Windmills

From: Lemens, Chris <CLemens_at_...>
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 13:57:42 -0500


Some random thoughts. This started out as about three lines, but kept growing.

On the heroquest: Millstones often have grooves cut in them. I don't know why, but suppose that it might be so that the ground flour has somewhere to go, or so that individual grains of grain (er, you know what I mean) have some way to move from where they are poured in. I'd think one outcome of the HQ would be for the top and bottom millstones to be blessed by grooves cut in the runic patterns of storm and earth, respectively. The storm rune would move grain outward to the edge. The earth rune would make certain that no whole grains went past the edge. The part I like is that, at some point, you uncover the millstones and - poof - the grooves are there and you _know_ the gods have blessed you.

I like the name "Hiorl the Crushing Wind" or something like that. It gives the Orlanthi feel of directed violence.

Where it is: I'd assume that the windmill is found in the clan chief's stead, along with the other oddities. If that is the case, it would be a high prestige position and the chief can support the people who maintain the windmill are part of his retinue.

The fee: One part in seven seems a bit steep for Orlanthi. After all, you can't make them use the mill. What you need to "charge" is enough to pay for its upkeep in terms of additional labor, plus enough to keep the (fairly minor) god happy. I'd think one part in 20 is enough to keep the god happy. The amount of labor required for upkeep would be mostly independent of clan size (yes, I can see that a larger clan might want a larger mill and that a larger clan will use the mill more. However, once the mill is built, the amount of upkeep will be pretty much set within a range of clan size). The labor will be seasonal in nature. Basically, the chief's stead will need some extra labor to fill in for the family that has to bet the mill ready for use. The labor needs to harvest that family's grain, tend their livestock, etc. Figuring out how much each stead would have to provide is basically a political problem, but would be approximated by (amount of labor needed)/(number of steads).

An alternative is that your miller has some other craft (e.g. a barrel-making cooper) that can be set aside during Earth season, so the clan chief does not need any additional labor, but the miller needs to be paid for his time. In that case, the miller would be a thief to demand more than the amount of food his family can reasonably consume during the year. Again, figuring out how much each stead must contribute is a political issue, but would be approximated by (amount of food needed)/(number of steads). This indicates that it would probably not be a steady percentage of the flour produced. The percentage of flour produced would vary inversely (more or less) with clan size.

Design: If I understand correctly (always a big if), the "horizontal" windmill has its axis of rotation perpendicular to the ground, with its vanes or sails rotating in a circle that is parallel to the ground. Is that right? If so, then you presumably need something to keep the wind from hitting the vanes on the side that is rotating into the wind. From a previous description, it sounds like you build the rotating vanes indoors, with a two big windows (both to either the left or the right of the wind direction) to let the wind flow through the room. If that is accurate, then you don't need to worry about making the windmill rotate into the wind. Just make sure you have lots of windows in that top room so that you can let the wind flow through, regardless of the direction from which it blows. If you live where the wind is not entirely predictable in direction during Earth season, you might want to make certain the your building has windows facing all of the likely directions. I can see an eight-sided building, where three of the pairs of sides are just 15 degrees different from each other. (E.g., sides 1 and 5 face NW and SE; sides 2 and 6 face 15 degrees W of NW and 15 degrees E of SE; sides 3 and 7 face 15 degrees N of NW and 15 degrees S of SE; sides 4 and 8 face SW and NE, but have no windows.) Though I would think Orlanthi would know pretty durn well where the wind usually comes from during Earth season, they might take a year to measure it every day during late Earth season at the proposed site, since hills and such could change the prevailing winds locally.

Use: I also agree that not all clans would have one. To summarize, they would tend to be characterized by:
- magically gained or inherited knowledge;

I disagree that you have to know about irrigation in order to make a watermill. All you need is a dam, a ditch, and a sluice. You don't even need the ditch if your stream is small. Most water mills are not built in areas where canals were needed (initially). They were built where the land tended to fall, making the water move more quickly. (Look at a map of the southern US. The major cities line up along the fall line, a geographic formation where the land slopes downward on to the Atlantic seaboard. This is because all of the water mills congregated along this line.) It might be difficult to find a location, within the clan chief's stead, where the water falls sufficiently to drive an inefficient watermill. Outside the clan chief's stead, it would be an obvious target for that clan you feud with (and for all clans who mythically hate the water, so object to your being tempted by it, or which mythically love the water, so object to you enslaving it).

However, compared to the horizontal windmill described above, you need a lot more knowledge. Specifically, you have to know enough about gears to change the axis of rotation from parallel to the ground to perpendicular to the ground. You probably need to know how to make a clutch, to disengage the drive shaft from the grind stones. You also have to replace rotten wood a lot more often.

More importantly, however, you have to keep the local water spirits placated. I can't imagine that a water spirit in Dragon Pass is going to take well to her free-flowing stream being dammed up. Orlanth's relationship with the winds generally prevents this problem. Even if you conduct regular propitiary worship, it seems like every few years, the local spirits would go nuts and destroy it.

So, I don't like the idea of Hiorl being a water miller. I can see it in Esrolia, but not in Heortland or Sartar. In Esrolia, the water would be one of Esrola's many husbands.

Chris Lemens

Powered by hypermail