Poul la Cour?

November 13, 2012 3:31 AM

Can anyone point me towards a good resource for learning more about Poul la Cour's work on wind turbines? Or other historic wind turbine work?

I'm having trouble trying to find papers or resources online, but I think I might just be googling the wrong things. I'd like a textbook recommendation, or a good review paper or website.

Specifically, I'd like to know more about the maths behind the aerodynamics stuff that la Cour did, or the electrolysis-based hydrogen storage system that he used.

Additionally, any resources about early wind turbines would be really really useful.

Ideally I'd like to be able to go through the derivations myself and fully understand them.

posted by teraspawn to Science & Nature (3 answers total)

Best answer: Paul Gipe's book "Wind Energy Comes of Age" has references to his work, but I think the best source might be asking The Poul la Cour Museum.

Since la Cour's work pre-dated Prandtl, the mathematics might not be the most useful. There was a huge amount of dynamometer work done on the American farm windmill in the 1860s, but what I've seen of that was more trial and error.
posted by scruss at 4:01 AM on November 13, 2012

Best answer: Seconding the Gipe, I drew on it heavily for the historical elements of my PhD. The museum guys are volunteers but are very keen and well informed, worth a shout.
posted by biffa at 4:21 AM on November 13, 2012

Just unpacking my books in a new office and am reminded that Peter Musgrove's book 'Wind Power' has a lot of historical detail bout wind turbine development generally. The contributions of La Cour and other pioneers are mentioned but not in huge depth, however the overview is very good and gives a good picture of global development.
posted by biffa at 4:36 AM on February 6, 2013