Daniel Halladay

• More than six million windmills were sold between 1880 and 1935.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  In 1854, Daniel Halladay obtained the first American patent for a self-regulating windmill that could pull water from hundreds of feet below ground. His model was designed to turn automatically to face changing wind directions and to control its own speed. His first model had four wooden blades. Halladay then developed a windmill with sections of thin wooden blades that could pivot to control the amount of surface that was exposed to the wind. These were called sectional wheel windmills. Halladay's factory in Illinois would eventually sell thousands of windmills to the farmers and ranchers on America's frontier.
  
  

Reverend Leonard H. Wheeler

• Cowboys were often hired to dig wells, then erect the windmills that would pull water from them.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  In 1867, a competitor arrived on the scene. That year, Leonard H. Wheeler and his son created a windmill that had a solid wheel in which the components were fastened rigidly. They attached their wheel to a hinged vane to keep the wheel pointed into the wind. A second, smaller vane was attached to the first wheel. A weight on the end pulled the wheel back to face the wind when the wind died down. These were called solid wheel windmills.
  
  

Metal Windmills

• Windmills were once status symbols; the better the windmill, the more prosperous the farm or ranch.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Up until the turn of the century, wooden windmills were preferred over metal windmills. People believed the metal machines broke too easily and were difficult to repair. Metal windmills finally gained acceptance with the dawn of the new century. Metal allowed manufacturers to create wheels with curved blades. The curved metal blades were more efficient than flat wooden blades. The curved blades also allowed for back-gearing, allowing the blades to begin turning in lighter winds than the wooden ones.
  
  

Self-Lubricating Machines

• Federally subsidized power to rural areas led to the end of wind-powered water pumping.Thomas Northcut/Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  The next innovation in windmill design was a self-lubricating feature. This design placed the moving parts of the machine in an oil reservoir. This eliminated the weekly need to grease the machinery. The first widely used oil-bath style windmill was the Wonder Model A made by Elgin Wind Power and Pump Company of Elgin, Illinois, in 1912. Within 10 years, almost every windmill company in North America was making an oil-bath-style windmill. Windmills continued to be important until the mid-1930s, when the advent of electricity to rural areas eliminated the need for wind-powered pumps.