Now that my new single, When Love Comes Knocking, is released, it reminded me of my love for whirligigs. In this story, the hero, Gil Thoroughgood makes whirligigs and other wooden things for fun. I'd like to share a blog I wrote last year for Prairie Rose about my secret fascination with whirligigs. They just make me want to laugh.
Whirligigs, Love In
Motion
I have love whirligigs
all my life. I remember going up to north central Pennsylvania on visits to my
grandparents. Because of the large numbers of Amish there, handmade wooden
items are easy to find, whirligigs among them. Passing by shops with all kinds of
animated whirligigs brought to life by the wind, made me laugh.
I suppose I ought to
start by explaining just what a whirligig is. A whirligig is an
object that spins or whirls, or has at least one part that spins or whirls.
There are several kinds of whirligigs that include pinwheels, buzzers, comic
weathervanes, gee-haws, spinners, whirligigs, whirlijig, whirlybird, or
plain whirly. Whirligigs are mostly powered by the wind but can be hand,
friction, or motor powered. They can be used as a kinetic garden ornament. Some
are designed to transmit sound and vibration into the ground to repel burrowing
rodents in yards, gardens, and backyards. There are four types of whirligigs:
Button, friction, string, and wind driven.
Button whirligigs:
Button whirligigs, also called button spinners and
buzzers are the earliest whirligigs. They are very simple. Native Americans
designed them with a piece of clay or bone and a strip of hide since 500 BC.
Many children during the Great Depression from the Appalachians and
Ozarks made them with a button or coin and a piece of string. They were
entertaining toys and I even made them myself.
Buzzers are button whirligigs that make a sound which can
be adjusted depending on how quickly the button is spinning and by the
tightness of the string. Button whirligigs are still seen in craft shops and
souvenir stores in the southern Appalachian Mountains.
Friction and string whirligigs
String powered whirligigs require the operator to wrap
the string around a shaft and then pull the string to cause the whirligig’s
motion. String Whirligigs have ancient origins. The bamboo-copter or bamboo
butterfly, was invented in China in 400 BC. While the initial invention did not
use string to launch a propeller type piece, later Chinese versions did. The
first known depictions of whirligigs are string powered versions in tapestries
from medieval times.
Friction whirligigs, also called Gee-Haws, depend on the
holder rubbing a stick against a notched shaft resulting in a propeller at the
end of the shaft to turn, as the result of the vibration carried along the
shaft. The motion needed to power a friction whirligig is very similar to
rubbing sticks together to create fire. Friction whirligigs are still found in
craft shops and souvenir stores in the Appalachian Mountains.
Wind-driven whirligigs
A wind-driven whirligig
transfers the energy of the wind into either a simple release of kinetic energy
through rotation or a more complicated transfer of rotation energy to power a
mechanism that produces repetitive motions and/or creates sounds. The wind
simply pushes on the whirligig turning one part of it.
The simplest and most common
example of a wind-driven whirligig is the pinwheel. The pinwheel demonstrates
the most important aspect of a whirligig, blade surface. Pinwheels have a large
cupped surface area which allows the pinwheel to reach its maximum speed
quickly at low wind speed. I know all of you have seen pinwheels. I used to
make them myself out of paper, a straight pin and a straw.
Increasing the blade area of
the whirligig increases the surface area so more air particles collide with the
whirligig. This causes the drag force to reach its maximum value and the
whirligig to reach its terminal speed in less time. The opposite occurs when
thin or short blades with a smaller surface area are used, resulting in the
need for a higher wind speed to start and operate the whirligig. Whirligigs
come in a range of sizes and configurations, bounded only by human ingenuity.
The two blade non-mechanical model is the most prevalent; exemplified by the
classic bird with wings.
I once saw gigantic whirligigs
in a magazine. One of them was a dad holding a kid as if he was teaching her
how to swim. The arms of the child were the movable part; they spun around when
the wind blew. This thing looked as if it was as big as a billboard. I can just
imagine it on the grassy prairie with the grass looking like waves. I thought
it was amazing.
Some interesting history
The actual origin of whirligigs
is unknown. Farmers and sailors use weathervanes and the assumption is one or
both groups are likely the originators. By 400 BC the bamboo-copter or dragon
butterfly, a helicopter type rotor is launched by rolling a stick had been
invented in China. I have one I bought at a store in Chimney Rock. It’s just a
stick with a helicopter-shaped blade on top. I can used my hands, with the
stick in between and twirl it until it spins fast enough to lift off.
Wind driven whirligigs were
technically possible by 700 AD when the Sasanian Empire began using windmills
to pump water for irrigation. The weathervane which dates to the Sumerians in
1600-1800 BC, is the second component of wind driven whirligigs.
