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by.
Of all the local windmills, the one at Darrington is perhaps the most interesting because apart from the sails and the windshaft, the interior is almost complete, though not intact.
PATENT SAILS
No one is clear when the sails were removed; certainly they appear on the old postcard which dates from the last decade of Queen Victoria.
By the 1930's, however , they had gone. The photograph shows them to be Patent sails, like a Venetian blind, every slat of which could be feathered as the wind increased. Sails like these were often connected to an internal centrifugal governor which maintained the same speed in spite of variations in the wind. the fantail at the rear of the cap was a device to keep the sails automatically facing the wind.
APPLEWOOD COGS
Most of the machinery is still inside the mill, including the two huge pairs of stones, and the giant shaft which transmitted the power from the "windshaft" to the "stone-nuts."
Much of the gearing is cast iron, though applewood cogs are inserted in one of the "stone-nuts." These were a safety feature designed to break off under sudden stress and automatically
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