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Fairbury Windmill |
| The Fairbury Vaneless windmills
were the first mills manufactured by the Fairbury Iron Works and Wind Mill
Company, later the Fairbury Windmill Company, of Fairbury, Nebraska.
They are one of the most attractive and easiest to identify of the wooden
vaneless windmills to be seen today.
The Fairbury Windmill Company had its origin in 1890, when J.H. Seymour and a Mr. Hamilton established the Fairbury Iron Works as a small foundry and machine shop in the southeastern Nebraska town of Fairbury. For a brief time the firm produced the short lived King windmill, and it struggled along with lagging sales for its goods and services. Hamilton died in 1892 with Seymour buying his shares in the business. The financial problems 1893 simply made business worse. Then one day in 1893 John Simpson, an unemployed Scottish machinist, drooped off a freight train in the yards at Fairbury, as he later recalled "just passing through." He walked up to the foundry to warm himself, asking one of the workers, "How's business?" To his surprise the man responded, "Want a job?" Simpson said yes, and the worker replied, "You can have mine." The unidentified man took off his apron and handed it to Simpson, who put it on and never got back on the train. Within six months John Simpson had purchased the entire business from the debt ridden Seymour, reputedly for a mere $150.00, and until the end of the century he operated it as a general machine shop. In 1899 Simpson produced his first windmills, Fairbury Vaneless mills, and then in 1900 he changed the name of his business to the Fairbury Iron Works and Windmill Company. The firm retained his name until about 1910, at which time it became the Fairbury Windmill Company. In 1960 it became the Fairbury Pipe and Supply Company. Fairbury Vaneless pumping mills were made in two styles: No. 1, which was the first manufactured in 1899 and continued to be produced until about 1910, and the No. 2, introduced about 1908 and on the market at least into the 1920's. The No. 1 mills were made in 10', 12', and 14' sizes, but the No. 2 was made in only 10' and 12' sizes. both mills use almost identical castings and wooden parts, although the No 2 mills made after about 1910 used only flat cast iron bull shaped counterweights instead of the spherically shaped counterweights used on earlier No. 1 and No. 2 mills. Fairbury Vaneless mills are not common today, but are easily identified by the bull shaped counterweights often with the words "Fairbury Nebr." cast into their sides. These mills are most often seen on the central Great Plains, although they were sold farther afield and may be seen elsewhere. The Fairbury No. 3 open back geared pumping windmill was the first steel mill manufactured by the Fairbury Windmill Company. The mills have an unusual mechanism for converting the rotary motion of the turning wind wheel into a reciprocal pump stroke that is unlike that on any other widely distributed steel mill. The Fairbury firm introduced the No. 3 windmill about 1908, keeping it in production into the 1920's, at which time the firm replaced it as it's top of the line steel mill with the self oiling Fairbury No. 7. All the bearings in the No. 3 are oil soaked maple, generally acclaimed as capable of outlasting three babbitted bearings. The maker also pointed out the "the wood deadens the noise of the gear, which is sometime annoying on steel mills on steel towers adjacent to homes." The wheel of the No. 3, available in 8' and 10' models is typical of contemporary steel windmill wheels. Earlier model No. 3 mills use a sheet vane with curved corners, while the later mills employ a more angular vane sheet design which became standard on later models. Today the Fairbury No. 3 is no longer common, but substantial numbers have survived. They may be seen on the central Great Plains, principally in Kansas and Nebraska, although they may be seen farther afield. Produced in a great diversity of mechanical variations for almost forty years, the Fairbury No. 7 windmills are by far the most common of several types of mills produced by the Fairbury Windmill Company. They are quite common throughout the Great Plains and adjoining regions and in some areas are the most common seen mill. The basic Fairbury No. 7 mill is an oil bath back geared steel pumping mill manufactured in 8' and 10' sizes with the same size casting used on either model. Introduced in the early 1920's, it was made until about 1925 or 1926. All the variations of the No. 7 are self oiling, with all moving parts operating in a bath of oil. The main casting acts as an oil reservoir on these mills. A galvanized sheet steel hood protects the moving parts from dust and contamination. These mills employ wheels and vanes similar in design to those on the Fairbury No. 3 mills, and all the wheels and vanes are interchangeable among the same size in the variation of the No. 7 manufactured through the years. Thus it is impossible to make a definite identification of any self oiling Fairbury windmill from the vane inscription alone. A Fairbury No. 7C for example, may bear a vane from a Fairbury No. 7AA. The first variation of the No. 7 was the Fairbury No. 7A manufactured in 8' and 10' sizes for a few months in the mid 1920's. The principal design changes in this mill, most of which continued in the later variants, centered on the substitution of four Timken roller bearings in place of the former babbitt bearings, the introduction of a steel band brake, the use of an enclosed swivel just below the crosshead and the introduction of steel pitmans. Following these mills came the model which became the most common and of all the Fairbury windmills, the Fairbury No. 7AA. This mill is very similar to the No. 7A, except that it employs a somewhat smaller gear track and main castings. Thousands of these mills, produced from the 1920's to 1961 in 6', 8', 10', 12', 14', 16', and 18' sizes are scattered across the western 2/3 of the US. The larger sizes are the most common in the desert southwest. Next in order of variants of the No. 7 mill comes the Fairbury No. 7B which appeared in the 1930's. This mill made in 6' and 8' sizes employs two Timken roller bearings on the main shaft, but uses one large babbitt bearing for the shaft supporting its two crank gears. The Fairbury No. 7B Special sold in the 1930's and 1940's also made in 6' and 8' sizes uses straight spur rough cut crank gears meshing with machine cut steel pinion gears. The No. 7B Special uses the same gears as the No. 7B. During the years of the Great Depression in the 1930's, the Fairbury firm introduced two reduced price mills in an effort to meet the lower buying power of customers. One was the Fairbury No. 33 while the other was the Fairbury No. 7C. The latter mill produced in the 1930's was an 8' only. It was identical to the 8' No. 7AA with the exception of its bearings, which are bronze sleeve bearings throughout. The Fairbury No. 33 advertised as "The New Deal" windmill was the principal effort of the Fairbury firm to meet the depressed economic conditions of the 1930's. The manufacturer introduced it as a cheaper product, as one former employee of the times recalled, "to keep the boys working." Discussing the mill which solved the problem, the former factory worker remembered, "I didn't think they'd hold together, but they did. They pulled us out of the hole all right. You still see some of them standing." Not only does one see them still standing, but one even finds them still in operation after almost fifty years of service. They are known to have been produced until after the close of WWII, although soon after their manufacture ceased. Even though none have been produced for over thirty years, they remain a visible element of the landscape on the central Great Plains where most surviving examples may be found. A legacy from the hard years of the Dust Bowl. The Fairbury No. 7 windmills in the numerous variants may be seen throughout most of the western US with some examples noted east of the Mississippi. They are distinctive in profile, with an almost bulky looking head and what appears to be short, stubby vane on the smaller mills. The No. 7AA, of all the variations, clearly is the most common of the mills observed in the field, although the other styles may be spotted by diligent observers. |