Smith-Putnam Industrial Photos
Updated January 16, 2011
These industrial photos of the construction of the Smith-Putnam wind turbine came into my possession in the 1970s. Carl Wilcox gave me a box containing these photos and other artifacts after I had interviewed him about his work with Palmer Putnam and the Smith Company. Carl lived in York, Pennsylvania where the Smith hydro company had been located. I lived nearby at the time in the state capital of Harrisburg.
The Smith-Putnam wind turbine was the largest in the world until the Mod series of machines in the 1980s in the USA and the Growian in Germany. The turbine was installed atop Grandpa's Knob near Rutland, Vermont in the early 1940s.
Here's what I had to say about it in my 1995 book.
". . . Both styles of development can be traced to World War II. On one side of the Atlantic, Palmer Putnam assembled a talented team of engineers and academics to build a giant wind turbine 53 meters (175 feet) in diameter for the S. Morgan Smith Co., a manufacturer of hydroelectric turbines. The 1.25 MW Smith-Putnam turbine became a technological guidepost pointing the way to subsequent American downwind designs of large wind turbines. . .
". . . In contrast to Juul's measured development and Hütter's use of previous wind turbine experimentation, Putnam, with no prior experience, leaped from the small battery-charging machines then in use on the American Great Plains to a multi-megawatt machine.
Of the three, Putnam was the most unsuccessful. His machine threw a blade in 1945 and was dismantled. Only dusty photos remain of Putnam's bold effort. . ."
The photos below were glued to leaves in a large format album. Each is numbered. With the exception of those obviously in Vermont, the photos were likely taken in either the Budd Co.'s shop near Philadelphia or the Smith Co.'s plant in York.
My thanks to Howard Mayo of York, Pennsylvania for the photo captions below.
Howard Mayo's family was closely connected to the Smith-Putnam project. Howard's father negotiated the contract with Central Vermont, the local utility, for the delivery of the electricity from the turbine. His mother took a 16 mm film of the project, a portion of which was used by General Electric in a recent advertising campaign. Howard himself presented a prescient technical paper in 1945 predicting that if the wind turbines were built by the hundreds and located along mountain ridges with remote control and scheduled maintenance they might become economical.
Howard donated the two wooden models of the Smith-Putnam turbine that were in his family's possession to York's Heritage Trust Museum. The museum also houses files on the Smith-Putnam turbine, including the files of Carl Wilcox.
If anyone has further information or details on the project not found in Palmer Putnam's book or in the captions, please contact me and I'll further update this page.
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1. Smith-Putnam Wind Turbine ready for testing at Grandpa's Knob, Vermont. This 1250 KW unit with 175 foot diameter of blade tips was the world's first megawatt-size wind turbine in 1941. Photo by Grant H. Voaden, Assistant Chief Engineer for the project. |
2. View of Wind Turbine tower, blade and generator platform from the ground with the erection crane boom on the right. Tower 110 feet high, weight 125 tons, weight aloft 240 tons. Tower was erected by American Bridge Co. of Ambridge, PA. |
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3. Huge open-end wrench lifted by shop crane. Where and how this wrench was used is unknown at present. |
4. Shop assembly of upper section of support tower which contained the thrust bearing and pintle support. |
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5. Machining one half of a shaft coupling on a vertical boring mill. |
6. Welding one half of a tower flange mounted on a welding positioner. |
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7. Platform assembly on the weld shop floor at S. Morgan Smith Co., York, PA. |
8. Shop assembly of the upper section of the support tower with access walkway. |
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9. Upper section of support tower with pintle extending from the top. |
10. Switchgear cabinet with local control switches by General Electric Co. |
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11. Governor oil piping and isolation valves by Woodward Governor Co., Rockford, IL |
12. Torque tube for changing blade pitch within A-frame which permits coning the blades. |
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13. Workmen at Budd Manufacturing Co. working on a blade skeleton. |
14. Assembled blade viewed from trunnion end showing airfoil shape. |
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15. Skeleton structure of a blade before skin plates are riveted in place and without box girder. |
16. Partial assembly of skin plates onto skeleton frame of blade viewed from trunnion end. |
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17. Skeleton assembly of blade showing internal bracing and box girder that transmits wind load to A-frame. |
18. Jig facilitates continual checking of blade straightness and curvatures as assembly progresses. |
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19. Internal plates help stiffen the Wind Turbine blades and transmit the wind load to the box girder. |
20. A completed Wind Turbine blade loaded for shipment. Dent in end appears to be accidental damage. |
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21. Completed support tower with generator platform and housing attached. Erection crane frame is in foreground with boom extending skyward. |
22. Erection crane lifting generator platform in preparation to lowering onto pintle presumably on a windless day. |
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23. Blade coning A-frame viewed from the side while assembled with the shaft axis vertical. |
24. Completed sub assembly with riveted construction necessitated by War time constraints on use and supplies of weld rods. |
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25. Riveted construction assembly was complicated, time consuming and expensive. |
