Wind Generator
(Page 2 of 6)
The hub-mounted control setup Price came up with is similar
to the type Marcellus Jacobs used on his well-known wind
machines. "I'd read stories about Jacobs, and I wanted to
know how his governor worked. I finally located a copy of a
drawing from an old service manual, studied it, and then
built my own version. It acts on centrifugal force and uses
lead weights, linkages, and springs to control the blades'
pitch. I knew I wanted a top speed of about 230 RPM on the
power shaft, so I just used the trial-and-error method to
set up the governor correctly. During the winter I made a
little testing stand in the basement and mounted the hub on
it . . . then I drove the unit with a belt connected to my
walking tractor's engine, took RPM readings off the hub
using a tachometer, and experimented with the governor
until I got it right. I've been using it ever since, and,
by gosh, it works!"
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Of course, if it's to generate usable electricity, the
alternator must spin a good deal faster than 230 RPM, so
Marshall set about making a gearbox that would step up the
generator's speed considerably. To accomplish this, he just
welded a housing out of 1/4" plate and mounted two salvaged
Chevrolet gearsets inside. The 8.2-to-1 ratio thus created
means that for every one turn the power shaft on the hub
makes, the alternator shaft spins 8.2 times . . . or about
1,800 RPM in near-gale (36 mph) winds.
The power shaft itself was recycled from an old Datsun. "I
bought the whole car for $10, then sold the body to a
junkyard for $15. That left me with the entire drivetrain
and a profit of $5.00. I stripped out the swing
arms from the independent rear suspension, used one for the
windplant-bearings and all—and kept the other as a
spare."
Having taken care of governing the high-speed performance
of his generator, Mr. Price had to consider control at low
RPM, as well. He used a centrifugally activated
microswitch-snitched from an electric typewriter—to
energize the alternator's field windings when the shaft
speed reached approximately 750 RPM. Translated into wind
velocity, that means that the generator doesn't start
charging until the breezes reach 7 or 8 mph. Below that
speed, the alternator is ineffective anyway, so there's
little use in allowing battery power to drain into the
field circuit at such times.
Finally, to protect his equipment from the inevitable heavy
blows that occur periodically, Marshall hinged and "loaded"
the windplant's tail frame so it could be folded parallel
to the plane of the blades when necessary. A small cable
winch mounted at the base of the tower keeps the tail
perpendicular to the rotor path under normal conditions,
making maximum use of the wind . . . but when that cable is
released, the vane swings to one side, presenting the tips,
rather than the faces, of the blades to the breeze so the
rotor can't overspin.
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