unexpected location

[stuck]

A windmill in the middle of a housing estate in York.

Ken

[HansV]

A windmill with 5 sails - that's unusual!

[stuck]

A windmill with 5 sails - that's unusual!

he says calmly, glossing over the fact it sits on a small roundabout surrounded by houses, which to my non-Dutch mind is what makes it really unusual.



Ken

[HansV]

Windmills in city neighbourhoods are not unusual in The Netherlands...

[John Gray]

It looks as though the sails turn anticlockwise when viewed from the front.
Did you ask the chaps there if they knew why?

[BobH]

My guess is that it produces electricity, no?

[stuck]

Windmills in city neighbourhoods are not unusual in The Netherlands...

Precisely my point Over here they are rare anywhere so we are impressed just by seeing one and miss the finer points of the design of the thing.

It looks as though the sails turn anticlockwise when viewed from the front.
Did you ask the chaps there if they knew why?

See? Something else unusual that I missed so no, I didn't ask.

My guess is that it produces electricity, no?

No, it makes flour.

Ken

[PaulB]

It looks as though the sails turn anticlockwise when viewed from the front.
Did you ask the chaps there if they knew why?

Because it's on an English roundabout as opposed to a Dutch roundabout?

[StuartR]

My guess is that it produces electricity, no?

According to the link above...

York’s last surviving windmill and the oldest 5-sailed windmill in the country is now fully restored and producing traditional stone-ground flour.

[BobH]

What clues tell the observer that the sails turn anti-clockwise (counter-clockwise in the US)?

[StuartR]

What clues tell the observer that the sails turn anti-clockwise (counter-clockwise in the US)?

Widdershins in some parts of the UK

[BobH]

Thanks, Stuart! I don't think I've ever encountered the term 'widdershins.'

I didn't see how one determines widdershins movement in a set of windmill sails, though.

[John Gray]

What clues tell the observer that the sails turn anti-clockwise (counter-clockwise in the US)?

Often the leading edge of the sails is made of heavier wood than the trailing edge. On the Holgate windmill that doesn't seem to be the case - I was inferring the direction of rotation from the angle of the sails. You will note that there is also a difference in the width of each half of the sails...

[BobH]

Thanks, John!

My knowledge of aerodynamics is limited.