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A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may be made from a combination of woven materials—including canvas or polyester cloth, laminated membranes or ...
Spring sails were invented by Scottish millwright Andrew Meikle in 1772. The sail is divided into a number of bays, each having a number of shutters. All the shutters are joined together by a shutter bar, and the force required for the wind to open the shutters is adjusted by a separate spring on each sail. Although automatic in operation, the ...
The windmills at Kinderdijk in the village of Kinderdijk, Netherlands is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, by tradition specifically to mill grain (), but in some parts of the English-speaking world, the term has also been extended to encompass windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications.
Sailing relies on the physics of sails as they derive power from the wind, generating both lift and drag. On a given course, the sails are set to an angle that optimizes the development of wind power, as determined by the apparent wind, which is the wind as sensed from a moving vessel.
A fantail is a small windmill mounted at right angles to the sails, at the rear of the windmill, and which turns the cap automatically to bring it into the wind. The fantail was patented in 1745 by Edmund Lee, a blacksmith working at Brockmill Forge near Wigan , England, and was perfected on mills around Leeds and Hull towards the end of the ...
A windmill ship, wind energy conversion system ship or wind energy harvester ship propels itself by use of a wind turbine to drive a propeller. They use wind power [1] through a mechanical or electrical transmission to the propeller. Where transmission is electric, storage batteries may also be used to allow power generated at one time to be ...
The apparent wind on the sail creates a total aerodynamic force, which may be resolved into drag—the force component in the direction of the apparent wind—and lift—the force component normal (90°) to the apparent wind. Depending on the alignment of the sail with the apparent wind, lift or drag may be the predominant propulsive component.
Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation. Today, wind power is generated almost completely with wind turbines, generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid.