[Illustration:  Fig. 285.  A Clamp.]

The Wind Wheel.

Our next task was to construct the wind wheel.  First we procured three boards, each 3 inches wide and 3-1/2 feet long.  A 1/2-inch hole was drilled in the center of each board, and then, with these holes coinciding, the boards were nailed together, with their ends projecting, like spokes, equally distant from each other.  Six wedges were now made of the size indicated in Fig. 286.  These were made of a 2 x 4-inch scantling, sawed diagonally in two and then planed down to the given dimensions.  The wedges were now nailed firmly to the spokes, as shown in Fig. 286.  For the blades we used six thin boards, each about 4 feet long.  Each blade measured 10 inches in width at the outer end, and tapered down to a width of 3 inches at the inner end, as illustrated in Fig. 288.  The blades were now securely nailed to the wedges, and their outer ends were braced together by means of wires stretched from the forward edge of each blade to the rear edge of the next one ahead.  The wheel was then fitted onto the shaft and nailed to one of the clamps.  In this way it was practically keyed to the shaft.

[Illustration:  Fig. 286.  Wedge for Wind Wheel.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 287.  Spokes of Wind Wheel.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 288.  Wind Wheel Blade.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 289.  The Wind Wheel.]

We did not make any vane for our windmill.  It did not need any.  The wind nearly always blew either up or down the river, more often up the river, for the prevailing summer winds in that part of the country are southerly.  But, aside from that, east and west winds could not very well reach us on account of the hills on both sides of the river.  The wheel was set facing the north, because the strongest winds came from that direction, and as an extra brace against these winds we stretched wires from the projecting end of the shaft to the center of each blade.

A Simple Brake.

A brisk northerly wind was blowing when we set the wheel in place, and it began to revolve at once, before we could nail it to the clamp.  To stop it we nailed a stick of wood to the tower, so that its end projected in the path of the blades and kept the wheel from turning around.  This brake was swung up to the dotted position illustrated when we were ready to have the wheel revolve, but it could be thrown down at any time to stop it.

The Pump.

Our pump was made of a galvanized leader pipe; that is, a pipe used to carry off rain water from the roof of the house.  The pipe was only about 8 feet long, and so we had to piece it out with a long wooden box pipe.  A block closed the lower end of this box, and the leader pipe fitted snugly into a hole in the block (Fig. 291).  A spout was set into the upper end of the box pipe to carry the water to the cask, which was to serve as our water reservoir.

[Illustration:  Fig. 290.  Side View of the Wind Wheel, showing Brake.]