ders County, Neb,, is shown at Fig. 235. The fans, 
which are about 10 feet across, are built of heavy 
A NEBRASKA JUMBO OR “GO-DEVIL” WINDMILL. Fig. 228. 
Showing edge of reservoir 150 feet long by 4 wide. Size of mill 9 feet wide by 16 feet long, and 14 feet high. The cut-offs, with 
guides,ropes and pulleys for raising and lowering, may be seen at either end. The sails are of burlap. Cost of 
mil! $8. Irrigates five acres sufficiently for all the needs of the market gardener. 
