WINDMILL POWER AND ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1803, 16 October 1888, Page 3

WINDMILL POWER AND ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

Some time ago the possibilities of windmills for domestic electric lighting were mentioned in Science, and lately the experiment has been practically tried. Professor Blyth read before the Glasgow Philosophical Society a paper on the subject, in which he describes an experiment which he made last summer—the lighting of a cottage in which he spent his vacation by a dynamo driven by a windmill, and charging a storage battery,. The windmill used , was an old-fasiiioned type, with four arms at right angles to each other, each of them 13ft long. 1 There was no special regulating device. The dynamo was belted directly to the fly-wheel of the mill, and charged twelve cells of storage battery, which supplied the incandescent lamps in the cottage. Professor Blyth had never used more than 10 lamps at once, but he could have used more. With a good breeze, enough electricity could be stored in half a day to supply light for four evenings of three or four hours efjeh. The Igmps used

were of eight-candle power. When charging, the current passed through a cut-out that would disconnect them from the dynamo when it ran below a certain speed; so the windmill could be allowed to run all the time, charging the battery when the wind happened to be strong enough. The current had been used to run a light turning lathe, and Prolessor Blyth had begun to make a light carriage to be run by the stored electricity. Windmills much superior to that described can be readily purchased, a small dynamo can be bought or built at little cost, and storage batteries can be purchased or made. With them w© could light our houses economically; our light would be better, cooler and healthier than gas or coal oil lamps; while the current could be utilised for running fans, sewing machines, etc.