News on Screen

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 5th Year

Issue

Issue No.

4

Date Released

Dec 1951

Stories in this Issue:

• 1. MINERS’ PENSIONS
• 2. PERSONAL CALL: 2.WE VISIT BLAYDON BURN
• 3. REAPING THE WIND

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: a windmill electricity generator at Costa Head in Orkney.
NCB Commentary - The northernmost regular air service in Britain is the run between Aberdeen and the Orkney and Shetland islands. Leaving Banffshire behind, the plane strikes out across the Moray Firth and heads for the mainland of Orkney, for Kirkwall and Scapa Flow.
The Orkneys are bleak but fertile. They’re lonely islands, torn by the seas and whipped by the winds.
At Costa Head, at the North tip of the mainland there’s a wind research station where instruments record frequent gales of over 100 miles an hour. Day in, day out, the average wind up here is over 30 miles an hour.
Next to the wind measuring pylon a new steel tower is rising. Set 30 feet into the rock, a special kind of windmill is going to go up on these sturdy foundations.
And here it is, perched 78 feet up, like a great airplane motor. It’s a generator, to be driven by the wind and feed its 1,000 Kilowatts into the island’s electricity supply. It’s a slow job building up here - men can only work on the structure if the wind drops below 20. And when you’re up there, even on a fine day, you have to hang on with all you’ve got, and be ready to get down fast when a squall blows up.
The three blades to complete the 60 ft. diameter airscrew have still to be fixed to their mountings. The generator will work automatically, swinging into the wind and feathering its blades and shutting down when the wind rises over 70.
Power from the wind - there’s lots to spare, so why not? This is an experiment, but if it’s successful we may yet see the elements of wind and sea playing their parts in the harnessing of power.

Researcher Comments

BFI sources suggest that this story was filmed before October 1950. The use of the film was delayed because the building was delayed. Commentary recorded November 1951.

Keywords

Weather; Aircraft; Landforms; Engineering

Locations

Scotland; Orkney Islands

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board