Putnam, Palmer Coslett
From The Encyclopedia of Earth
Energy People (main)
August 27, 2008, 2:58 am
Palmer Coslett Putnam (1900- ), an American wind energy pioneer who conducted the nation's first great experiment in converting energy from wind atop Grandpa's Knob, Vermont to useful power (1941). Putnam's wind turbine was a 1.25-megawatt machine, had a horizontal-axis design, and featured a two-bladed, 175-foot diameter rotor oriented down-wind of the tower. It was the first turbine in the world to break the 1 MW barrier, and it fed energy into the New England utility power system. In 1945, one of the blades broke off near the hub, apparently a result of metal fatigue.
