FROST PROTECTION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21248, 19 October 1940, Page 5

FROST PROTECTION

STRANGE USE OF PROPELLERS AIR KEPT CIRCULATING An airplane propeller and an automobile motor were brought together in a strange way and for a strange purpose by a horticulturist living at Converse, near Spartanburg, in South Carolina. The curious apparatus was assembled by Mr L. E. Godwin, who owns a peach orchard in the Converse section of Spartanburg County, and his object in doing so was to devise some method of preventing frost from collecting on his trees and damaging young fruit. Operating on the theory that circulating air prevents frost, Mr Godwin now has enlarged his equipment to include two “windmills,” which keep the air constantly moving in his peach orchard during unseasonably cold snaps—such as have occurred several times this spring—and thereby prevents frost from falling on the trees. Study and observation revealed to Mr Godwin that still, cold =>ir has a tendency to collect in low places, causing frost, which in turn killed the budding peaches on his trees, while on higher ground, where the wind kept the air moving, they were unaffected. It then seemed logical, in Mr Godwin’s opinion, that a big fan that would keep the air circulating in the low places in his orchard ought to provide a solution to the problem. Propeller Used Requiring some mechanical arrangement that was both inexpensive and yet capable of moving the air over a wide radius, he acquired a propeller from a disabled airplane and a petrol motor from a wrecked car. With this equipment he set about to fit the propeller to the crankshaft of the motor, which necessitated considerable time and effort, and finally to assemble the whole on a steel pipe in the orchard, supplementing this with two wooden posts for supports. These he placed on either side of the pipe. To keep the machine operating smoothly and in perfect balance, Mr Godwin uses a rudder similar to that on an airplane. This also helps to spread the air in a wide circle over the orchard. Pleased with the apparent success of his first efforts, Mr Godwin built another “windmill,” and now has two in his orchard—about 1000 feet apart and strategically located near the low-lying parts of the orchard that are most exposed to frost.