Existing comment:
Improved windmill patent model
1878
patented by Jesse Benson
Taking advantage of wind as a free source of power was not new to the United States, but 19th-century American inventors did develop an American-style windmill that pumped underground water to arid fields and helped open up new lands to agricultural development. With this patent, Jesse Benson proposed a simplified windmill made all of sheet metal with few moving parts, due to "their liability to become frozen together by ice and sleet." |