Flagpole Sends Old Glory Up Every Day

Flagpole Sends Old Glory Up Every Day FARM HOME Miscellaneous 9-2-31 Daily patriotism comes easy for Duane Sorbin, Bottineau, N. Dak., who's designed an automatic flag-pole that sends up a huge 8 by 12-ft. flag every morning and lowers it at sunset. Sorbin built the 55-ft. tall flagpole in his farm shop after he tired of raising and lowering the flag every day on the old pole. His automatic flag is powered by a 1/4-hp. electric motor channeled through a 30:1 reduction gearbox with a double output shaft. The shafts power pulleys that run 1/4-in. dia. aircraft cable up and down the pole. Three relays and a pair of limit switches control movement of the flag. An electric eye, the same used to control mercury vapor lights in farm yards, activates the motor. All electric components are housed in a metal box at the base of the pole. The pole itself consists of 40 ft. of 4¢-in. dia. drill stem at the bottom and 15 ft. of 2 7/8-in. rod at the top. A 20-ft. long piece of 6-in. dia. PVC plastic pipe attaches to the bottom of the pole and it's into this protective pipe that the flag is lowered each evening. The cable simply pulls the large flag down into the pipe. In the morning, it pulls it back out again. Perched on top of the flagpole is an American eagle with a 2-ft. wing span. Sorbin purchased the eagle, along with the large flag, at a flag supply store. In addition to raising and lowering itself morning and night, the flagpole also automatically retracts its flag if winds get too strong. Sorbin made a mechanical sensor that will retract the flag if winds reach 25 mph and stay there for 3 min. or more. Sorbin can also control movement of the flag from his house 80 ft. away. Sorbin figured the flagpole out without putting any details on paper. "All my friends were happy when I got the flag up because I quit talking about it." For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Duane Sorbin, Rt. 2, Box 77A, Bottineau, N. Da. 58318 (ph 701 228-3325).

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