Palmer Cosslett Putnam (1900–1984) was an American

consulting engineer Engineering consulting is the practice of performing engineering as a consulting engineer. It assists individuals, public and private companies with process management, idea organization, product design, fabrication, maintenance, repair and operati ...

and wind-power pioneer, the son of

George Haven Putnam George Haven Putnam A.M., Litt.D. (April 2, 1844 – February 27, 1930) was an American publisher, soldier, and writer. He was the president of G. P. Putnam's Sons for its first 52 years, from 1872. Biography The eldest son of publisher George Pa ...

and Emily (Smith) Putnam (1865–1944). Putnam graduated from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

in 1924 as a

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

after serving in the RAF during World War I. He is known as the designer of the

Smith–Putnam wind turbine The Smith–Putnam wind turbine was the world's first megawatt-size wind turbine. In 1941 it was connected to the local electrical distribution system on Grandpa's Knob in Castleton, Vermont, US. It was designed by Palmer Cosslett Putnam and ma ...

installed in 1941 in Vermont, the first megawatt-scale

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

project. Putnam wrote on the subject of wind power including "Power from the Wind" published in 1948, with an introduction by

Vannevar Bush Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II, World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almo ...

, describing the Smith–Putnam project. His book "Energy in the Future", 1953, was reviewed in the journal "

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

". Putnam served as the president of

G. P. Putnam's Sons G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group. History The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam an ...

publishing company from the time of his father's death until 1932. During the Second World War he worked on military projects including the

DUKW The DUKW (GMC type nomenclature, colloquially known as Duck) is a six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the GMC CCKW "deuce-and-a-half" 2½-ton trucks used by the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War. Designed by a part ...

amphibious vehicle.

Publications

*1948: ''Power from the Wind'' (Van Nostrand) *1953: ''Energy in the Future'' (Van Nostrand)

References

1900 births 1984 deaths 20th-century American engineers People associated with wind power {{US-engineer-stub