In Chinese, Egyptian, Persian,
Greek and Roman civilizations there are ample examples of weathervanes but as
yet, no examples of a propeller driven whirligig. A grinding corn doll of
Egyptian origin demonstrates that string operated whirligigs were already in
use by 100 BC
The first known visual
representation of a European whirligig is contained in a medieval tapestry that
depicts children playing with a whirligig consisting of a hobbyhorse on one end
of a stick and a four blade propeller at the other end.
For reasons that are not clear,
whirligigs in the shape of the cross became a fashionable allegory in paintings
of the fifteenth and sixteenth century. An oil by Hieronymus Bosch probably
completed between 1480 and 1500 and known as the Christ Child with a Walking
Frame, contains a clear illustration of a string powered whirligig.
A book published in Stuttart in
1500 shows the Christ child in the margin with a string powered whirligig.
The Jan Provost late
sixteenth-century painting ‘’Virgin and Child in a Landscape’’ clearly shows
the Christ child holding a whirligig as well.
The American version of the
wind driven whirligig probably originated with the immigrant population of the
United Kingdom as whirligigs are mentioned in early American colonial times.
How the wind driven whirligig evolved in America is not fully known, though
there are some markers.
George Washington brought ‘’whirligigs’’ home
from the Revolutionary War.
By the mid-18th century
weathervanes had evolved to include free moving “wings”. These “wings” could be
human arms; pitchforks; spoons, or virtually any type of implement. The 1819
publication by Washington Irving of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (one of my
favorite stories) contains the following description: “a little wooden warrior
who, armed with a sword in each hand, was most valiantly fighting the wind on
the pinnacle of the barn’’.
By the last half of the 19th
century constructing wind driven whirligigs had become a pastime and art form.
What began as a simple turning of artificial feathers in the wind advanced into
full blown mechanisms producing both motion and sound. Unfortunately, both the
exposure to the weather and the fragile nature of whirligigs means very few
wind driven whirligigs from this era survive. (A fate my own whirligigs have met.)The
period between 1880 and 1900 brought rapid geographic expansion of whirligigs
across the United States. After 1900, production seemed for the most part to
center on the southern Appalachians. Craftsman from the southern Appalachians
continued to produce whirligigs into the 20th century. During the Great
Depression a resurgence in production by craftsman and amateurs was attributed
to the need for ready cash.
Today Whirligigs are used as
toys for children, as garden structures designed to keep birds or other garden
pests away, as decorative yard art and as art.
Whirligigs as art
Whirligigs have become art. A
number of museums now have collections, or examples in their collections.
Whirligigs in literature
William Shakespeare uses the whirligig as a metaphor for
"what goes around, comes around" in his play, Twelfth Night.
O. Henry wrote a short story called "The Whirligig of
Life", about a mountain couple who decide to divorce and the events that
lead to their remarriage told from the perspective of the judge.
Lloyd Biggle, Jr. wrote a novel titled The
Whirligig of Time as part of his science fiction series featuring Jan
Darzek, a former private detective.
In Whirligig, a novel by
Paul Fleischman, a boy makes a mistake that takes the life of a young girl and
is sent on a cross country journey building whirligigs.
In the Newbery Award-Winning
young adult novel Missing May by Cynthia Rylant, Ob, the main character's
uncle, makes whirligigs as a hobby. After his wife who loved the whirligigs
dies, the whirligigs continue to move and symbolize the fact that life must go
on for Ob. I love this symbolism.)
Whirligigs in the movies
In the movie Twister, Helen
Hunt’s aunt Meg (played by Lois Smith) has a large collection of metal kinetic
art whirligigs in her front yard to warn her of approaching tornadoes. (I loved
her big metal whirligigs. They also made music like wind chimes. They
were beautiful.)
Whirligigs as folk art
When whirligigs became
recognized as American folk art isn’t clear, but today they are a
well-established sub-category. With recognition, folk art whirligigs have
increased in value.
A traditional whirligig
commonly found in Bali, Indonesia is a musical whirligig of a farmer pulling a
bull. They are still available, and are often used in the rice paddies as the
sound they make when the wind blows scares the birds away. An example of this
type whirligig was found near Clarkrange, Tennessee on the Highway 127 Corridor
Sale. It represents an interesting example of a combination of a mechanical and
sound producing whirligig.
This picture shows the mechanism for producing music
The propeller, the Balinese
farmer and the bull are of tin. The farmer and bull are painted but the
propeller blades are not. The body is of hand whittled bamboo, fastened with
rusty nails and wire and a single piece of string. There are still pencil marks
where various pieces were centered and/or aligned.
