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KF5JRV > TECH 29.08.16 12:57l 52 Lines 4274 Bytes #-3413 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Weathervanes
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Weathervanes
The concept goes back to ancient Greece, where the first known weathervane, a life-size bronze Triton figure with his wand poin
ting into the wind, sat on the top of the Tower of the Winds temple. These devices are first recorded in England in the 11th ce
ntury, and by the 17th century they were vital to ship merchants, aristocrats with shipping interests, and military leaders. Us
ually their weathervanes were attached to wind-clocks, often placed above the fireplace, which helped a merchant or a king calc
ulate how long it would take his shipments or navies to arrive in port.
In England, the rooster, or cock, was such a popular design that the devices were often called weathercocks. For Christians, th
e rooster symbolizes the Passion of Christ, as Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed. Th
e rooster’s early-riser tendency to cock-a-doodle-do at the crack of dawn is also associated Christ rising from the grave and b
ringing an end to the darkness, or good defeating evil. The bird also stands for watchfulness and readiness for the return of C
hrist.
Arrows, like the one attached to the Father Time weathervane over Lord’s Cricket Grounds in London, which signals the end of pl
ay, were obvious weathervane motifs; farmers liked plain arrows for their simplicity and accuracy. Grasshopper weathervanes wer
e a popular symbol for merchants, like the one belonging to Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange.
At first, the colonists in America simply copied the weathervane designs used in mother England, be they arrows, grasshoppers,
roosters, or fish, another ancient Christian symbol. The cock and the grasshopper design in particular remained popular for hun
dreds of years. Esteemed 18th-century weathervane artisan, Boston coppersmith Shem Drowne, adopted the grasshopper motif and ma
de a copper one with green glass eyes that can still be seen at the home of the merchant family Faneuil.
After America won its independence, weathervanes in the U.S. took on their own personalities. Farmers, concerned with their liv
estock and beasts of burden, would have weathervanes made in the shapes of horses, cows, sheep, pigs, or chickens, while coasta
l villages that depended on fishing favored sailors, captains, ships, whales, seagulls, fish, mermaids, and sea serpents. In ad
dition to roosters and fish, American churches were topped by angels blowing trumpeting horns. Some shop owners would use their
weathervanes as signs.
Other American weathervanes were specific to a particular region. In Eastern Pennsylvania, farmers would display Indian-shaped
weathervanes on their barns. The Indian's arrows in...dicated wind direction, while the Indian itself was supposed to be a sign
that the property owner had bought his land from Indians, thus avoiding any raids on his farm.
Some of the most enduring themes for weathervanes in the U.S. are patriotic symbols like the bald eagle, Lady Liberty, and Uncl
e Sam, which were used on private homes as well as municipal government buildings. When the steam locomotive first appeared on
the scene, the railroad soon became a popular weathervane motif—these same train engines were quickly modeled by toy train make
rs.
For a weathervane, whose name comes from the Old English word “faneö meaning flag or banner, to be successful, it must have eve
n weight distribution throughout but an uneven surface area. It also has to have a sharply drawn profile, making it easy to dis
tinguish from the ground and in silhouette. Some weathervanes also have the compass points, N, S, E, and W, in a fixed position
to compare the pointer against.
The earliest American weathervanes were carved out of wood or cut from sheet metal. Wooden vanes were usually painted in solid
colors like red or white or yellow ocher to emulate gold leaf, or in a few brightly contrasting colors. Metal vanes, on the oth
er hand, might be painted or gilded, but most were not. Unpainted iron made a dark, bold silhouette all by itself, while copper
shined in a striking way at first, and then turned an appealing grayish green. Not surprisingly, few of these handcrafted, unf
inished, weathervanes have survived.
73, Scott kf5jrv
KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
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