Sailing close to the wind
QUESTION What are the main types of windmill sails and which is best?
A windmill is a simple machine that captures the power of the wind to turn millstones and grind grain into flour.
However, the variability of the wind, not only in strength but in direction, makes things more complex. The windmill must be able to turn in a light breeze and yet be able to operate safely in a near gale.
There is no perfect sail, but patent and slatted spring sails that can be controlled from within the mill are the most sophisticated and adjustable.
in medieval Britain, windmill sails were simple rectangular frames with sailcloth spread across them and held in place by cord and rope. in Europe, the jib sail, a simple triangle of cloth wound round a spar, was popular.
later mills adopted a more adjustable design known as common sails: a lattice framework over which sailcloth was spread.
when the mill was not at work or if the wind was too powerful, the canvas was furled up tightly along the front edge of the sail. when operating in a gentle wind, the canvas was unfurled fully.
As the strength of the wind increased and the mill began to run too fast, the miller would be able to reduce the amount of canvas set.
There were three standard configurations, set like drawing a blade away from the windmill’s hub: first reef, sword point and dagger point. The miller had many other configurations in his arsenal, such as high line and storm reef.
Common sails are difficult to manage in variable wind conditions, particularly as opposing sails must bear the same configuration or the windmill would become unbalanced.
The great innovation was the invention of the spring sail by Scottish millwright Andrew meikle in 1772. This utilised a shutter arrangement similar to a Venetian blind, in which the sails are controlled by a spring.
when the wind pressure exceeded a pre-set amount, the shutters opened to let the wind pass through. Though spring sails are self-regulating, they are not as efficient as common sails.
Patent sails were invented by Sir william Cubitt in 1807. A linkage from each sail to inside the mill allowed the miller to control the sails simultaneously.
They are more complex and expensive to construct and maintain than ordinary sails, so a common 19th-century configuration was a mill with two patent sails and two common sails.
in the netherlands, windmills are used to pump water and create polders — low-lying tracts of land enclosed by dykes. innovative dekker sails are steel plated and of airfoil shape to extract more force from wind; Ten Have sails use a series of centrifugal weights to operate the shutters; and the Fok system has an adjustable jib.
The German Bilau system uses sails with an aerofoil on the leading edge. in France, some mills have longitudinal shutters running the length of the sail known as Ailes Berton or Berton sails.
Edward Parks, Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
QUESTION Who was Muir Mathieson, listed in the credits of many old films?
muir mATHiESon was a conductor and musical director of hundreds of British films. He was credited in most of the top films of his era, including The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), Brief Encounter (1945), Hamlet (1948), Sound Barrier (1952) and Sink The Bismarck! (1960).
Born in Stirling in 1911, he studied at the royal College of music. His break into the film industry came in 1934 when
he became assistant musical director to Alexander Korda.
muir can be seen on screen conducting the london Symphony orchestra in The Seventh Veil (1945) and A Girl in A million (1946).
in 1955 he helped create the Sinfonia of london orchestra to record film music. He made several albums with the orchestra including Gone with The wind (1939), warsaw Concerto (1942) and Bizet’s Suites from Carmen.
He was a great influence on ralph Vaughan williams and Sir william walton. Composer James Bernard called him ‘the tsar of music’ for British films.
married to ballet dancer Hermione darnborough, mathieson had four children and was awarded the oBE in 1957. He died in 1975.
Clive Gill, Wimborne, Dorset.
QUESTION Did the phrase ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride’ come from an advertising slogan?
AlwAyS the bridesmaid, never the bride describes someone who often fulfils a secondary role, but is never the centre of attention.
The expression became popular in 1925 when the listerine company decided to market an anti-bacterial liquid it had been producing since the 1880s as an antiseptic mouthwash.
The advertising campaign used a black and white picture of a sad-looking bridesmaid clutching a posy. The caption explained that, unlike her friends, she was not receiving marriage proposals and didn’t know why she was ‘often a bridesmaid . . . never a bride’.
The advert suggested that the cause might be bad breath, which listerine, the world’s best-selling antiseptic, was four times more effective than toothpaste in fighting.
Sales rocketed from $100,000 to more than $4 million in six years.
listerine’s advertising campaign echoed the sentiment of the song why Am i Always The Bridesmaid? which was popularised in 1917 by Charles Collins, Fred w. leigh and lily morris.
it featured the lyric: ‘why am i always the bridesmaid, never the blushing
bride? ding dong! wedding bells, only ring for other gels.’
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