Editing Weather vane (section)

==History==
[[File:Romney Ryan RALLY Iin Michigan (7854972358).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Wind vanes feature on small horizontal-axis wind turbines]]

The oldest known textual references to weather vanes date from 1800-1600 BCE Babylon, where a [[fable]] called ''The Fable of the Willow'' describes people looking at a weather vane "for the direction of the wind."<ref>Neumann J. and Parpola, S. (1989), "Wind Vanes in Ancient Mesopotamia, About 2000-1500BC," ''Bulleting of the American Meteorological Society'', vol. 64, No. 10</ref> In China, the ''[[Huainanzi]]'', dating from around 139 BC, mentions a thread or streamer that another commentator interprets as "wind-observing fan" ({{transliteration|zh|hou feng shin}}, {{lang|zh-Hant-TW|侯風扇}}).<ref name="Needham"/>

The [[Tower of the Winds]] in the ''[[agora]]'' in Hellenistic [[Athens]] once bore on its roof a weather vane in the form of a bronze [[Triton (mythology) |Triton]] holding a rod in his outstretched hand, rotating as the wind changed direction. Below this a [[frieze]] depicted the eight Greek [[wind gods | wind deities]]. The eight-metre-high structure also featured [[sundial]]s, and a [[water clock]] inside. It dated from around 50 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Noble |first1= Joseph V. |last2= Price  |first2= Derek J. de Solla |author-link2= Derek J. de Solla Price |date= October 1968 |title= The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds |journal= American Journal of Archaeology |volume= 72 |issue= 4 |pages= 345–355 (353) |doi= 10.2307/503828 |jstor= 503828|s2cid= 193112893 }}</ref>

Military documents from the [[Three Kingdoms]] period of China (220–280 AD) refer to the weather vane as "five ounces" ({{transliteration|zh|wu liang}}, {{lang|zh-Hant-TW|五兩}}), named after the weight of its materials.<ref name="Needham">{{Citation |last1= Needham |first1= Joseph|last2= Ling|first2= Wang|volume= 3|title= Science and Civilisation in China: Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page= 478|year= 1959}}</ref> By the third century, Chinese weather vanes were shaped like birds and took the name of "wind-indicating bird" ({{transliteration|zh|[[Xiangfeng wu|xiang feng wu]]}}, {{lang|zh-Hant-TW|相風烏}}). The {{transliteration|zh|Sanfu huangtu}} ({{lang|zh-Hant-TW|三輔黃圖}}), a third-century book written by Miao Changyan about the palaces at [[Chang'an]], describes a bird-shaped weather vane situated on a tower roof.<ref name="Needham"/>

The oldest surviving weather vane with the shape of a rooster is the ''Gallo di Ramperto'', made in 820 and now preserved in the [[Museo di Santa Giulia]] in [[Brescia]], [[Lombardy]].<ref>Rossana Prestini, ''Vicende faustiniane'', in AA.VV.,''La chiesa e il monastero benedettino di San Faustino Maggiore in Brescia'', Gruppo Banca Lombarda, La Scuola, Brescia 1999, p. 243</ref><ref>Fedele Savio, ''Gli antichi vescovi d'Italia. La Lombardia'', Bergamo 1929, p.  hi 188</ref>
[[File:Cowls and windVanes of Glottenham Oast - geograph.org.uk - 3487216.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Oast house|Oast houses]] have wind-steered vanes to ensure a controlled draught of air flows through the building.]]

