A treasure arrived at my office today: Power from the Wind, the definitive history of the 1.25 megawatt Smith-Putnam Wind-Turbine Project at Grandpa’s Knob, Vermont.
“In the fall of 1941 something new had been added to the generating system of the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation,” Putnam writes. “Motorists in central Vermont saw, from 25 miles away, a giant windmill, its polished sunlit blades flashing on top of the 2000-foot Grand’s Knob, 12 miles west of Rutland and overlooking the Champlain Valley.”
Written in 1949 by Palmer Cosslett Putnam , who judging from his name, probably did not grow up sweeping chimneys, this book will probably form the backbone of a chapter of my book. Expect a lot of posts about this book, so you better hope it’s interesting. And some scans of the images therein.
This copy of the book is particularly special because it was held for some time in the Scientific Library of the US Patent Office and bears some beautiful marks of that stay. It smells good, too.
December 9, 2008 at 7:03 am
[...] wind | Tags: grandpa’s knob, putnam | The first thing we notice on opening Putnam’s Power from the Wind is how unenvironmental it is. The people who built the first grid-tied wind farm weren’t [...]
December 10, 2008 at 10:50 pm
[...] built) foreman engaged in HD movie quality heroics. Putnam’s breathless narration from Power from the Wind: At 3:10 on the morning of March 26 the turbine was operating in a smooth, steady, southwest wind [...]