Daniel Halladay

Daniel Halladay (24 November 1826 to 1 March 1916) was an American engineer, inventor and businessman, born in Marlboro, Vermont, and best known for his innovative self-regulating windmill, invented in Ellington, Connecticut in 1853. Because steam trains required frequent resupplies of clean water, his windmill and the self-regulating designs that followed became an essential part of early railroad infrastructure, particularly in the Great Plains. Versions of the windmill became an iconic part of the rural landscape in the United States, Argentina, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. A windmill based on his invention stands in Ruprechtov in the Czech Republic.