MICROFICHE REFERENCE A project of Volunteers in Asia by: N. Calvert Published by: The Newcomen Society The Science Museum South Kensington London SW7 United Kingdom Paper copies are 0.35 British pounds. Available from: The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings 58 Great Ormond Street Cl, England Reproduced by permission of The Newcomen Society. Reproduction of this microfiche document in any is subject to the saxe restrictions as those e original document. Windpower in Eastern Crete BY N. G. CALVERT, BEng, PbD, F’IMechE Excerpt Tramactio~~~ of the Newcomen Society VOL XLW, 1971-1972 Windpower in Eastern Crete BY N. G. CALVERT, B.Eng., Ph.D., F.I.MechE. (Member) That Crete was a land of windmills was one of the many useful things which the author had learnt from his daughter. As an undergraduate student of the classics she had noticed and photographed the massei windmills of Malia when visiting the hlinoan site. The Aegean windmills, in common with those t f north western Europe could, in modem termino- logy, be classed as full-admission axial-flow machines. Here the similarity ends so far as the wind- wheel is concerned. Forbes* suggests that the Aegean may be a later adaptation of the western tower mills. The western mills evolved through the post to the tower stage and the post mill has never been rcxorded in the Aegean. There are indeed tower mills on the coast of Crete near to Spialonga but the majority 0:‘. (mostly ruined) corn mills sighted by the author in Crete were not on the coast but on the mountam ridges and they were described as “monokairos,” that is they were permomently pointed in one direction. Their concept could be even more primitive than either tower or post since it contains no element of direction seeking (Plate XXX11 (a> and @)). The aerodynamic characteristic of the Aegean mills is in their use of a fairly large number (six to twelve) of canvas sails rigged so that their shape can comply with the forces acting on them. Indeed, the mill inwrporates aerodynamic and structural feanues of the modem racing yacht; that is, it is a fully trkgulated suucture of spar and stay flying triangular sails. These sails, which are capable of roller reefing, are sheeted amidships and the mill sails forever with the wind on the beam. . As a strucune, it can hardly be improved for the efficient use of material. Aerodynamically, the low speed efkiency is high and it has an inherent stability against accidental overspeed. Overspeed is analagous to sailing too close to the wind with the inevitable consequence of the sail being taken aback and an automatic loss of propulsive force. The finely pitched aerofoil, on the other hand (in a windmill context), has an inbuilt urge to self destruction should the restraining load be accidentally removed, a property analogous to that possessed by a D.C. series-wound electric motor. The machines seen in Crete were small by west European standards. The range of size was from 4 m. in diameter for the smaller irrigation pumps to 12 m. in diameter for the corn mills (compared with 29 m.