Main entry:

Baker, T. Lindsay.

Title & Author:

A field guide to American windmills / by T. Lindsay Baker ; foreword by Donald E. Green.

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication:

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, ©1985.

Description:

xii, 516 pages : illustrations ; 23 x 29 cm

Notes:
Includes index.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 459-503) and index.
The history of American windmills -- The first windmills in America -- The pioneer American windmills -- Evolution of design in wooden-wheel -- Early windmill manufacture -- Homemade windmills -- The coming of all-metal windmills -- Development of self-oiling windmills -- Wind power and the generation of electricity -- Windmills of unusual design -- Uses of windmills in pumping -- The manufacture of windmills -- Marketing windmills -- The role of the well drillers -- Windmill towers -- Export of American windmills -- The American windmill industry from World War I to the present -- Windmill identification -- Known windmill manufacturers and firms claiming to be windmill manufacturers -- Known windmill models and their makers.

Summary:

"Before the development of the first self-governing windmill, settlement of the upland areas of the American West was almost impossible. Windmills were needed to pump underground water to the surface. As soon as their design and manufacture had been perfected, the mills became the most prominent feature of the American landscape, not only in the western two-thirds of the nation but also in the East and particularly in the Middle East. Besides supplying the needs of farmers and ranchers, windmills performed such tasks as pumping water to the roofs of New York tenements, cleaning out mine shafts and ships' bilges, and providing water for the boilers of locomotives. This guide to America's windmills is both a complete general history of turbine-wheel mills and an identification guide to the 112 most common models, which still dot the landscape today. With this guide a traveler or enthusiast crossing the plains and prairies of North America can identify virtually every farm-style windmill that he or she can see with a good pair of binoculars. The guide also serves as a handbook for the restoration of antique mills. In his lively narrative T. Lindsay Baker clearly explains the technical evolution of the mills and shares a wealth of windmill folklore. Among the 376 illustrations are unpublished historical photographs, long-lost engravings, field photographs by the author, and detailed India-ink drawings of the 112 most popular designs. Appendices identify all the known windmill manufacturers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico and all the known windmill models from the 1850s to the present published list of source materials on the history of wind-power utilization."--Jacket.

ISBN:

0806119012 (alk. paper)
9780806119014 (alk. paper)

Subject:

Windmills United States.
Moulins à vent États-Unis.
Windmills.
Windmühle
Windmolens.
United States.
USA.
United States Windmills, to 1985

Holdings:

Location: Library main m 90861
Call No.: ID:86-B17925
Status: Available