История компании Barr Brothers: как ветряные мельницы из Эльбы конкурировали с паровыми машинами в 1870-х

And you thought that growing onions put Elba on the map. In 1874, two Elba brothers, Frank E. and Orin Barr, founded the Tornado Windmill Company. In 1875, they leased a building from William L. Rugg to manufacture their windmills. At that time, wind power was used to lift water for agricultural purposes. The Barr brothers knew wind power provided mechanical advantage in other parts of the country. Early in 1876, they designed and built a 60-foot-tall windmill as an oil pumper for a processor in Shamburg, Pa. They demonstrated that their windmill was competitive with the steam machine. A steam machine needed a full-time maintenance engineer, and the windmill's annual pumping hours were competitive with the steam pumper. With the profit they earned from the oil pumping rig in Pennsylvania, they built a foundry with a machine shop in Pine Hill. At first, the community was excited about the new business. Still, when the neighbors saw that the new foundry would be a two-story solid concrete bunker with narrow fortress-type windows on three sides, the community was disappointed and could not understand the construction. The Barrs built it that way to avoid a fire-related business loss. Frank and Orin did their own metal casting by buying the machinery they needed to make bolts and screws. By 1876, they employed seven workers. Each windmill was custom-created. All hardware was standardized so the windmills could be put together like a giant Tinkertoy. The Barrs manufactured three windmills that were designed to power knitting machines in Cape Cod, Boston and Buffalo. They were a sight to behold when the three windmills were set for a trial run in front of their building. The village folk found it quite entertaining. California, Utah and Chicago also purchased windmills from the Tornado Windmill Company. Early in 1876, the Pennsylvania publishing house of Evarts, Ensign and Evarts brought a crew of artists and surveyors to Batavia to prepare the Genesee County Illustrated Atlas. This atlas ensured that the most attractive homes and churches would be pencil-sketched for posterity. In May, the owners of the Tornado Windmill Company convinced one of the artists to add a sketch of their new building to the Atlas. If you visit the Genesee County History Department at 3 Main St., you can see the picture of the Tornado Windmill Company in the 1876 New Historical Atlas of Genesee County. We can thank the Barr brothers for convincing an artist to preserve the history of one of Elba's most forgotten industries. Their company was short-lived. In 1880, Orin died, leaving brother Frank without a business partner. Frank closed the company and went on to do some machine designing for another new industry. The Barr brothers were way ahead of their time, using windmills to create energy. There is a current discussion on windmills today, 2026.