Stamp of a Windmill in Denmark
This stamp depicts a Danish tower mill with stage or platform. The stage
is used by the miller to furl the sails and orient the rotor into the wind.
Note the fantail on the cap behind the main rotor. Fantails were 19th century
additions to windmills to provide self-orientation. Some early Danish wind
turbines such as Windmatic and those built by Riisager used fantails, the
direct technological descendents of the fantails used on traditional windmills.
This windmill is somewhat unusual in that it has retained its steering
or yaw poles even though it was fitted with a fantail.
It appears that this windmill is standing upon a "kame" or low
hill left by the glaciers that created Denmark. Just as their forebears
used kames to elevate the windmill above the surrounding landscape, modern
wind turbines have been installed on kames in today's Denmark.
The Dannebrog or Danish flag is fluttering in the wind at the
lower left of the stamp. The Dannebrog or whipples (long pennant like flags
with the Danish cross) are a common sight on the Danish landscape.
This mill is famous in Danish history (well maybe in German history
too) because it was the site of a major defeat of Danish forces by the
Prussian (Tysk) armies under Bismarck. I believe Denmark lost most of Schlesvig
in the peace treaty that followed their defeat. Thus the mill is symbolic
of great territorial loss to Danes.
--Paul Gipe
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