We're Back on the Road

Before we were hooked up, one of our locals dropped by to send us off...

This beautiful moth probably only had a short while left, he could not get into the air.

We left New Mexico this morning, heading for Lubbock, TX.  The trip was uneventful, except for all the bumps Hwy. 82 east between Lakewood, NM and Plains, TX.. We pulled over for a bathroom break... and what did I spy... frozen food all over the floor. This is the second time we had an issue with the doors opening, even though there is a door lock. The first time we found a growler of beer rolling around on the floor, draining as it rolled back and forth.

Taking a closer look at the refrigerator, I noticed the top screws for the refrigerator had backed out, so I screwed them back in. Back on the road we went, making our way to Lubbock. We pulled in, registered, parked, opened the door, and SURPRISE...

ALL THE SCREWS FULLY BACKED OUT, leaving the top of the refrigerator unsecured. The other issue... the piece of wood the screws go through... has been loosened as well. 

The golden lining on this find... no doors popped open.

Now that all the surprises are done, we set up for the stay. YEAH, no other issues. It was nice to be done, the skies looked ominous, and I have done setup/breakdown in the rain.

After driving we decided to go for dinner. Our choice was a BBQ joint called Bone Daddy's. I will try not to bore you with our meals, but I just couldn't resist...

I had a very tender rack of baby back ribs, and Carol had a very nicely cooked rib eye steak. This chef understood what a medium rare steak is. We both had their potato salad that had cheese, bacon, and twice baked potatoes. We were filled, and ended up taking leftovers home. Oh yeah... we brought home bourbon peach cobbler, ala-mode too.

SIDE NOTE:

I truly believe that anyone who washes their vehicle/RV does get punished. I washed the truck and trailer before we began our new adventure... and it didn't rain on me.

Consequences to the side note: see below.

Back home we settled down for the night. A little warm it was, and a tad humid. That humidity turned into a spot of rain... and wind.

This little shower arrived about 15 minutes after we got home, and lasted almost a half hour. Some of the hail was a little smaller than golf balls, most of it was about quarter size. Sitting in the trailer, it sounded like it was working its way through the walls, and tearing up the rubber roof. After it was all said-and-done, we survived it. We were more fortunate than our neighbors, the hail cracked both their skylights. The next morning I climbed my ladder to look at our damage... there wasn't any. I attribute this to the age of the trailer. I say this because another neighbor was on his roof replacing a cover on his vent fan, his rig was older. Here was my chore after the storm...

I had to sweep the truck to remove all the branches, leaves, and pods material.

After I finished the truck, Carol and I decided to run to Walmart for a few items, but the main purpose was DEF for the truck. Roaming through the store we came up with a few more projects for me to accomplish, and one to complete. The "completion" required project was simple... buy and install more cabinet child proof locks... now every cabinet doors has one. This lesson was learned from passed trips.

New project #1: curtains for the front door. We put them up to block morning sun when our door faces to the east.

New project #2: secure freezer door. We thought about changing them to a charcoal, but decided to stay with white, this way we remember to secure the refrigerator.

Today we went on our second journey in Lubbock, Walmart and dinner was the first. Surprisingly, there are many sights to see, right here in Lubbock. Our day started at the American Windmill Museum. This museum has hundreds of windmills in different sizes, shapes, makes and models. There were a lot of windmills sprinkled throughout the property.

This Post mill is a look at what was built back in the Jamestown days. 1621 saw the first wind driven grist mill, similar to this one.

The story regarding this one began back in 1977 when a couple commissioned an English millwright to build this windmill to commemorate the first windmill in 1621. The Post mill was the earliest type of windmill to be built in Western Europe. The name "post mill" is derived from the fact that the body, containing the machinery and sails were mounted on top of a a huge wooden post, enabling the sails to be turned into the wind.

Two types of sails are used on this windmill. One pair of sails is called "common" or hand clothed, the other pair has a series of hinged shutters linked together like venetian blinds. This configuration allows the shutters to blow open, spilling wind when the wind increases. These two pairs of sails together create a 60 foot diameter wheel.

THATS THE PAST.

Lets look at a more modern windmill...

Look familiar. The museum acquired one a few years back. They show a video of the installation of the monster. We learned that besides the long, long, long, long blades, the portion that houses the electrical and mechanical components, weighs in at 36,000 pounds. The bolts that tie this beast to the earth are somewhere around 20 feet long, secured in concrete.

