This company was a predecessor of the Fairbanks, Morse & Co.

AKA Eclipse Co.

      The Eclipse Windmill Company is noteworthy for the manner of its origin, its own development and the great industry of today of which it was the forerunner. The Rev. L. H. Wheeler, while a missionary to the Indians in northern Wisconsin, experienced as early as 1844 the need for some power to pump water and grind corn and wheat for the Indians. Being of an inventive turn of mind he contrived in 1865, a crude self-regulating pumping windmill for raising water in place of hand carriage. A patent was secured in 1867, and the first full-sized Eclipse Windmill was exhibited that fall at the State Fair at Madison and sold to a farmer of Albany, Wisconsin. Mr. Wheeler later patented what is known as the "offset link" used in windmill pumps. The firm of L. H. Wheeler & Son began the manufacture of the windmill. To the son, W. H. Wheeler, however, fell the task of developing the business, as the father lived only a few years after the invention was patented. Amidst early failures, incomplete successes, and almost constant struggles with poverty the business slowly increased. In 1873, the firm was reorganized under the name of the Eclipse Windmill Company, with S. T. Merrill president and Charles B. Salmon, as secretary and manager. Mr. Wheeler continued to be the partner to whom is assigned the credit for the improvements of the mill and enlargement of the scope of the industry by the inclusion of the manufacture of machinery and equipment directly connected with the windmill. The Eclipse windmill captured the first prize medals at the Expositions at Philadelphia, in 1876, and at Paris, in 1878.

      With the retirement of Messrs. Merrill and Salmon from the business in 1880, a reorganization resulted in the establishment of the Eclipse Windmill Engine Company, with W. H. Wheeler as president. Then Wheeler added other developments of his own, such as the friction clutch and the Williams engine. The company, thereupon, assumed the name of the Williams Engine and Clutch Works. Towards the rebuilding of the plant at two different times during the period between 1880 and 1890, the citizens of Beloit contributed $10,000." (Quote from 1926.)

      "The practical value of the windmill for farm and many other uses where cheap, effective power is required is no longer disputed. Cheap as air has become a proverb and its utilization for valuable labor in aid of man's work involves merely the expense of the harness with which it is to be driven. It is, therefore, no matter for surprise that the cheap power thus afforded is in demand. Amongst these productions it is our desire to call attention this week to the claims of the Eclipse Windmill, made in Beloit, Wis. This mill is made in such a manner that it can be utilized, without preparation, as a power for elevating water, grain, etc.; for many classes of manufacturing, such as sawing, drilling, grinding and shelling corn, cutting feed, irrigating lands; and, in short, do much work that would be otherwise an impossibility by manual labor or prevented by its expensiveness. This mill is said to be the only windmill that was not blown away or damaged in the two great storms which occurred at the Centennial Exhibition, standing through them both and running through the entire Exhibition, without breakage or repair. The Eclipse Windmill Company builds fourteen different sizes of windmills, a description of which would be too lengthy for a newspaper presentation. A handsome cut of this celebrated windmill appears on our last page, and it is easy to judge of its general superiority by reading the facts contained in the advertisement. Farmers in New England, as well as in the West, are now beginning to use windmills, and we are pleased to learn that there is a growing demand for the Eclipse Windmill. The company issues a number of descrip tive circulars of mills for different classes of work, and parties desiring mills for irrigation, drainage, town or suburban villa water-works, fire reservoirs, railway water supply, or power-geared mills for all purposes can have special circulars on those subjects by stating the particular work they desire accomplished." (Quote from 1878.)

Information Sources

• Poor's Manual of Railroads, V.7, 1874, pg. 63
• The Independent, V30, 14 Mar., 1878, pg. 17
• The Rock River Valley: Its History, Traditions, Legends and Charms, V1, 1926, pg. 415