Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Woops - didn't see your attached photos at first. That definitely looks like what it is - many thanks!

AG

Hey Ron,

I'm sure this tool could be used for that purpose, but the structure it goes with is pre-rebar - it's sitting on an unreinforced mansonry foundation. But it's possible the tool doesn't go with the tower, and was dropped there later. Or they used it for other jobs on the jobsite.

AG

Thanks all!

Paul - cladding the tanks was a two-for-one - the cladding/sheathing effectively creates a shear wall, and therefore a stronger tower, even though the open trestle type towers were plenty strong, provided the timbers didn't rot. The pumping equipment all happens outside - the windmill ...

Interesting - like a mandrel?

Thanks, Wayne. Any idea what part of the process they would have used it for?

The owner of an c.1894 tank house in Alameda, CA emailed me with pictures of a mysterious piece of cast iron he found digging in the garden at the base of the tower. I don't recognize it - can anyone enlighten me? Looks like a specialty wrench of some kind? A part from of a regulator? A brake lever ...

Hello!

For the past two years, I've been building a comprehensive map of all the surviving windmill-powered wooden tank houses in the Easy Bay in Northern California. Out of the thousands of towers which stood one hundred years ago, I've managed to track down and document 70 (and counting ...