The Evolution of Wind Power

Okay, today I was driving back from Dansville (long story why I was out there) and I drove past a field where I saw a bunch of windmills. So I thought to myself, what really is a windmill. This sounds really weird that I was thinking this but it interested me so I though why not write my first blog about it. Obviously I know that windmills are used to generate power in the form of electricity, but how do they do so? And who ever came up with this idea?

Well, through my research I discovered that apparently windmills have been around for a very long time, and they weren’t always used to generate electricity. The origin of the windmill design was traced back to between 500-900 AD Persia. The original windmill was used for water pumping, but due to lack of drawings or schematics we don’t know exactly how. Soon thereafter the same Persian design was used for grain-grinding. The way that this worked was the same actual windmill design except there was a chamber on the bottom which contained the grain and the grinder so that when the wind hit it would spin the chamber and dice up the grain. It looked like the image below.

panemone

 

So I guess windmills weren’t always used to generate electricity. When did we start using it for that?

Well basically, in 1850 the U.S. Wind Engine Company was created. It’s founders were two young visionaries by the names of Daniel Halladay and John Burnham. About 40 years later they found a way to put wind power to use with the intention of generating electricity for homes and businesses. When that information spread other companies tried to pick it up as well and three years later at the World Fair wind power was debuted by The U.S. Wind Engine Company along with 15 other companies. They basically connected the wind turbines to a generator that way when the blades move it spins the generator, generating electricity. We actually use pretty much the same exact method today with windmills, just with more efficient generators and more aerodynamic turbines.

Citations:

http://telosnet.com/wind/early.html

http://energy.gov/eere/wind/history-wind-energy

One thought on “The Evolution of Wind Power

  1. Abigail Marie Young

    Tyler,
    I really like that you decided to do a blog about wind power. One thing you could have added was how much better for the environment wind power is than power by coal or other fossil fuels. Here is an article talking about the costs and benefits of wind power today. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421504000382
    Having grown up in this area, I know exactly which wind turbines you are talking about, they are huge! It is truly amazing to think about the physics that went into making them, especially the proportions. Knowing the history of wind power in America now definitely makes me appreciate all the hard work that was put into building them.

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