Wind Spinner history from the beginning

The wind spinner has many names. Spinner, twirler, whirligig, twister, pinwheel etc … Its origins begin with the windmill. That is a good place to start our discussion.

No one knows who the original inventor of the windmill was. No evidence of windmills has ever been found in classical Greece or Rome. Evidence shows that the first windmills appeared in Persia around 644 BC. C. to raise water. The path of development to the West begins in Arabia around 1000 AD Then through Tibet, China and finally England in 1150 AD These first devices were all horizontal in type. In this type, the blades or sails are connected to a vertical axis. There is no way it will change direction with the wind. At this point development of the horizontal windmill continued, but a new type of device called a posterior windmill appeared. This is the most traditional that we are familiar with. Its axis is horizontal with the ground and is oriented to a vertical axis within the body of the mill. Outside, at the end of the horizontal axis, there is a unit with four mounted candles. The angle to the shaft was set to allow the wind to push the sails in one direction causing the shaft to rotate. The first windmills of this type allowed the entire mill to rotate around the vertical axis. Later versions were developed that allowed only the upper part to rotate and with the attachment of a weather vane to the rear of the axle they allowed automatic steering.

Later, in 1756, in what were to be the first American colonies, farmers found more uses for the new windmill device. They found that birds and land animals had no use for rotating structures and therefore smaller and smaller versions were built just for the purpose of scaring the animals away. As they got smaller and smaller, a new word was coined to describe them: the buzz. The word is derived from the verb to rotate. Perhaps it was the misspelling of the word with its similarity to the torture device, the pinwheel (developed in 1440) that propelled it to popularity. But before you know it, a host of little gadgets appeared. Including things with legs, arms, spinning or spinning wheels, fast spinning fans, etc. Many were in the form of hideous animal abominations. With an attached weather vane tail, they appeared to be alive. This look scared off troublesome birds and animals.

Eddies became popular again in the 1930s. They were a way for farmers to make money during the depression. After a while, the eddies branched out into different types of rotating devices. One was the pinwheel with its obvious connection to the original windmills that became an iconic children’s toy. The spin of the wind also came out of this. This is similar to a vertical windmill in which a single twisted piece of metal is tilted into the wind. Any little breeze makes it spin on its axis.

The Aviation Wind Sock was also developed from the weather vane look and is used as a meteorological instrument. The Chinese get some credit for the invention of the windsock. They have flown kites since 500 BC. C. Some were shaped like socks with one open end.

Whirlpool wheels or spinners were shot from another branch called wind spinners. Some are similar to pinwheels or the commercial end of a windmill with its horizontal axis. Some are based on the principle of the vertical axis and are generally suspended from that vertical axis which is the axis of rotation.

The vertical axis wind rotor has the added advantage of being viewed from the side or from a normal viewing angle. A single slab of wood or metal turning is satisfactory in itself. But remember the kaleidoscope where rapidly moving pages with coordinated changes in each “frame” created the illusion of movement.

Now imagine a single stainless steel slab cut into multiple rings one inside the other. Then each was individually bent around the axis. All rings are equally spaced through a 90 degree arc. The movement of the resulting structure around its axis would also create the illusion of movement of light from the center outwards. Thus was born the stainless steel wind spinning machine.

Today, with the advent of computer controlled precise laser cutting machines, any design within the limitations of the cutter can be created as a wind rotor. Stainless steel wind spinners cannot rust, making them weather resistant and they come with their own pivot and are available in a multitude of powder coated colors. Therefore, they can be used indoors or outdoors. For indoor use, motors are available to spin continuously. Outdoors, the wind will convert them. They can be hung from just about anything that gives them room to move.

You, your family, friends, and even pets will spend hours observing the ever-changing light patterns.