PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 43 – THE GREAT DISPLAY OF WINDMILLS
THE GREAT DISPLAY OF WINDMILLS.—One of the most picturesque effects produced on the Exposition grounds was that resulting from the grouping of windmills of all sorts and kinds in competition. From the old Dutch windmill made famous in poetry and story to the latest patented American invention, they were there in the path of the lake breezes, blazing in all colors and whirling away together. The exhibit was beside the pond south of the Agriculture Building and drew an army of admirers, interest in the labor-saving contrivances being by no means confined to the former alone. So general, throughout the Prairie States especially, has become the utilization of the modern windmill as a source of power that competition between different manufacturers was sharp and the display made the greatest ever known. There were wooden windmills and steel and iron windmills and forms and devices as varied as they were adaptable to different localities and conditions. Utilitarian too, as was the exhibit, it was yet graceful, and when the scores of great arms were in motion, something possible at almost any hour of the day situated as they were, the scene had both novelty and animation. Don Quixote would never have charged such an army of windmills as was here. It is safe to say that, because of this remarkable display noted by so many hundreds of thousands, and because of the practical utility of the machines so thoroughly demonstrated, windmills will become more and more of a feature of the American landscape and that, within a very few years, the patent windmill will appear in modern paintings.