Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Windmills & Bagpipes

There's a neat story in spiegel.de (in German, of course) today about a company in Massachusetts, General Compression, which has developed a technique for windmills which, instead of driving a generator which has to turn off when the wind stops blowing, drives a compressor, which could then allow for the indefinite storage of pressurized air, thus eliminating the down time which has up til now reduced the effectiveness of windmills. The technology involved should be one familiar to all students of organology as well as fans of Celtic and Balkan music - it's exactly that used in bagpipes, in which air is held under pressure in a bladder, thus insuring a constant supply of wind to the pipes. Yet another example of music in the vanguard of technological advancement.

(I like the sound of the words windmills & bagpipes next to one another so much that I could not help but post this indulgent little item).

1 comment:

Piping Girl said...

What an interesting blog, this post was very interesting. I never thought I'd see windmills and bagpipes next each other either :)