Iron Man Windmills...

[rogerluli]

On Hunan News last night we watched a segment about this small American company which is selling and installing windmills for pumping water in the hinterlands of China. If you've been to or watched TV showing rural China you know that a clean, reliable water supply is often simply not available or is located some distance from where people live. This company has been at work in rural China for 6 years helping to make people's lives a little better... B)

 

 

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7986/ironmancf2.jpg

Here is an Iron Man at work pumping water 180 m for a village water supply. High in the mountains of central China and located 2 km from the nearest road.

 

 

 

http://www.ironmanwindmill.com/

 

The company website with a video and photo page for those really interested...

[Smitty]

That's very interesting to me!

 

There was an article in Make: a bit back about these guys that take forklift motors and set them up as small windmills, and of course it showed how to do it yourself.

[rogerluli]

Maybe you have to be a "small ball"* kind of person to appreciate this... But when we watched this last night and they showed women carrying water up the mountain 2 pails at a time with a yoke over their shoulders... and then an older man giving the first pail of water produced by the new windmill to the owner of Iron Man (who's an older guy also) who drank deeply and pronounced it "good water" (in Chinese of course)... it just made me feel all warm and fuzzy... I would so much rather watch this than watch Hu Jintao do one of his "canned" public appearances...

 

 

*"small ball" for those not familar with my baseball analogy... is the art of producing runs with very little...a classic small ball scenario goes like this...a walk...a hit-and-run...a stolen base...a sac fly...One run, no hits, two outs... B)

[IllinoisDave]

Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

As the images unwind

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind

[Yuanyang]

Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

As the images unwind

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind

Thank you Thomas Crown (Affair). Saw the original with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway the other night. I recall that song was nominated for Best Song.

 

But enough of that... Yes! Texas use to be littered with at first Working windmills usually to ensure that the cows had water (a level could be rigged to turn it off or you just climbed up and geared it off), then non-working windmills, now if I ever see one I get misty-eyed nostalgic about them same as when I smell cow poo-poo. Really!

[IllinoisDave]

Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

As the images unwind

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind

Thank you Thomas Crown (Affair). Saw the original with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway the other night. I recall that song was nominated for Best Song.

 

But enough of that... Yes! Texas use to be littered with at first Working windmills usually to ensure that the cows had water (a level could be rigged to turn it off or you just climbed up and geared it off), then non-working windmills, now if I ever see one I get misty-eyed nostalgic about them same as when I smell cow poo-poo. Really!

Here in Illinois the new thing is those big white electricity-generating windmill "farms" that are starting to sprout up around the state. I know they're not new, just relatively new for Illinois.

 

I wonder how long before they start putting them up in China. Seems like they'd be useful, especially in some of the more rural areas. Maybe they already have them. Anybody seen any in China?

[lostness]

Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

As the images unwind

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind

Thank you Thomas Crown (Affair). Saw the original with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway the other night. I recall that song was nominated for Best Song.

 

But enough of that... Yes! Texas use to be littered with at first Working windmills usually to ensure that the cows had water (a level could be rigged to turn it off or you just climbed up and geared it off), then non-working windmills, now if I ever see one I get misty-eyed nostalgic about them same as when I smell cow poo-poo. Really!

Here in Illinois the new thing is those big white electricity-generating windmill "farms" that are starting to sprout up around the state. I know they're not new, just relatively new for Illinois.

 

I wonder how long before they start putting them up in China. Seems like they'd be useful, especially in some of the more rural areas. Maybe they already have them. Anybody seen any in China?

I just read an article today in Outdoor Illinois about how before we go crazy putting wind farms all over the Prairie State studies must be done on the impacts of threatened and endangered bird species to make sure the farms won't foul up the fowl's migratory patterns and stuff.

[IllinoisDave]

Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

As the images unwind

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind

Thank you Thomas Crown (Affair). Saw the original with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway the other night. I recall that song was nominated for Best Song.

 

But enough of that... Yes! Texas use to be littered with at first Working windmills usually to ensure that the cows had water (a level could be rigged to turn it off or you just climbed up and geared it off), then non-working windmills, now if I ever see one I get misty-eyed nostalgic about them same as when I smell cow poo-poo. Really!

Here in Illinois the new thing is those big white electricity-generating windmill "farms" that are starting to sprout up around the state. I know they're not new, just relatively new for Illinois.

 

I wonder how long before they start putting them up in China. Seems like they'd be useful, especially in some of the more rural areas. Maybe they already have them. Anybody seen any in China?

I just read an article today in Outdoor Illinois about how before we go crazy putting wind farms all over the Prairie State studies must be done on the impacts of threatened and endangered bird species to make sure the farms won't foul up the fowl's migratory patterns and stuff.

They better hurry cause they're already putting some up down around where my parents live. It'll be an interesting test case because these particular ones are going in around a nuke plant with cooling lakes that geese fly in and out of daily.