Plate 2. THE ECLIPSE WIND MILL.
In June, 1883, a wind water works system was erected for the city of McPherson, Kansas, consisting of a 22-foot diameter wind mill on a 75-foot tower, which pumps the water out of a well 80 feet deep, and delivers it into a 60,000-gallon tank resting on a substructure 43 feet above the ground. Sixteen hundred feet of 6-inch and 300 feet of 4-inch cast iron pipe furnish the means of distribution; eight 2½-inch double discharge fire hydrants were located on the principal streets. A gate valve was placed in the 6-inch main close to the elbow on lower end of the down pipe from the tank. This pipe is attached to the bottom of the tank; another pipe was run up through the bottom of tank 9 feet (the tank being 18 feet deep), and carried down to a connection with the main pipe just outside the gate valve. The operation of this arrangement is as follows:
The gate valve being closed, the water cannot be drawn below the 9-foot level in tank, which leaves about 35,000 gallons in store for fire protection, and is at once available by opening the gate valve referred to. The tank rests on ground about 5 feet above the main streets, which gives a head of 57 feet when the tank is half full. The distance from tank to the farthest hydrant being so short, they get the pressure due to this head at the hydrant, when playing 2-inch, or 1-1/8-inch streams, with short lines of 2½-inch hose; this gives fair fire streams for a town with few if any buildings over two stories high. It is estimated that this mill is pumping from 30,000 to 38,000 gallons on an average every twenty-four hours. There is an automatic device attached to this mill, which stops it when the tank is full, but as soon as the water in the tank is lowered, it goes to pumping again. The cost of these works complete to the city was a trifle over $6,000.
In November last a wind mill 18 feet in diameter was erected over a coal mine at Richmond, in this State. The conditions were as follows:
The mine produces 11,000 gallons of water every twenty-four hours. The sump holds 11,000 gallons. Two entries that can be dammed up give a storage of 16,500 gallons, making a total storage capacity of 27,500 gallons. It takes sixty hours for the mine to produce this quantity of water, which allows for days that the wind does not blow. The average elevation that the water has to be raised is 65 feet, measuring from center of sump to point of delivery. A record of ninety days shows that this mill has kept the mine free from water with the exception of 6,000 gallons, which was raised in the boxes that the coal is raised in. The location is not good for a wind mill, as it stands in a narrow ravine or valley a short distance from its mouth, which terminates at the bottom lands of the Missouri River. This, taken in connection with the fact that the grit in the water cuts the pump plunger packing so fast that in a short time the pump will not work up to its capacity, accounts for the apparent small amount of power developed by this mill.
There has been some discussion of late in regard to the horse power of wind mills, one party claiming that they were capable of doing large amounts of grinding and showing a development of power that was surprising to the average person unacquainted with wind mills, while the other party has maintained that they were not capable of developing any great amount of power, and has cited their performance in pumping water to sustain his argument. My experience has has led me to the conclusion that pumping water with a wind mill is not a fair test of the power that it is capable of developing, for the following reasons:
A pumping wind mill is ordinarily attached to a pump of suitable size to allow the mill to run at a mean speed in an 8 to 10 mile wind. Now, if the wind increases to a velocity of 16 to 20 miles per hour, the mill will run up to its maximum speed and the governor will begin to act, shortening sail before the wind attains this velocity. Therefore, by a very liberal estimate, the pump will not throw more than double the quantity that it did in the 8 to 10 mile wind, while the power of the mill has quadrupled, and is capable of running at least two pumps as large as the one to which it is attached. As the velocity of the wind increases, this same proportion of difference in power developed to work done holds good.
St. Louis is not considered a very windy place, therefore the following table may be a surprise to some. This table was compiled from the complete record of the year 1881, as recorded by the anemometer of the United States Signal Office on the Mutual Life Insurance Building, corner of Sixth and Locust streets, this city. It gives the number of hours each month that the wind blew at each velocity, from 6 to 20 miles per hour during the year; also the maximum velocity attained each month.
Complete Wind Record at St. Louis for the Year 1881.