Éolienne Bollée

The Éolienne Bollée is an unusual wind turbine, unique for having a stator and a rotor, as a water turbine has. The eponymous invention was first patented in 1868 by Ernest Sylvain Bollée in France. A further patent dated 1885 differed mainly in two ways: First, in how the turbine was turned to face the wind and second, in an improvement which increased the flow of wind through the turbine was added. The turbines built according to the 1885 patent were commercially successful.

Ernest Sylvain Bollée (July 19, 1814 – 1891) and Auguste Sylvain Bollée (1847–1906) took out the original patent No. 79985 in 1868 for a "hydraulic wind engine". Ernest Bollée described himself as a hydraulic engineer in Le Mans, Sarthe. During the 1860s, due to poor health, Ernest delegated control of the three parts of his business to each of his sons. Auguste was given control of the wind engine manufacturing side of the business. The patent of 1885, with the improvements, is No.167726. In 1898 Auguste sold the business to Édouard-Émile Lebert. Auguste is estimated to have made about 260 Éoliennes. Lebert passed the business to Gaston Duplay in 1918 and on 1 January 1926 the business passed to the Société Anonyme des Éoliennes Bollée (SAEB). SAEB erected at least three 7-metre (23 ft) éoliennes. Operations seem to have ceased around 1931.

The Éolienne Bollée was designed to be constructed in a modular form, thus allowing éoliennes of various sizes to be built. The tower could be a standard pylon type, either of triangular or square plan, or a cast-iron column with an external spiral staircase. The éoliennes built with this type of tower have a very distinctive appearance. The actual turbine itself consists of two rings, the first being the stator and the second being the rotor. The stator has more blades than the rotor. A new device added to the 1885 patent was a funnel affixed to the stator, enabling the éolienne to capture wind from a larger area than the rotor, and increasing its speed through the turbine. A small fantail operated upwind of the rotor, and through a system of gears turned the turbine to face the wind. Also, through a counterweight system, it turned the turbine out of wind as the wind speed increased, thus preventing damage in very strong winds, when the éolienne would be edge on into the prevailing wind.

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