Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
Sails of Poul la Cour, 1896-1900
Povl-Otto Nissen
The Poul la Cour Museum, Moellevej 21, Askov, DK-6600 Vejen, Denmark
pon@povlonis.dk
The discovery of the vacuum force on windmill sails super-
seded the idea of making the total front sail area of a rotor
as large as possible. The Danish meteorologist, inventor and
college Professor, Poul la Cour (1846-1908), made a breakthrough
in the understanding of the forces on windmill sails. His research
on mill models in front of two wind tunnels took place over
the period 1896-1900. He developed a concept called the “ideal”
sail. How did he do that? What were the improvements? What
were the consequences? Before his aerodynamic research, la
Cour received state support to build the first electricity-producing
windmill in Denmark in 1891, which included the storage of
wind energy by separating water into hydrogen and oxygen.
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