Stone to Silicon

Energy · 1941

Smith-Putnam turbine

The first megawatt wind turbine feeds the Vermont grid.

The 1.25 MW Smith-Putnam machine on Grandpa's Knob synchronized with the grid in 1941. A blade failure in 1945 ended it, but it proved utility-scale wind was possible decades early.

See it in the living treeWikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

What it led to 1

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Wind electricity generation Latest: 2.71k TWh (2025) Source: Our World in Data