Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Hi there!

Wondering if anyone might be able to help me, I am a graduate student looking at the structural use of trees. Whilst researching, I found the following extract from an article by the Montana Historical Society on Jacobs Brother’s wind turbines.

“Fred Bruns recalled installing a Jacobs machine for the owner of an isolated Canadian mink farm. He cleared the forest cover by topping four trees at a height of sixty feet, built a platform, and erected a sixty- foot Jacobs tower on the platform. The tree stump foundation bore the tower well, and the machine provided power for the remote mink farmer for many years.”

I am desperately trying to find more information about this windmill such as pictures or technical drawings. I don't suppose anyone might know anything about this or any other windmills built on top of trees stumps?

best,
Andrew

Andrew

The obscure & unusual always interests me. I know nothing of the one in Montana but remembered this reference to a windmill mounted on a tree in Africa in the 1899 Aermotor catalog. There is reference to the location and travails of placement in the description.


In regards to the MT Jacobs turbine, the mental image of what it must have looked like bears witness to the fact that there were always unique people out there figuring out a way to do what was said couldnt be done.

Whilst looking for my pic of the "treed windmill", I surmise you are Brit or educated there?

Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

Here is a postcard from my hometown of a water pumping windmill on a redwood tree “stump” Note how high up they had to climb to get above the “stump swell” or above a hollow or split section to cut the tree.
See the springboards they used as scaffolding? Makes a windmill tower seem nice and solid.
Look carefully and you will see a lumberjack climbing up a tree used as a ladder.
You can find some neat old photos and videos of working around the big trees online
Like

I don't remember under what topic but someone posted a picture of a huge wind early wind turbine. The guy who posted the picture had been to the site. Anybody remember the picture and under what topic?

Ron Stauffer wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 8:20 pm Andrew

The obscure & unusual always interests me. I know nothing of the one in Montana but remembered this reference to a windmill mounted on a tree in Africa in the 1899 Aermotor catalog. There is reference to the location and travails of placement in the description.


treed windmill.jpg


In regards to the MT Jacobs turbine, the mental image of what it must have looked like bears witness to the fact that there were always unique people out there figuring out a way to do what was said couldnt be done.

Whilst looking for my pic of the "treed windmill", I surmise you are Brit or educated there?

Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

Ron,

That is an awesome article about the Christian missionaries bringing windmills to foreign countries. Thanks.

Jerry

Ron
Thanks for the post a very interesting read.

I did a little googling for some more background for the article and couldnt come up with much. A. B. C. F. M. stands for American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Ministries. Kamundongo is now part of Angola. With limited African geographic knowledge, I had hopes that it would be close to the windmill project that I mentored with in Kenya but is a mere 1500 miles away.

Ron

Ron Stauffer wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 8:20 pm Andrew

The obscure & unusual always interests me. I know nothing of the one in Montana but remembered this reference to a windmill mounted on a tree in Africa in the 1899 Aermotor catalog. There is reference to the location and travails of placement in the description.


treed windmill.jpg


In regards to the MT Jacobs turbine, the mental image of what it must have looked like bears witness to the fact that there were always unique people out there figuring out a way to do what was said couldnt be done.

Whilst looking for my pic of the "treed windmill", I surmise you are Brit or educated there?

Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

Hi Ron

Thank you very much for that research lead, I will look into it further and you are correct I am a brit.

Best,
Andrew

Kevin wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:49 pm Here is a postcard from my hometown of a water pumping windmill on a redwood tree “stump”
Windmill_Redwood_Tree.jpg
Note how high up they had to climb to get above the “stump swell” or above a hollow or split section to cut the tree.
See the springboards they used as scaffolding? Makes a windmill tower seem nice and solid.
Look carefully and you will see a lumberjack climbing up a tree used as a ladder.
You can find some neat old photos and videos of working around the big trees online
Like

Hi Kevin

Thank you for that postcard image has been really useful to my research, and the redwood logging videos are fascinating. However, I didn't quite get what stump swell was?

Best,
Andrew

The base of the redwood trees can be much wider than the main body of the tree. If the base or “stump” area is very large, the medical term, "swelling" (localized enlargement) is used in a slang format as “stump swell”
The larger area can vary greatly between nearby trees.
Good photo and info at https://www.mendorailhistory.org/1_redw ... photos.htm