Oct. 19, 1941:1st Wind Generator in the world to feed electric grid-USA

[Ichingcarpenter]

1941: The Smith-Putnam Wind Turbine feeds AC power to the electric grid, the first wind machine ever to do so.

The unprecedented project was built up from nothing, practically conjured, by Palmer Putnam, an MIT-trained geologist with no formal education or experience in wind power. He was a fascinating character, a clean-energy entrepreneur 70 years ahead of his time.

Vannevar Bush, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s science adviser, showered praise on this engineer-of-all-trades, calling Putnam a “go-getter” in his autobiography and noting that he “had some of the characteristics of the best type of promoter in industry. He was well-liked by men with lots of drive, and often disliked by those with less.” His friends called him Put, after the Greatest Generation–traditions of the day.

It’s important to understand how ridiculously grand the project really was. Its scale — 10 times as powerful as the very largest turbine and a thousand times more powerful than most of them — was almost unimaginable.


http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/10/1019wind-turbine

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Time Magazine article from 1941 plus rare photos

Science: Harnessing the Wind
Monday, Sep. 08, 1941


Vermont's mountain winds were harnessed last week to generate electricity for its homes and factories. Slowly, like the movements of an awakening giant, two stainless-steel vanes—the size and shape of a bomber's wings—began to rotate on their 100-ft. tower atop bleak Grandpa's Knob (2,000 ft.) near Rutland. Soon the 75-ton rotating unit will begin generating 1,350 horsepower or 1,000 kilowatts—enough electricity to light 2,000 homes. Wholly automatic, with its performance recorded by frequent photographs of its dial board, it will produce current about 4,000 hours a year (i.e., about half of the time).


The wind-generated electricity will be turned as a secondary supply into the lines of Central Vermont Public Service Corp. Windless days are no worry, because the machine is built not to replace but to supplement present sources of electricity. When the wind turbine is running full-blast the power company can reduce its consumption of dammed waters, saving them for dry or windless spells. Engineers' big problem, in fact, was to outwit too much wind: a sudden gale could raise the turbine's output in three seconds from 1,000 to 3,000 kilowatts, overloading an unbraked generator. Minimum needed wind speed is 18 m.p.h., and 30 m.p.h. is ideal......more...at link


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849476,00.html










more photos here

http://www.wind-works.org/photos/Smith-PutnamPhotos.html