It was invented by Leonard Wheeler, a Presbyterian minister who was working among the Ojibwe on the south shore of Lake Superior.

In 1866 health issues forced him to move to Beloit, Wisconsin, then a bustling industrial city, where he was persuaded to patent the basic function of the device.

[3] Wheeler eventually became committed to the notion of helping the Ojibwe learn the agricultural skills needed to sustain themselves, especially since the fur trade, upon which they had been economically dependent for several generations, was declining dramatically.

The island was not conducive to farming, so Wheeler moved to the mainland, and established a home and mission, naming it Odanah, the Ojibwe word for village.

[4] Many Ojibwe (there were around 1000 in the Chequamegon Bay region) were already semi-permanent residents of that location, because of wild rice fields at the mouth of the Bad River.

The principal claim was for a regulating mechanism to keep wheel pointed at an optimum angle based on both the wind speed and direction.

This was accomplished by the means of a secondary vane which shifted angles, held in an optimum position by weights through a series of pulleys.

An additional benefit to Wheeler's invention, which became second patent claim, was that by a simple shift in one of the hanging weights the motion of the wheel could be stopped altogether.

His third claim was for a means by which to mount the vertical axis for the entire mechanism with a hollow shaft so that the ropes operating the regulating pulleys could pass down to the weights without restricting the rotational angle of the platform.

I have, as yet, put up but two hundred-dollar mills, both of which drive pumps in wells fifty feet deep, and give good satisfaction.

The special claim is for a small controllable side vane, which acts as an overbalance and draws the sail away from the wind in a storm.

Table casting is made in one piece with the cap or bed plate, and has flanges on under side to receive the heads of the posts.

[15] Eclipse windmills at the time were one of the top two brands in the United States and were also manufactured extensively in Germany.

[17] After World War I, the Fairbanks Morse company no longer manufactured the classic wood-fin Eclipse.