Windcharger powers farm in Dalbo

by Tesha M. Wiedemann
STAR Assistant Editor
In 1948 a Buick Roadster pulled into the Waldemar and Jennie Lind farm off Isanti County Road 60, one mile north of Dalbo. The car carried a man selling Jacobs windchargers.
Enticed by electricity, the Linds purchased a Jacobs Windcharger Model 32 for $500.
The 72-foot-high windcharger powered the house and the barn, though not at the same time. And when the lights were on in the house, the family could only use the toaster. The Linds owned the only farm in the area with electric lights until 1950, when electric poles were installed in the Dalbo area.
Russell Carlson of Dalbo told current farm owners Elsie and Arnie Stromberg that the same salesman sold a windcharger to Archie Jenson west of Dalbo. He put the windcharger on top of his barn, but used his just months before electric poles ran through.
As the story goes, a fellow from Oklahoma set up the Lind’s 72-foot tower, section by section, in a couple days. Another man, possibly Martin Jopp, an electrician from Princeton, hauled the 1,000-pound generator up the tower with a crossbar – his way of handling heavy equipment, according to the Strombergs.
New wiring was installed to correspond with the electric poles, but the old 32-volt wiring remains in the barn.
In locating a windcharger, care was taken to position it 30 feet above all buildings with a clear, unobstructed sweep in all directions.
The primary difference between windchargers and windmills, according to Arnie, is the generator the windcharger uses, as well as the 16  cell 16x16x16 glass batteries it charged. The batteries were stored in a shed beneath the windcharger and careful instructions given regarding storage and care. The cells always needed to be filled to the water line. Only distilled or rain water from clean boards or clean snow kept in jars was usable as well water contained harmful minerals.
The Jacobs Wind Electric Company, Inc. of Minneapolis boasted it was “America’s Oldest Manufacturer of Wind Electric Plants”.
“The famous ‘Jacobs Master Mind Control’ gives the equalizing trickle charge each time it fills the battery, by letting the plant operate several hours after they are full, before shutting it off. This is the best battery protection system ever developed for light plants. Also it permits the plant to be left in continuous operation (except for cycling) when refrigerators, home freezers, or extra heavy loads are carried, as the Wind Electric carries most of the load direct from the big ‘lifetime’ generator, and automatically keeps the battery full, ready for a calm or low wind period,” stated early literature.
The Strombergs were “lucky enough” to purchase the 175-acre Lind farm in 1968. The farm was midway between both of their home places. The windcharger was still standing proudly above the other farm buildings, serving as a landmark and guiding people to their home. “We called it our lightning rod,” Elsie said. The tail always notified them as to what direction the wind was blowing.
The three blades Duane Lind remembers painting white when he was 10 had dwindled down to two, and the glass batteries were nowhere to be found by the time the Strombergs took over operating the farm.
Visitors who weren’t afraid of heights often climbed to the top of the tower to check out the view. Arnie, himself, made the trek several times.
On Oct. 10, 2002, the Strombergs returned home to find that the generator had fallen off its perch and was twisted in the copper wiring, hanging sadly. Fearing the windcharger would fall into the grain bin full of soybeans, Arnie began making plans to take the entire thing down.
“It must have been an awful noise,” Elsie noted.
The day after Thanksgiving, Arnie took out the bolts on one side of the charger, hooked up a cable to the John Deere tractor and pulled. The entire structure came down in less than five seconds. Although there were no tears shed, the moment, captured on film and video, is a bittersweet one for the Strombergs. They’d hoped their girls would be there to witness the event, but only one daughter made it before fears of how windy the day would be forced them to begin earlier than scheduled.
Arnie and his son-in-law Brad McKinnon dismantled the tower in three hours, surprised that the 54-year-old bolts twisted off easily. “They were galvanized,” Arnie noted.
The steel pieces  are currently lying in the barn and the generator sits on a hayrack. The Strombergs plan to donate some of it to John Hullet of Princeton, who collects parts and equipment for Jacobs windchargers. Hullet has found many in Iowa.
The rope ladder was divvied up and given to each of the Stromberg’s three daughters, Dona, Lori and Noel, one of whom placed it in her garden. Elsie hopes to add a small windcharger to her front yard one day.
The Strombergs are proud of the place in history their windcharger held.

* Article appeared in the 2004 Isanti County Traveler, published by the STAR newspaper.