Page:Professional papers on Indian Engineering (second series).djvu/279

 No. CCCVI.

ENQUIRY INTO THE POSSIBILITY OF THE USE OF WIND POWER FOR IRRIGATION.

[Vide Plate.]

No. C-133W, dated 19th February, 1877.

Note by COL. H. A. BROWNLOW, R.E., Offg. Chief Engineer, Irrigation Works, N.-W. Provinces, on a letter from Mr. F. B. Thuber of New York, inviting attention to the desirability of using Wind-mills as a means of raising water for Irrigation in India.

I HAVE for many years held the opinion that the wind in the N.-W. Pro- vinces of India is far too uncertain and variable in its strength to admit of its being usefully applied as a motive power.

It blows for only two or three months with any steadiness, and is practically calm for the remainder of the year, but is apt to make up for deficiency of force at other times by occasionally coming in gales and cyclones which would level the wind-mill.

Being, however, unwilling to put forward this opinion officially unsup- ported by any facts, I asked my Personal Assistant, Mr. Nelson, to see how it would stand the test of comparison with anemometrical registers, and append to this Note the results of his enquiries.

They seem to me fully to support my view of the matter, and I would suggest that enquiries of a similar nature might advantageously be made in other parts of India. It would then be known with some degree of certainty where wind-mills could be profitably erected, and the frequently recurring suggestions for their use would either be definitely answered, or take useful shape.