Water Windmill - Miami, TX
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 35° 41.500 W 100° 38.234
14S E 351860 N 3950984
"This may be a bitter pill for some Texans to swallow, but the windmill was not invented in Texas. Neither was the Colt revolver. Ditto barbed wire." ~ Texas Escapes
Waymark Code: WMM5A7
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 07/24/2014
Views: 8
County of widmill: Roberts County
Location of windmill: 120 E. Commercial St., Roberts County Museum, Miami
Great photos and fun explanations of windmills in Texas can be found at Texas Escapes Site
The gentle squeaking and pumping sounds tell you that the windmill is doing its job; harnessing the relentlessly blowing wind to bring water up from the far depths of the earth, for all the thirsty livestock.
"Important innovations occurred between the 1850s and the 1880s, when windmills became popular in the state, used to pump water for the railroads and irrigate farmland. Early Texas windmills were hand-constructed affairs, though shifts in construction and manufacturing were additional evident in the variety of windmills produced. Between 1793 and 1950, more than 2500 patents were filed with the United States Patent Office for inventions related to windmills; notably, in 1854, the Patent Office awarded U.S. Patent No. 11,629 to Daniel Halladay, whose self-governing windmill because the first commercially successful manufactured windmill in the United States.
Water-pumping windmills work by converting wind energy to mechanical energy and are used to draw water from below the ground’s surface. They consist of a well and storage system (such as a cistern or tank), matched with a water pumper, consisting of a wind wheel or rotor assembly, tail vane, transmission gear, pump, and tower. The power of the windmill is proportional to the diameter of the metal blades of the wheel, which is made to face the wind by the tail vane. Gears mounted on the horizontal shaft along with the wheel and tale vane convert the rotary motion of the wheel into a vertical pumping motion. Using this pumping motion, the windmill pulls water from the ground using either suction or piston motion. The raised water is then pumped into an elevated tank or cistern, as seen above, in the image of Fredericksburg residents gathered near a cistern at the base of a windmill. Below, note the windmill structure in the background of the group perched on a stock tank of water." ~ The Windmills of Texas