The Otherpower Name That Wind Turbine Contest, May 2006

[(unknown)]

Some people collect stamps, some collect baseball cards, and some collect feather dusters. We recently visited a fellow who collects wind turbines -- over 120 of them! They have the disadvantage that they are rather heavy and bulky compared to the aforementioned items. They have the advantage of being very rare and very cool, and they make electricity. And we have enough pictures of them to run this contest every month for a year.

Here's the deal -- the first person to reply and correctly name the brand of turbine gets a FREE piece of renewable energy related junk shipped to them for FREE! The junk may or may not work, but will have usuable parts inside you can scavenge. This month's prize is a Trace C-30A+ controller with a burnt-out main relay. Replace the relay, and you have a working solar charge controller! Or, you can pass on the prize and claim only the glory of winning.

We'll start all y'all out easy this month. BUT, if someone can name the turbine brand, model, AND the odd tower that this turbine is flying on, they'll win over anyone just naming the turbine. Contest open for one week. In the event nobody can name it, the judges will choose the most creative response. Decisions of the judges are final.

Hint for this month -- the tower is NOT crooked or falling down! Extra credit for blade length. It's shown in shut down position.

Go to it, folks! Simply reply here to enter the contest.

ADMIN put " [quotes] in the subject which caused a known bug that bitched about character limits. I fixed it so you can post now.

[willib]

dont know , but you are right it is cool looking

[Shadow]

Its a Jacobs, 15 foot prop, Octahedron tower.Model 110?

[Flux]

Not sure if it is 110 but it has a blade actuated governor and looks much better with the tail mended.

Flux

[stop4stuff]

the wind genny is an old style Jacobs variable pitch hub with flyballs mounted on one of those odd 'octahedron' towers in Wisconsin

[Ding123]

Could be or maybe not be the Jacob's turbine belonging to Mick Saguillo"s shop on lake Michegan?It is on an octohedron tower and has a spring loaded tail in either direction to compensate for side winds.

[Old F]

It is a 32 volt Jacobs with a 16 foot blade and

is setting on a octohedron tower built from the

old Wind works plans

Old F

[willib]

it sort of looks like this one , but the hub is different, this one has no springs

[chux0r]

Also, I bet it doesn't require a fedora for maintenance.

[willib]

is it a Model 29-20 ?

[willib]

jacobs of course

[TomW]

My Guess

A 1927 Ziphelmeier 3.2 KW externally excited self regulating model turbine with the Bordenson blade set at 3.7 meters. Mounted to a Struedelstein experimental octahedron bamboo tower only sold and erected from 1921 through 1929. These were only distributed under license from Ohio State university, Iowa City, Idaho.

My guess is serial number 16 or 18, but with the right moving furling tail as viewed from the front it is certainly an even serial number.

Just my best guess.

Cheers.

TomW

[zubbly]

best name i can think of is         OLD FAITHFULL

zubbly

[happysmith]

Howdy all !

Jacobs didn't use this type of governor until very near the end of their production in the 1950s.

Jacobs either copied or purchased the production rights from Allied who was the original designer of this particular governor setup.

The tail does seem to be from a late model Jacobs (early Jacobs tails resembled a tear drop in shape) and assumming it is actually from a Jacobs not just a Jacobs tail mounted on a later model Jacobs knock-off of which there were several.

Having said that, I think your photo provides clues to one of three possibilities:

1. Late model long case Jacobs 2800 watt, single commutator, 110 or 32 volt machine, about 6'6" blade length, centrifugal blade activated governor.
   
2. Dakota (1970s Jacobs knock-off) BC4 or SI4  4000 watt 140 or 200 volt machine,  about 6'6" blade length, centrifugal blade activated governor.
   
3. Skyhawk (1970s Jacobs knock-off) 4000 watt 120 volt machine, about 6'6" blade length, centrifugal blade activated governor.
   
   

Couldn't tell you a thing about the obviously unusual tower.

happysmith

[tecker]

 My guess is that it needs new bearings and a good look at the brushes and it sounds like a hughy on approach

[Warrior]

The generators all look similar to Jacobs but my guess is

Amerenalt 2.5KW, 24 v 8 foot diam.

Not that I know much about mills, just happen to have a picture of one...

Warrior

[ADMIN]

Darn, we are going to need a tiebreaker here since everyone is so close, but nobody has exactly nailed it.

The winner will need:

blade length, type of Jake (generic term, we don't know the model# since it's a refurb), rated kilowatts output, type of governor, and tower type.

