Jim Sypherd's vision and hard work came to fruition on Friday as the new Massey windmill was raised. Additional work remains on the plumbing and on building a new water tank.

Massey Aerodrome is getting a windmill, the old farm type used for pumping water before rural electrification (dating to the twenty's or thirty's). The tower itself is 47' high plus the mill will bring it to approx. 52' or 54' overall. It will also have an 800 gallon wooden tank or cistern inside the tower about 20' off the ground.

The tower (the mill & motor long gone) was located only 3 miles north of the airport at the burned out old Victorian house on Rt. 299. We reached the owner the day after he sold it and Jim Douglass had to track down the new owner and buy it off him (this required going to local bars and asking if anybody knew how to get in touch with him). We dismantled the tank a while ago and were hoping for a crane to miraculously appear to allow us to take down the tower.

We finally did it the old fashioned way - no, not with mules but we did it without a crane. There had been two main obstacles holding us up. #1. Either dismantle the tower piece by piece some 40' in the air or disconnect it at the ground and pick it up or lower it whole. #2. Obstructing electric wires approx. 8' from the tower. The tower is made of galvanized steel angle bolted together and stabilized with steel cross banding. As a structure it is rigid but once you start taking it apart it becomes very wobbly. In preparation, Terry Thometz had excavated around the base; on Saturday, Jim Sypherd & John Williamson replaced missing or broken bolts and straightened a bent bottom leg (hit by a car?); excavated to expose the 4 joints where the legs met the in-ground foundation angles and replaced all the rusted bottom bolts with new ones to facilitate a quick disconnect on Sunday.

Jim Sypherd came up with the idea to disconnect both legs nearest the house and use the two outside legs as hinges by cutting through the outside web of the two angles at ground level. This allowed the remaining webs to bend slowly and hold the bottom of the tower when we tilted it over. Now we wouldn't need a crane.

   [click for more old fashioned photos]

THE WINDMILLER'S LAMENT On top of old Clanker All covered in grease Up here on the platform With the world I'm at peace Far above all life's troubles Its problems and fears Wrestling with a bent pitman Fighting two busted gears From which ever direction The breezes may blow I'll stay here forever To make this mill go The tails slightly twisted And the sails full of rust I'll fix this old windmill So help me or bust Now the furl wire's broken And the wheel's running wild I'm in mortal terror That's putting it mild Hanging high on a cross brace I try to be brave Should I fall to my death Plant a mill on my grave

John came up with the solution to removing the electric wires which ran near the tower to a pole where the wires made a right turn to the house. John mounted a pulley to the outside of a wooden bracket which we screwed into the pole at the same height as the wires. John tied a roped around the insulator that held the wire connectors and through the pulley to the ground. This allowed us to put tension on the wires so John could disconnect the insulator and lower the wires to the ground. After removing the tower we could then pull the wires back up again. Two vexing problems that could have been expensive were solved by ingenuity that made a difficult situation easy.

Next we put a rope over the peak of the house roof, tied to the top of the tower and a pick-up truck behind the house to lower the tower. Another rope was tied to the other side of the tower and to another truck to pull the tower down (hinged on the remaining webbing of the leg angles). Jim did all the climbing (house roof & tower), I suppose to preserve his reputation as a monkey - for which we were thankful (Jim was proclaimed "a monkey" by the crane operator when we took down the farm radio antenna tower). We borrowed a small bucket truck to get up to the roof instead of a ladder (remember this house burned badly) and to work on the electric pole. Jim went back on Monday to separate the tower into 3 sections and move it to the airport on his roll-back.

Next comes hot-dip galvanizing (we decided against merely sandblasting & painting). Terry Thometz has volunteered to build a new wood tank using the old pieces as a guide. Jim is looking for a replacement motor & wheel to complete it. John Williamson insists that it be functional so he & Jim located the old well head on the eastern side of the property and a hand-pump and freeze protection are being discussed.

If you are wondering why a windmill - the answer lies in Jim Sypherd's vision for Massey. Of course, the airport started as a farm; the partners bought a farm and some of us still refer to it as "the farm". Windmills are iconic of rural America and are still common on the Eastern Shore of Maryland although most often just the tower remains without the wheel & motor. When approaching the airport, Jim wanted everyone to be able to recognize us from the road. Plus we know Jim just likes towers, for example: the orange & white beacon tower (beacon to come) salvaged from New Castle Co. Airport was also Jim's idea. Especially because there is wooden tank, this windmill will be a landmark for the airport - as if the DC-3 wasn't enough. It adds interest and we think it will add to the agricultural flavor that characterized many early airports. But more than anything, we just like to look at it!

P.S. Jim explained that his interest in windmills started at age 14 when he attended Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. While on a backcountry trek through mountain wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rockies (rugged enough that one of their pack burros fell to it's death), Jim and one other Explorer Scout "accidentally" got separated from the group for a couple days. Not exactly lost, just "missing", they came upon an uninhabited camp with a windmill. The windmill wasn't turning and Jim decided that wasn't right, so he climbed up and released the brake or furl. Jim can't remember now whether or not it pumped water but his fascination was with the wheel not the pump. He's wanted to own a windmill (and other towers) ever since.
 

Thanks to: VINTAGE WINDMILLS online Magazine

Thanks also to: Windmillers' Gazette