News & Articles on History of Wind Power
This page was prompted by a technical question about early electricity-generating wind turbines in the United States. The question followed a similar question about “who was the first” to interconnect a wind turbine with an electricity network. There is a lot of confusion internationally about both subjects.
The history of wind energy is a broad subject and many have written about it. I’ve pulled together a list of sources, books, links, and museums that I know about. This list is far from comprehensive. If anyone wants to add to this list or edit this list, please do so.
A number of the entries below are reviews I’ve written of books that include the history of wind energy. The original book can usually be reached from the review. Other news items are relevant to the history of wind turbine development.
History of Conventional Wind Turbines Published—Finally
By
Paul Gipe
The first installment of an overview of the history of conventional wind turbines was published by Swedish academic Erik Möllerström and myself 15 August. Part 1 appears in Wind Engineering, an imprint of Sage Journals. The second part will appear later this year.
July 1887: James Blyth Harnesses the Wind for Electricity
By
Daniel Garisto
Nearly a century before anyone thought seriously about wind-powered electricity, a Scotsman named James Blyth built the world’s first wind turbine in his front yard. “When a good breeze was blowing, I stored as much in half a day as gave me light for four evenings,” he wrote.
German Wind Power Museum Adds Voith Blade from the Early 80s
By
Paul Gipe
Arne Jaeger reports that the Deutsches Windkraftmuseum (the German Wind Power Museum) has obtained one of the two blades used on the Voith 520 wind turbine developed in Germany during the late 1970s and tested in the early 1980s.
Update on Betz: Everything You Need to Know about Wind Turbines Was Written in 1927
By
Paul Gipe
Herr Fedor Seidler has forwarded a link to several lengthy documents summarizing the work of Albert Betz, Ludwig Prandtl, and their colleagues at the University of Göttingen.
Smith-Putnam Stressed Skin Blades and Bridge Construction Spar
By
Paul Gipe
Included in the correspondence from Palmer Putnam to Herman Drees is a letter from Richard Heckscher who was involved in blade development on the Smith-Putnam project. (See Palmer Putnam to Herman Drees Letter Reveals Emphasis on Swept Area.) Hecksher had alerted Putnam to the work of Herman Drees in developing Drees’ Cycloturbine.
Palmer Putnam – Herman M. Drees Correspondence 1979
By
Paul Gipe
18-page scan of documents in the archives of Wally Thompson of correspondence from Palmer Putnam to Herman Drees in 1979.