There's a popular magazine article out there that gives all the info you need -- just noticed it today. (that was a big hint) Everyone's nailing the tower right on.

Shadow: Darn close, and first up. Prop not quite right.

Flux: Yep, but need more info.

Stop4Stuff: Good answer, wrong governor.

Ding123: NO FAIR calling Mick and asking him! Yes, it's his.

OldF: wrong blade length, got the tower's manufacturer right.

WilliB: Nope, it's much smaller than that one.

TomW: Very creative, and thanks for fixing the quotes I put in the subject line!

Happysmith: SO close. But what's your final answer? You are closest of anyone, but no tower type.

Tecker: Needs new brushes, not sure on bearing, but fairly quiet blades, and generator will be quiet when brushes get fixed (He's probably already fixed them by now).

Warrior: nope, it's a Jake.

OK, I bet this is wrapped up in another day. I hope this is as much fun for y'all as it is for us...

[ADMIN]

Was just pointed out to me -- We are looking for ROTOR DIAMETER, not blade length.

ADMIN

[happysmith]

Hey again !

Upon closer inspection I believe this is a short case late model Jacobs 1800 watt 32 volt machine with a 14' diameter rotor (blades are about 6'6" long and hub itself is about 6"-8" in diameter).

The governor is a late model blade activated centrifugal governor that was a much simpler and more dependable design than the flyball type which had flyball weights, internal synchronization gears, linkages, and roller bearings all of which tended to wear and stick destroying the turbine.

Tower does appear to be octahedron in nature although I can't say if there were specific plans for it's design.

The tail shape also indicates it's a late model Jacobs as the early Jacobs tails resembled a tear drop in shape.

happysmith

[ADMIN]

I do believe Joe (happysmith) got it. Short case Jake, late model (uses blade weight instead of flyballs to govern), 14 ft. diameter. The same model is shown (with ML Jacobs, cigarette hanging from mouth) working on it at NREL, here:

http://telosnet.com/wind/20th.html

The octahedron tower was purchased commercially, and I believe the Wind Works plans (OldF named them) came out after the commercial tower was discontinued. It's a Bucky Fuller design. Mick mentioned how the mailman dropped by and told him he better fix the tower, since it was crooked!

Mick says 2.4 kW -- but that all depends on the rated wind speed. It's featured in the famous Mick Sagrillo article in Home Power, "Apples and Oranges":

http://www.homepower.com/files/hp90-50.pdf

We'll give the prize to happysmith.

Next month won't be so easy -- guaranteed! We saw some REALLY strange turbines in Mick's museum.

ADMIN

[ADMIN]

Jakes galore in this wind turbine museum!

Here's some in various states of disrepair, which could be rebuilt:

And some in much better condition, just crying out to be ordered as refurbished models:

And here's some repairs in progress -- that's Josh and Sam from the MREA. Mick was down rounding up tools to bring up for them, he then climbed up there with them.

They had to fix a broken hinge pin on the tail. The contest photo shows it after the repair. The photo below shows it before the repair!

This is the last 'name that turbine' contest that will have a Jake in it.....

see you next month!

ADMIN

[BT Humble]

I'll have to pull you up there Tom, but it's CLEARLY a 1929 Ziphelmeier (some rather suspicious folk have darkly hinted that this particular model contributed in no small way to the October stock market crash of that year, which you may have heard of.)

Oh yes, and the tower isn't really bamboo, it's actually made of recycled matchstcks painstakingly collected by orphan street urchins and glued together by the patients of insane asylums in New Jersey.  (Which is considered by many of those same suspicious folk to have been the inspiration for many of the "work for the dole" projects of the New Deal).

Always happy to help out with some pointers to your local history! ;-)

BTH

[TomW]

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

By the way, guys, thanks for reminding me about octahedron strut towers.

I have to raise a placeholder tower soon as yuppie development repellent.  Throwing together a guyed octahedron truss looks like a quick and relatively cheap way to get a tower assembled and up, and get some tower construction and raising practice.  (If it ends up being sturdy enough for an actual mill, the way I build it, so much the better.  B-) )

I picked up one of the thermor weather stations, which I'm about to check out in the townhouse.  If this works out I can put that on the tower and collect some wind data, so there will actually be something on the tower pre-mill.

I'll size it so it (and a hypothetical mill) will miss the house, car, and power lines if it comes tumbling down.  B-)

Dang.  Now I actually have to DO something instead of just theorizing and posting.  B-)