SPECIAL WINDPLANT SECTION

Back around 1931, Marcellus Jacobs (see the Plowboy Interview in MOTHER NO. 24) designed a wind-driven generator of electricity. It was good. So good that now-over 40 year later-every commercially successful windplant currently being manufactured anywhere in the world is still more or less a Chinese copy of Jacobs' unit.

Over the decades, of course, many other inventors have tried to improve or replace the Jacobs windplant with modifications of the basic unit or completely new designs of their own. Not a single one seems to have had much luck in that endeavor so far but that hasn't discouraged a steady stream of new experimenters from trying to beat Marcellus at his own game year after year after year.

Now that a goodly percentage of the earth's human population is finally beginning to realize the finite nature of the planet's fossil fuel reserves, the search for more efficient windplant designs has suddenly grown even more intense and a sampling of the latest work in the field is shown on the pages that follow.

A WINDPLANT DESIGN SERVICES

We have a service to offer anyone building a windplant: complete design of the blades (with templates) plus generator, transmission, and tower strength considerations. Just provide the following information:

[1] Average power needed, in watts [2] Average wind at site, in mph [3] Average temperature at site, in degrees F [4] Altitude of site, in feet [5] Type of transmission

[a] direct drive [b] gear [c] timing belt [d] V belt

[6] Number of shafts in transmission [7] Generator efficiency, if known (if not, just give nameplate data)

The cost of the full service is $5.00, and we'll also rent you a wind velocity meter for $1.00 plus $5.00 returnable deposit. Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for a sample solution or a free copy of our computer program. Until July 1975, contact Bill Smith, 808 University Blvd., Apt. 2, Silver Spring, Md. 20903.

THE WIND POWER DIGEST

There's a lot going on in the field of wind power these days and folks who are trying to keep abreast of current civelopments might want to check out a new publication, PVind Power Digest, edited by Mike Evans of Bristol, Indiana. Mike describes the first issue now available as "really an access catalog to wind power systems, designed to convey as much general information as possible and hopefully to mcourage a reader response cycle to keep the magazine going." Whether or not that happens, Wind Power Digest No.1 may turn out to be something of a collector's item if it lives up to its table of contents: