Canals and waterways--- In [email protected], "Brian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Could this be a case of one arm being removed for maintenance > > -- > Brian from Sunny Suffolk > That would have left three sails visible. I suppose they could have taken two opposite sails off to keep a balance.
GrahamS A good many years ago I read a book on windmills which included successive photos of various mills in increasing states of dereliction. Often a mill originally with four sails went down to two, with only the shaft from the other two, and then lost the remaining sails, retaining both shafts, or retained only one shaft and its sails. The most frequent design was a cast-iron boss, with two rectangular sockets at right-angles, with the sail shafts passing through these sockets; the sail timbers (IIRC called 'whips') being bolted to these shafts. As the whole assembly involves iron and timber with traps for rain-water and under considerable weather stress, it's very prone to rot, rust and breakage, and during the period when windmills were losing economic viability, to 'repair by removal'. (Post-mills were liable to similar problems affecting their main post, and the book contained some spectacular photos of mills which had blown over in bad weather due to structural failure). Sean
