In 1888 Charles F. Brush designed and erected the world's first wind-powered electric generator in Cleveland, Ohio. It operated for 12 years delivering 12 kilowatts of power to Brush's home on 37th and Euclid Avenue. Brush's home was demolished after his death in 1929, but the windmill was left standing. In the early 30's Henry Ford attempted to purchase the mill for his museum in Dearborn, Michigan, but a Cleveland city councilman opposed the sale, hoping that Cleveland would save the windmill as an historic landmark. Unfortunately there was no resolution as to who should get the mill, and it was removed to make way for a new road.
Now, with the resources of Case Western Reserve University's library archives, and in conjunction with City of Cleveland's Max Hayes vocational highschool and other area universities and businesses, a full size replica of Brush's wind-powered dynamo will be built. The new mill will stand on a site in downtown Cleveland. As the Danish Wind Industry Association site makes clear, Brush's invention was conceived and created "before its technological time". While the replica will look back to, and honor, Northeast Ohio's inventive, manufacturing past, it will also promote a look forward to the now realizable goal of economically harnessing the wind for electric power.