Blame the Scots!
Oct. 20th, 2008 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webfarmerI learned something new the other day. That the Scots have a claim on building the first wind-electric system. I'd aways thought this was held by Charles F. Brush of Cleveland, Ohio but evidently not so. Or is this just another Pavel Chekov Russian moment? (Book: How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It by Arthur Herman)
Timeline: The History of Wind Power - Guardian (UK) - 17 Oct 08
"July 1887, Glasgow, Scotland
The first windmill for electricity production is built by Professor James Blyth of Anderson's College, Glasgow (now Strathclyde University). The professor experiments with three different turbine designs, the last of which is said to have powered his Scottish home for 25 years.
Winter 1887 – Ohio, US
Professor Charles F. Brush builds a 12kW wind turbine to charge 408 batteries stored in the cellar of his mansion. The turbine, which ran for 20 years, had a rotor diameter of 50m and 144 rotor blades."
Letters: Devil's Wind - New Scientist - 11 Dec 93
"The first person to harness the wind to produce electricity was a Scotsman, James Blyth ('America reaps the wind harvest', 21 August). He first consulted his colleague, Lord Kelvin, about the possibility of using a windmill for the purpose. Kelvin thought it would be possible and urged Blyth to set up a large horizontal windmill at his holiday home in Marykirk near Montrose in 1888.
Blyth lit his own house and offered to light the streets of Marykirk, but his offer was not accepted because the villagers thought electricity was the work of the devil. He did, however, provide emergency power for the local asylum."
An academic paper that explores this discovery.
James Blyth – Britain's first modern wind power pioneer
Author: Price, Trevor J.
Source: Wind Engineering, Volume 29, Number 3, May 2005 , pp. 191-200(10)
A summary of his wind papers at the University of Strathclyde:
Summary of Records:
Complete specification of James Blyth's 'Improvements in Wind Engines' from Office of Commissioners of Patents (Patent No. 19,401) November 1891 (Copy of descriptions and diagrams)
Stereoscopic photograph of Box Horizontal Windmill, Mavy Kirk, Kincardinshire c.1888
Paper 'On the application of Wind Power to the generation and storage of Electricity', read before the Philosophical Society of Glasgow' 2nd May 1888
Paper 'On the application of Wind Power to the generation and storage of electricity', read before the Philosophical Society of Glasgow 25th January 1892 (Reprint from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Arts)
License between James Blyth and Mavor & Coulson, Engineers, regarding the Patent for Wind Engines 6th & 13th May 1895
Original ink drawing and photocopy of proposed alterations to Blyth's Patent Windmill at Sunnyside Asylum, Mavor & Coulson, Glasgow 6th December 1895
Letter from Donald W. Lackie to D. B. Allan's younger daughter Katherine, reminiscing about Professor Blyth 31st December 1973 (His father W. W. Lackie, former Mavor & Coulson apprentice, did maintenance work on the Windmill at Sunnyside Asylum)
Collection of articles and letters regarding the career of Professor Blyth from Mr. D. B. Allan to Dr. P. J. Musgrove, Reading University April 1988
Letter from D. B. Allan to Dr. John Twidell regarding the use of a Single Windmill to light two lighthouses on Cap de la Heve, with correspondence from the Director of the Lighthouse Service in Paris and the Archives Library of the Seine-Maritime Department, Rouen 27th January 1989
Letter from D. B. Allan to Dr. John Twidell regarding Twidell's article about Professor Blyth in 'Windirections' magazine 5th February 1989 (Copy of suggested article attached)
Collection of articles and correspondence from D. B. Allan to Dr. J. S. McGrath, Archivist, regarding the French development of Wind-generators and the Cap de la Heve Project 9th April 1989
Booklet on French windmill.
Timeline: The History of Wind Power - Guardian (UK) - 17 Oct 08
"July 1887, Glasgow, Scotland
The first windmill for electricity production is built by Professor James Blyth of Anderson's College, Glasgow (now Strathclyde University). The professor experiments with three different turbine designs, the last of which is said to have powered his Scottish home for 25 years.
Winter 1887 – Ohio, US
Professor Charles F. Brush builds a 12kW wind turbine to charge 408 batteries stored in the cellar of his mansion. The turbine, which ran for 20 years, had a rotor diameter of 50m and 144 rotor blades."
Letters: Devil's Wind - New Scientist - 11 Dec 93
"The first person to harness the wind to produce electricity was a Scotsman, James Blyth ('America reaps the wind harvest', 21 August). He first consulted his colleague, Lord Kelvin, about the possibility of using a windmill for the purpose. Kelvin thought it would be possible and urged Blyth to set up a large horizontal windmill at his holiday home in Marykirk near Montrose in 1888.
Blyth lit his own house and offered to light the streets of Marykirk, but his offer was not accepted because the villagers thought electricity was the work of the devil. He did, however, provide emergency power for the local asylum."
An academic paper that explores this discovery.
James Blyth – Britain's first modern wind power pioneer
Author: Price, Trevor J.
Source: Wind Engineering, Volume 29, Number 3, May 2005 , pp. 191-200(10)
A summary of his wind papers at the University of Strathclyde:
Summary of Records:
Complete specification of James Blyth's 'Improvements in Wind Engines' from Office of Commissioners of Patents (Patent No. 19,401) November 1891 (Copy of descriptions and diagrams)
Stereoscopic photograph of Box Horizontal Windmill, Mavy Kirk, Kincardinshire c.1888
Paper 'On the application of Wind Power to the generation and storage of Electricity', read before the Philosophical Society of Glasgow' 2nd May 1888
Paper 'On the application of Wind Power to the generation and storage of electricity', read before the Philosophical Society of Glasgow 25th January 1892 (Reprint from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Arts)
License between James Blyth and Mavor & Coulson, Engineers, regarding the Patent for Wind Engines 6th & 13th May 1895
Original ink drawing and photocopy of proposed alterations to Blyth's Patent Windmill at Sunnyside Asylum, Mavor & Coulson, Glasgow 6th December 1895
Letter from Donald W. Lackie to D. B. Allan's younger daughter Katherine, reminiscing about Professor Blyth 31st December 1973 (His father W. W. Lackie, former Mavor & Coulson apprentice, did maintenance work on the Windmill at Sunnyside Asylum)
Collection of articles and letters regarding the career of Professor Blyth from Mr. D. B. Allan to Dr. P. J. Musgrove, Reading University April 1988
Letter from D. B. Allan to Dr. John Twidell regarding the use of a Single Windmill to light two lighthouses on Cap de la Heve, with correspondence from the Director of the Lighthouse Service in Paris and the Archives Library of the Seine-Maritime Department, Rouen 27th January 1989
Letter from D. B. Allan to Dr. John Twidell regarding Twidell's article about Professor Blyth in 'Windirections' magazine 5th February 1989 (Copy of suggested article attached)
Collection of articles and correspondence from D. B. Allan to Dr. J. S. McGrath, Archivist, regarding the French development of Wind-generators and the Cap de la Heve Project 9th April 1989
Booklet on French windmill.
