Energy · 1887

Wind electricity

A cloth-sailed turbine in a Scottish garden charges batteries for lighting.

James Blyth powered his cottage in Marykirk with a wind turbine in 1887, and Charles Brush built a 12 kW machine in Cleveland in 1888. Poul la Cour's Danish experiments from 1891 laid the foundations of modern wind engineering.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

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

Self-excited dynamo 1866
Post mill 1185

What it led to 1

Smith-Putnam turbine 1941

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

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

Installed wind capacity Latest: 1.29k GW (2025) Source: Our World in Data

Share of electricity from low-carbon sources Latest: 42.6 % (2025) Source: Our World in Data