Time to take a walk inside. Once we got inside, we saw that they like trains, mill stones, and miniature houses too. I am going to do it by sections.

The Sunflower windmill has an unknown history of ever being made or sold. 

This one on display was built from the patent drawings, which date back to somewhere in the 1890s. The Sunflower Windmill Company was out of Topeka, Kansas. This was what was called an articulating water pumping windmill. The "automatic governors" would push the other blades into a position that is edgewise to the wind. When the wind dies down, the weighted paddles return to the flat position, and at this point the windmill starts pumping water again. My understanding is if the wind is blowing too hard, the mill will stop pumping, and when the wind settles down, pumping begins.

Even though the museum is called the American Windmill Museum, it has windmills from other countries too. 

The Steel King was a mill manufactured in Canada. The one on exhibit is believed to be the only one left. It was restored by a gentleman in Canada, and donated by the Canadian couple that owned it. This is an unusual chain driven water pumping windmill, the single pitman Steel King. The disadvantage to this mill was that the wheel came in only one size, 8 foot diameter. It was replaced by the double pitman Steel King, which came in several wheel sizes.

This windmill was not made in Washington state, it was made in Western Australian, in the early 1900s.

These windmills were made in Argentina. Believe it or not, these mills are fairly new, 2015. They are re-vamped versions of the Aermotor windmill. The difference here is the mounting of the gearbox, which allows for easier replacement and repair of the parts.

Quick peak...

The overhead train.

Walking through this museum brought to light a relationship between windmills and radios.

This mill supplied 6vdc for early day radios. This model had a rigid tail, and used air brakes. These windmills were usually mounted on houses, barns, garages, or granary buildings. Believe it or not, these mills were used as late as the 1950's. Zenith also  made 12, 24, and 32vdc windmills because electricity had not made it to the rural areas.

Other companies came out with windmills that could provide power as well. One company produced a mill that provided energy to an array of 16 - 2 volt batteries. The purpose of the batteries was to store 32 volts of energy. This array could supply up to 7kw (kilowatts) of electricity for up to four days. The advantage of the storage batteries allowed families to enjoy electricity on the days with little, or no wind.

A company in Detroit, MI, built what might have been considered the first hybrid power source. This is the Delco Hi-Flyer. It was built for 32vdc battery charging, and rated for 25A at 40V or 1,000W. Delco recommended that customers also buy their gasoline power plant for those occasions when there was no wind, and still suppling storage capability.

Philco had some different ideas for its windmill. This mill used a speed control mechanism, tipping the rotor out of the wind. During normal wind, the rotor faced into the wind, but when the wind became too strong, the rotor would flip up and out of the wind. Once the wind returned to a normal speed, the rotor would return to its regular position via a spring mechanism. The design of this windmill would moderate the rpm, and could produce up to 100W of DC power. This was 1930s technology.

How's this for a model "A". This was an early 1900s model, believe it or not, first owned by Wesley Smith Ford. These windmills had a unique component, a parking brake. The brake has discs that compressed when the tail was moved to the off position. This was a water pump mill.

We are going to move ahead a couple of decades; at this point windmills were finding a backseat to turbines. 

A company in Lubbock Texas had developed a vertical axis turbine.

VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE

A SINGLE BLADE

The turbine produced 5-KW, 15x15 foot, 3 blade rotor. They took those single blades and stacked three together.

ARTIST'S RENDITION, circa 1975

We have jumped into 1976-ish, and the Clearwater Publishing Company was building a new environment friendly structure. The building's entrance was south facing, with a slanted roof containing over 300 solar panels. Well, what does this have to do with wind turbines. Funny you should ask. The editors of the paper saw an artist's rendering of a "vertical axis, stacked" wind turbine... and they wanted one! They contacted the Lubbock company that made them and said gimme, gimme, gimme. This is what they got...

CLEARWATER'S 5KW STACKED TURBINE

FAILURE DEPARTMENT:

The Windspire 1.1KW turbine. It was touted as being able to produce 1.1KW of electricity during 30mph winds. The rotors stand 13 feet high, 4 feet in diameter, and can spin at 400rpm. The rotor turns a brushless magnet generator, and has a grid-tie synchronous inverter. It was sold as being... "very quiet when running and most efficient in its operation." That appears to be malarky. When they installed this one at the museum, it never worked. There is combination of problems, one being design concept, and, an issue with the electronic controls, which left this machine standing idle in any wind. These were manufactured between 2005 and 2010; the manufacturer went bankrupt.