[[Pope Leo IV]] (in office 847 to 855) had a weathercock placed on the [[Old St. Peter's Basilica]] or old [[Constantine I|Constantinian]] basilica.<ref>ST PETER'S BASILICA.ORG - Providing information on St. Peter's Basilica
and Square in the Vatican City - The Treasury Museum [http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Interior/Sacristy-Treasury/Items/Museum-8.htm]</ref>

[[Pope Gregory I]] (in office 590 to 604) regarded the cockerel as "the most suitable emblem of Christianity", being the emblem of [[Saint Peter]] (a reference to [[wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/Luke#22:34|Luke 22:34]] in which [[Jesus]] predicts that Peter will deny him three times before the rooster crows).<ref name=Forlong>[http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=Forlong+%22emblem+of+St+Peter%22 John G. R. Forlong, ''Encyclopedia of Religions'': A-d - Page 471]</ref><ref name="Antiquary">{{cite book|author1= Edward Walford|author2= George Latimer Apperson|title=The Antiquary: A Magazine Devoted to the Study of the Past|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jeAmWNkmpHUC&pg=PA202|volume= 17|year= 1888|publisher= E. Stock|page= 202}}</ref>

As a result of this,<ref name=Forlong/> rooster representations gradually came into use as a weather vanes on church steeples, and in the ninth century [[Pope Nicholas I]]<ref name="smithsonianmag.com">{{cite magazine |author= Jerry Adler |author2= Andrew Lawler |date= June 2012 |title= How the Chicken Conquered the World |url= http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-chicken-conquered-the-world-87583657/?no-ist= |magazine= Smithsonian}}</ref> (in office 858 to 867) ordered the figure to be placed on every church steeple.<ref>{{cite book|title= Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0HIEAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA14 |volume= 1–5|year= 1906|publisher= Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art|page=14}}</ref>

The [[Bayeux Tapestry]] of the 1070s depicts a man installing a [[rooster|weathercock]] on [[Westminster Abbey]].

One alternative theory about the origin of weathercocks on church steeples sees them as emblems of the vigilance of the clergy calling the people to prayer.<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=Forster+Circle+%22devised+as+an+emblem%22 Thomas Ignatius M. Forster, ''Circle of the Seasons'', p. 18]</ref>
[[File:Windrichtungsgeber.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A modern scientific weathervane gives the direction of the wind as an electrical signal.]]
Another theory says that the weathercock was not a Christian symbol<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=William+White+%22steeples+may+possibly%22 William White, ''Notes and Queries'']</ref> but an emblem of the sun<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=Jennings+%22innumerable+weathercocks%22 Hargrave Jennings, ''Phallicism'', p. 72]</ref> derived from the Goths.<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=Shepard+Walsh+%22derived+from+the+Goths%22 William Shepard Walsh, ''A Handy Book of Curious Information'']</ref>

A few churches used weather vanes in the shape of the [[Saint symbolism | emblems]] of their patron saints. The [[City of London]] has two surviving examples. The weather vane of [[St Peter upon Cornhill]] is not in the shape of a rooster, but of a [[Keys of Saint Peter | key]];<ref>{{cite web|url= https://historylondon.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/vanity-and-wind/|title= History of London: Vanity and Wind|publisher= Wordpress|access-date= 1 June 2016|archive-date= 13 October 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161013031020/https://historylondon.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/vanity-and-wind/|url-status=dead}}</ref> while [[St Lawrence Jewry]]'s weather vane has the form of a [[Gridiron (cooking) | gridiron]] (symbolising [[Saint Lawrence]]).<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.stlawrencejewry.org.uk/photos.php?pgid=2&photoid=1278087163|title= Our Weather Vane|publisher= St Lawrence Jewry|access-date= 1 June 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Dragon weather vane by Dorothy Hay Jensen 1943.8.8070.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Dragon weather vane from the Index to American Design, National Gallery of Art.]]
Early weather-vanes had very ornamental pointers, but modern weather-vanes usually feature simple arrows that dispense with the directionals because the instrument is connected to a remote reading station. An early example of this was installed in the Royal Navy's [[Admiralty buildings | Admiralty]] building in London – the vane on the roof was mechanically linked to a large dial in the boardroom so senior officers were always aware of the wind direction when they met.

Modern ''[[aerovane]]s'' combine the directional vane with an [[anemometer]] (a device for measuring the speed of the wind). Co-locating both instruments allows them to use the same axis (a vertical rod) and provides a coordinated readout.