The farmer is connected to the
shaft of the whirligig by a bamboo stick with an offset where the stick
connects to the shaft. The result is: as the shaft turns the farmer’s arm lifts
from the offset shaft which makes the farmer pull the string which lifts the
bull’s head. The shaft contains a second feature, a set of knockers that create
a bit of music on raised pieces of bamboo. There are a total of six knockers
which strike six bamboo plates. The bamboo plates are raised by placing a
circular piece of bamboo or something similar between the knockers and the
bamboo base. Each rotation causes three knockers to hit plates so the sound is
actually different at each rotation. The knockers are nailed in pattern to the
shaft.
Whirligigs from folk artist
Reuben Aaron Miller and others are considered highly collectable. However,
whirligigs' value as folk art has been uneven. At a 1998 auction at Skinner
Galleries a 19th Century Uncle Sam with saw and flag in excellent condition
sold for $12,650. At a 2000 auction at Skinner Galleries a 19th-century
polychrome carved pine and copper band figure whirligig in excellent condition
sold for $10,925 and an early 20th-century bike rider of painted wood and sheet
metal sold for $3,450. In 2005, a 20th Century folk art whirligig in good
condition brought $2,900 at an auction at Horst Auction Center in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. (30 miles from my hometown.)
I bought most of my whirligigs
for $10-$20 dollars. Those same whirligigs now cost around $58. Just sayin’.
Whirligig Kinetic Art
Public Library, O'Fallon, Illinois
The modern craftsman
There is still a role for the
solitary craftsman, whittler or inventor as evidenced by the following cast of
modern whirligig builders.
Lester Gay of Fountain, North
Carolina made whirligigs from his retirement until his death in 1998. Mr. Gay’s
wind driven whirligigs were made of bicycle rims placed at nearly uniform
height to create a "garden of whirligigs". He never sold one personally.
At the end of his life there were said to be over 250 whirligigs in his yard.
The whole collection was donated to the Fountain, North Carolina Volunteer Fire
Department, which sold them off at $75 each.
Near Plantersville, Alabama
between 2001 and 2008 Edith Lawrence made whirligigs that her husband Gene sold
from their front yard. Gene became known locally as Whirligig Man. Edith's
whirligigs were of the wind driven type, typically of cast off plastic. All of
the proceeds they earned went to their local church. Edith died in December
2008 and Gene abandoned the business soon after.
Mr. Elmer Preston
(b.3/17/1874-d.10/1/1974)lived in South Hadley, Massachusetts worked in a
traditional folk manner, with the classic themes of Farmer Cutting Wood, etc.
Ander Lunde of Chapel Hill,
North Carolina is credited with reviving the whirligig during the 1980s. A
well-known painter and wood sculptor, Lunde won First Prize for a whirligig
sculpture in the 1981 Durham (North Carolina) Art Guild Juried Exhibition.
Lunde received two honorable mentions for his whirligigs at the first statewide
Juried Exhibition of North Carolina Crafts in 1983. Lunde's contribution to the
literature on whirligigs is substantial, with a total of eight how-to build
whirligig books to his credit. (See bibliography.)
The most famous of modern wind
driven whirligig makers is probably Vollis Simpson (1919 - May 31, 2013) of
Lucama, North Carolina. Mr. Simpson has constructed a "whirligig
farm" on his land in Lucama, North Carolina, which has been profiled by
PBS, the subject of an online photographic essay at the Minnesota Museum of
Science, and an article in American Profile. One of Simpson's creations
stands in front of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
Simpson was named the 2012 Arts and Culture winner of Southern Living's Heroes
of the New South Awards. Simpson's farm contains some thirty to forty
whirligigs at any given time, some of which reach fifty feet in height. The
whirligigs are made from castoff metal machine parts and an assortment of odd
and colorful pieces of various origins., He sells smaller versions to the
public, but only from his farm.
Pine Shop Woodcrafters was
established in 1989 in Bellows Falls, Vermont by John Whitney, and continues to
reproduce this early American craft. John's whirligigs are from clear cut pine
logs. All parts are handmade (even the crankshaft), and are individually
traced, band-saw cut, and hand sanded to give them the best 4 season
balance& durability.
Wilson, North Carolina holds an
annual Whirligig Festival in November of each year which includes a whirligig
building contest complete with nominal cash prizes. The contest is judged in
part by Vollis Simpson.
References:
Wikipedia, Pinterest (I did
not, however, use any of those pictures due to the unknown copy rights), and my
own whirligig collection.
Bibliography of books that
might interest you:
·
Bishop, Robert
and Coblentz, Patricia; A Gallery of American Weathervanes and Whirligigs (ISBN
0525476520 / 0-525-47652-0); E.P. Dutton, NY, 1981.