Another loser in the world of windmills. This wind turbine was produced by a division of Honeywell International. They built this small 1500W turbine, selling it as "a novel electric generator with a central wheel made of aluminum and steel spokes driving a large permanent magnet generator." The "ears" on the turbine direct the wheel into the wind; speed control is achieved through electronic braking. The wind turbine may have worked, but the control system was a complete failure. This turbine never produced any electricity. The division of Honeywell that built these units went bankrupt.

Lets step back to "windmills" that worked.

The windmill above was the first successful all metal American made windmill, and it was called the Iron Turbine, and manufactured between 1876 and 1898. It proved that metal mills could do the work of a wooden mill, and stand up to severe weather; it was easier to repair too. The bucket-looking blades gave this windmill a unique look. Imagine this, it cost about as much as buying a home, $145.00 in 1876.

This is the Twin-Wheel windmill manufactured between 1917 and 1928. The wheels are each 12 feet in diameter, connected together by a right angle bevel gear. What is missing in this display are the two pitman arms which would have been attached to the pumping plates on the bull gear. A single sucker rod would have been attached to them extending downward to the well, and then to the pumping cylinder below ground. This type of mill was capable of pumping 200 gallon per minute. The speed of the wheels is governed by the side vane and large tail. Because of the twin wheels, the head of the mill cannot spin around on the top of the tower. With no brakes on this windmill, the maintenance person would have to chain the two wheels together during maintenance.

BREAK TIME... BREAK TIME...BREAK TIME... BREAK TIME

I said earlier that I was going to break the museum into sections... here comes section two, trains.

I mentioned before that the train travels overhead, and this is how its done. The train travels up the spiral and hits the upper track, heads around the building, then at one end of the building it makes a U-turn and returns to one of the train yards. There are about six different setups that run the rails; they even have a Thomas the Train that runs a small loop.

The train city is a representation of Lubbock around 1941. There are several train yards, farms, a couple of ranches, two depots, and the hotel.

The Hotel Lubbock was originally six stories, built in the 1920's. Later another five floors were added, giving it a total of 300 rooms, a banquet hall, and a ballroom. Today the hotel is named Pioneer Hotel, and is luxury condos.

Here is a unique structure that was built in the 1950's.

You say, big deal, this is just an ordinary grain elevator... you're kind of right. This elevator has become widely known as the "World Famous Clock Face Elevator".

Get your walkin' shoes on, we're heading for the tiny homes (miniature houses). The entire collection on display is about 50 minis, and was created by one couple, beginning in 1981.

They have summer camps, and the kids have great imaginations, here are a couple of examples...

Our last section to visit would be the millstones.

One of the areas I did not realize was the patterns in the stones pertained to what was being ground. We also learned that millstones started out about 20 inches tall, and ground down about 2 inches a year, making them useful for about 7 to 8 years. The iron bands on some of the stones was to keep them together because of the properties of the stone, or the millstone was made up of sections.

This millstone was cut to grind raw cork wood. This stone is in pristine condition, weighing in at 3,000 pounds.

This basin stone was carved out of a single piece of salmon sandstone, and used for making apple cider. The way it worked was simple, a vertical roller ran around the edge, crushing the apples, creating the juice for a delicious cider. If you look really close to the picture you can see a little hole at the edge. This stone would have been mounted on a slant so that the juices could drain through that hole.

This millstone is made of a hard material called carborundum and granite. Back in the day it would have been used to grind guano, which was rich in phosphates, making good for fertilizers, and that hoarded fossilized dinosaur dropping (coprolite). Grinding them to a powder required these tough stones.

During the 1700's and early 1800's hemp was widely used, and this was the millstone. The stone on the right is a properly made stone; the stone on the left was a failure, and broke in half during the making of the millstone. Once the raw fiber was softened and made into yarn, it became material for sailcloth, sacks, and clothes. By the 1830's hemp was replaced by cotton.

This museum had a lot to offer, so you didn't see it all. Our next stop will be the Buddy Holly Museum. See you there.