Anyone for a Brumble?

[RichardL]

It took a full day by motorbike to do a dam and windmill run. We had 27 windmills, which was a lot for the region, and very necessary in the semi-arid climate (average annual rainfall 12").

Well, this will take the topic far astray, but hoping this small and unnecessary aside will be minutely interesting (to Richard, at least).

Your avatar picture seems to show a windmill very similar to those in the States by the Aermotor Company. By coincidence, one of our projects at University of Chicago was built in 1916 in memory of Ida Noyes, the late wife of La Verne Noyes, founder of the Aermotor Company. Talk about your six (hundred) degrees of separation.  

Richard L.

[bsa-bill]

We have these in UK as well, two used to be close to me one on the A1 between Berwick and Belford and one on the farm/estate I work on. used for  pumping water out of bore holes, no longer there.
They had a sort of rack and pinion system to work a pump in the hole, the pinion lifted the rack up then somehow released it so it fell down then it lifted it again, wish I'd photod it before they allowed to fall to pieces - shame as they worked for free

[WozzA]

Richard...   I always wondered about the significance of your Orabanda signature..   makes sense now..  & a brief history of the Southern Cross windmill >>  http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~hdpump/sample.html

Here is a picture of my friends Grandfather taken on their property up in the Gulf country many many moons ago..