26. Installing shaft into housing with crane support plus two men lifting end and one pushing or pounding |
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27. Generator platform on one side in shop. Probably took up less room. |
28. Generator platform in normal position on shop floor. |
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29. Welded plate steel housing with extensions pre drilled for rivets. |
30. A-frame resting on boring mill table. Likely for temporary storage. |
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31. Welded box structure with white washed areas to facilitate drill hole layout with scribed lines. |
32. . Internal machining of coupling on a horizontal boring machine. |
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33. Lower half of fabricated steel three stage speed increaser. Input about 28.7 RPM and output up to 625 RPM with a gear ration of about 1 to 21. |
34. Wind Turbine shaft on horizontal planer. This appears to be an unusual use for a planer, possibly necessitated by machine tool loads. |
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35. Two Wind Turbine blades on temporary shop supports prior to shipment to Vermont. |
36. Spur gear in shop prior to assembly in housing. |
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37. Wind Turbine model showing a blade stub, A-frame with support, shaft extension with link to A-frame, upper tower section with access walkway and generator platform on right with model base and platform support. |
38. Wind Turbine model from generator platform end. On left is generator then hydraulic coupling and gear-box / speed increaser. Then governor oil pressure tank and piping before upper support tower with railing. |
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39. Temporary clamps holding Wind Turbine box girder to torque shaft during alignment adjustments and checks. |
40. Final connection between blade box girder and torque shaft. |
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41. Generator platform on one side viewed from top with upper end of pintle showing in foreground. |
42. View from under side of generator platform with pintle extending forward to left. Bearing surface has lagging protection. |
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43. . Pinion gear supported by wood horse with bull gear directly connected on right. |
44. Low speed bull gear directly connected to main Wind Turbine shaft half coupling. |
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45. Generator platform from below showing yawing pinion and adjacent large drive gear operated from above by an hydraulic motor. |
46. Outboard bearing on blade shaft adjacent to blade box girder connection. |
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47. Partial shop assembly of generator platform with main shaft, down wind main bearing, upwind main bearing and Woodward governor pressure tank. |
48. Fabricated steel speed increaser housing from low speed drive end. Auxiliary drive gear is beside the coupling flange. |
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49. A-frame prior to assembly with drive cross arm on shop floor. Two blades in background, with shaft extensions and universal joint. |
50. Smith-Putnam Wind Turbine model side view shows hydraulic cylinder under extension off A-frame cross arm. Speed increaser is shown as a single housing with hydraulic coupling before the generator. |
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51. Wind Turbine blade from outer end. Shop assembly with A-frames and coning dampening mechanism. |
52. View from above with motor driven governor oil pump on left, speed increaser in middle and generator on right. |
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53. View from above A-frame assembly with center drive box section, main shaft and down-wind main bearing. |
54. Shop assembly of both blades, A-frames, shaft, bearings, gear box and generator, with shaft horizontal. |
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55. A-frames assembled on shop floor with coning cylinders on each side of center extension. |
56. A- frame assembly from an up wind angle with one blade attached. Coning link truss construction is clearer. |
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57. Generator platform shop assembly with down-wind main bearing on left, main shaft, up-wind main bearing under governor oil pump and motor and speed increaser on right. |
58. Shop assembly with blades faired and A-frames on the right side of picture. |
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59. Looking up-wind from blades, governor pressure tank in middle with oil pump and motor at top right over governor. |
60. Close-up view of flange connection to torque tube for adjusting blade pitch angle. |
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61. Pivoted hydraulic cylinder used to dampen coning of blades due to wind gusts. Located on both sides of tail piece. |
62. Blade positioning gear with both motor or manual drives on far side. On right is flexible coupling before hydraulic coupling. |
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63. Far side of blade positioning gear with motor driven pinion gear and manual cranks in front of flexible coupling. |
64. Stanton Dornbirer briefing Palmer Putnam manager of the Smith-Putnam Wind-Turbine Project in the Boston, MA office of S. Morgan Smith Co. at 176 Federal Street. |
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65. Hauling one blade up the construction road to the installation site required great care. |
66. Another view of Wind Turbine blade mounted on a flat bed trailer with anemometer mast, crane and tower in background. |
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67. Turning from the main road onto the construction road required careful attention to the blade overhang to miss utility poles. |
68. Wind-turbine blade shape and internal bracing was very similar to that of an airplane wing. |
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69. Fixture used for checking alignment of individual blade sections prior to application of skin plates. |
70. Main shaft with up-wind main bearing and Oldham coupling in foreground. |
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