Breezin' through history
Vermont pioneered wind energy atop Grandpa's Knob in 1940s
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A wind turbine is shown atop Grandpa’s Knob in the early 1940s. The blades are “feathered.” From ground to the tip of the upper blade in this position is about 205 feet. FILE PHOTO / S. MORGAN SMITH COMPANY |
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By DON WICKMAN Herald Correspondent - Published: November 4, 2004
Straddling the border of Castleton and West Rutland stands the tree-covered height identified as Grandpa's Knob. Atop its 1,976-foot summit is a sole radio tower where during the summer months, daring hang gliders leap from the elevation to catch the rising thermals.
However, 50 years ago, the view was quite different. The knob's slopes lay bare and silhouetted against the sky stand two steel-framed structures. One featured substantial movement — two large metal blades whirling in the wind and generating wind energy into electric energy. What operated on Grandpa's Knob was Vermont's first — no, let's correct that point: the nation's first attempt at generating electricity from the wind. Modern technology decided to improve upon an idea that was centuries old.
In this age of debate regarding wind generators located along exposed ridgelines, the idea is not new, just more efficient. For hundreds of years, the Dutch, French and other European countries used wind to operate their mills. When these people colonized North America, they carried the technology with them. It took 20th-century engineers to conceive the idea of creating a wind generator; a machine capable of running a turbine with the end product being electricity.
A conglomeration of companies cooperated on the turbine. The Pennsylvania firm of S. Morgan Smith financed the project and Palmer C. Putnam executed the design. General Electric, the American Bridge Co., the Budd Co. and Wellman Engineering also participated.
Several electric companies declared their interest. One was Central Vermont Public Service. CVPS President Albert Cree firmly believed wind power the wave of the future. The idea became reality in the fall of 1939 and officials searched for viable sites in New England, where researchers had decided there existed a "wind energy regime higher than the average of the country."
Engineers selected Castleton's Grandpa's Knob, for it met all the desired criteria of "elevation, exposure and profile." The knob provided sufficient height for wind exposure, yet low enough to be at reduced risk to dangerous ice storms. Best of all, only a 2.2-mile road would be required for construction to the summit.
With the threat of war looming on the horizon, engineers hurried the prototype into production rather than complete more intense testing. They wanted to complete fabrication of the necessary parts prior to military industrialization. Though somewhat rushed, engineers projected success.
In late 1940, construction commenced on the turbine and another even taller steel tower designed to carry anemometers, specific instruments to record wind velocity. A special telex press release went out to all major news services announcing the turbine.
In the text, there was printed a secondary reason for the implementation of this experiment. With the prospects of the United States entering into war ever looming, the nation looked towards securing its electrical generating facilities. Wind turbines could ease that anxiety, as the press release pronounced, "with an eye to national defense, they (engineers) also say that a series of such wind turbines, distributed through the hills, would be less vulnerable to air attack than equivalent generating capacity concentrated in a single station."
To secure the 240-ton structure, workmen first set steel and concrete footings 23-feet deep into solid rock. Then, the assorted pieces arrived by rail and began the tortuous climb up to the top of the mountain. In some places, the grade reached 15 percent. It took 10 trips to accomplish the task. The most serious problem involved the 43-ton pintle girder, one of the most critical pieces of the assembly.
While being pulled by three tracked vehicles around a hairpin turn, lashings snapped and the girder rolled off its trailer and wedged itself into a rock crevasse. Workmen expended the next three weeks rescuing the mechanism with little damage.
The last pieces brought up were the blades. Shaped like airplane wings, the 75-foot-by-11-foot blades, weighing 8 tons each, were towed to the summit before the road turned to mud in the spring thaw. Workmen labored through below zero temperatures and howling winter winds, but by August, the turbine stood completely assembled and all blocking and rigging were removed.
The engineers tested the turbine on Aug. 29, 1941. The blades turned effortlessly and people from as far as 30 miles away could see the massive blades "flail the air" atop the 110-foot tower. The superintendent in charge of assembly proclaimed complete satisfaction and delight in the initial performance. Additional tests were scheduled and the turbine passed each trial. Achieving such success, company representatives decided the time had arrived to place the wind generator in full operation and online in the power grid.
At 7:56 p.m. Oct. 19, 1941, the wind turbine atop Grandpa's Knob made history. The published account on the turbine simply described this momentous event: "There was no difficulty. Operation was smooth. Regulation was good. … For the first time anywhere, power from the wind was being fed synchronously to the high-line of a utility system."
The local press expressed greater enthusiasm over this unprecedented 99-minute test. The front-page headline read "Power Made By Turbine." The story further described the wind blew at 26 mph and the 800 kilowatts of power generated could light about 1,600 homes. The reporter recorded the words of the inventor and chief engineer who said after watching the test, "Completely satisfactory, even better than we expected." The future of wind power generation looked promising.
Over the next 18 months, the experimental wind turbine operated more than 1,000 hours. Engineers corrected various flaws in the system and made minor repairs of cracks in the blades. The blades churned out electricity in winds of 70 miles per hour and withstood gales of 115 mph. The eventual goal was to make the turbine a totally automatic operation requiring no on-site staff.
In February 1943, wind generation ground to a halt as a main bearing failed. Since the country remained in the midst of war, a replacement part took more than two years to manufacture and install. Operators restarted the turbine after its long hiatus on March 3, 1945. One report stated, "There was no trouble."
All proceeded normally until 3:10 in the morning of March 26. That's when disaster struck the turbine. Turning in a 20-mph wind, one of the 75-foot blades suddenly snapped off and hurled off into space. It fortunately missed the adjacent anemometer mast. Now off balance, the remaining blade glanced off the turbine tower doing slight damage. Harold Perry, the on-site operator, on duty high in the powerhouse, found himself tossed against the wall of the structure. After several unsuccessful attempts, he finally managed to manually turn off the unit. Quiet returned to the summit of Grandpa's Knob.
At first light, Perry spotted the wayward blade 700 feet down the mountain's slope. After breaking off, momentum carried the eight-ton blade 1,000 feet through the air before landing on its tip and coming to rest.
The president of the design company, Beauchamp E. Smith, issued a statement explaining the cause of the accident: "The 1,000 kilowatt unit of the Smith Putnam Wind Turbine … was shut down early this morning due to the failure near the root of one of the blades … apparently due to the lengthening of a concealed old crack in the spar of the blade."
In surveying the damage, engineers expressed confidence that repairs would commence immediately. They looked upon the incident as an "unfortunate occurrence" and should not have any "bearing on the general outcome of the experiment." However, optimism turned to pessimism. Over a year later, the Rutland Herald edition of Aug. 31, 1946, featured the headline, "Wind Turbine Being Razed."
Just like Don Quixote's jousting at windmills, the experimental wind turbine on Grandpa's Knob became part of the past. Only the concrete footings remain of this monumental structure. However, history does repeat itself as new and better-designed wind turbines reap power from the wind. Most people do not argue about the attributes of wind power, but where to place the towers — something never an issue in 1941.
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