·
Bridgewater,
Alan; and Bridgewater, Gill; The Wonderful World of Whirligigs and Wind
Machines (ISBN 0830683496 / 0-8306-8349-6); Tab Books, 1990
·
Burda, Cindy;
Wind Toys That Spin, Sing, Twirl & Whirl; (ISBN 0806939346 /
0-8069-3934-6); Sterling, New York, 1999
·
Fitzgerald, Ken;
Weathervanes and Whirligigs; Bramhall House, 1967
·
Lunde, Anders S.;
Whirligigs: Design and Construction; Mother Earth News, 1983
·
Lunde, Anders S.;
More Whirligigs; Chilton Book Co., Radnor, PA; 1984
·
Lunde, Anders S.;
Whirligigs In Silhouette: 25 New Patterns (ISBN 0866750142 / 0-86675-014-2);
Modern Handicraft Inc., Kansas City, MO; 1989
·
Lunde, Anders S.;
Whirligigs for Children Young and Old; (ISBN 9780801982347); Chilton Book Co.,
Radnor, PA; 1992
·
Lunde, Anders S.;
Easy to Make Whirligigs; Dover Publications, 1996
·
Lunde, Anders S.;
Making Animated Whirligigs; Dover Publications, 1998
·
Lunde, Anders S.;
Whimisical Whirligigs; (ISBN 0486412334); Dover Publications, 2000
·
Lunde, Anders S.;
Action Whirligigs: 25 Easy to Do Projects; Dover Publications, 2003
·
Marling, Karal
Ann; Wind & Whimsy: Weathervanes and Whirligigs from Twin Cities
Collections; Minneapolis Institute of Arts,2007
·
Pettit, Florence
Harvey; How to Make Whirligigs and Whimmy Diddles and Other American Folkcraft
Objects (ISBN 0690413890 / 0-690-41389-0); Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, New
York, U.S.A., 1972
·
Pierce, Sharon;
Making Whirligigs and Other Wind Toys; (ISBN 0806979801 / 0-8069-7980-1);
Sterling Pub Co Inc; New York, New York; 1985
·
Schoonmaker,
David & Woods, Bruce; Whirligigs & Weathervanes: A Celebration of Wind
Gadgets With Dozens of Creative Projects to Make; Sterling/Lark, New York, 1991
·
Schwartz, Renee,
Wind Chimes & Whirligigs, Kids Can Press, 2007
·
Wiley, Jack; How
to Make Propeller-Animated Whirligigs: Penguin, Folk Rooster, Dove, Pink
Flamingo, Flying Unicorn & Roadrunner, Solipaz Publishing Co., 1993
Two of my whirligigs were made
by a craftsman in Gastonia, N.C.—a huge roadrunner that unfortunately was broken
in pieces by Grandfather tree when a limb fell on it, and an Indian paddling a
canoe that I finally had to bring inside to save it from falling apart.
I have a fisherman and an
airplane made by a man named Berry (last name now lost to me) who lived in Lancaster,
S.C., but is now deceased.
I bought a metal whirligig of a
dog at a fire hydrant that I bought in Raleigh, N.C. at a craft store. It
doesn’t twirl much now because there isn’t enough machine oil in the world to
keep its parts in moving condition, but it will last longer than my wooden
ones.
When my whirligigs are in
motion, my spirit rises and I want to laugh. I love them. Here are some of
mine:
(From left to right) Fisherman, Indian paddling a canoe, and a
woodsman sawing wood
I bought this one in Nova
Scotia. It's sailboats on a re-purposed wire wheel that makes them all whirl
around in the wind. (The bear is actually a little cake my niece, Betsy, made
for my great-niece, Madeline for her birthday)
Just another view of them. This one has part of my whale weather
vane on the far right
My nephews had just stained my deck here
This is a better one of the sailboats and the weather vane
I have to say, this
was one of the most fun blogs for me to write. Too bad I never got a picture of
the roadrunner, which was huge, or the metal World War I fighting planes.
Now you know one of my secret delights.
Whirligigs are love in motion.
Sarah
J. McNeal
Updated Bio
Sarah
McNeal
is a multi-published author of several genres including time travel,
paranormal, western and historical fiction. She is a retired ER nurse who lives
in North Carolina with her four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and
Liberty, the cat. Besides her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of
music and plays several instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and
harmonica. Her books and short stories may be found at Publishing by Rebecca
Vickery, Victory Tales Press, Prairie Rose Publications and Painted Pony Books,
and Fire Star Press, imprints of Prairie Rose Publications. She welcomes you to
her website and social media:
When Love Comes Knocking
(A Wildings Series Story)
A lonely widow…an
indiscretion…a gift for redemption
Blurb:
Penelope Witherspoon was
charmed into marriage by Evan Thoroughgood only to learn she loved a
philanderer, who gambled away his inheritance and drank too heavily. It came as
no surprise that four months after their marriage, Evan was shot dead for
cheating at cards. Since his death, Penelope has come to depend on his older
brother, Gil. In fact, she has come to love and respect him. No two men could
be further apart in character. But, if Gil learns of her secret indiscretion,
he will want nothing further to do with her. What is Penelope to do?
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