When’s a Gale a Gale? Understanding Wind as an Energetic Force in Mid-Twentieth Century Britain

After the Second World War, British state became interested in potential of wind as an energy source. Over a period twenty years, from mid-1930s to mid-1950s, scientific and non-scientific communities surveyed airspaces landscapes produce first national survey Britain. This work informed development siting turbine connected public electricity supply, Orkney, Scotland, 1951. Meteorologists, physicists, engineers developed ways “reading” that used highly localized geographies topographies, skills local people, accrue data map regime. Though conducted at scale, research emphasized nature wind—how it behaved, how was experienced, could be harnessed—was best understood scale. While science focused on wind’s productive potential, Orkney islanders remained attentive destructive powers turbine-generated support place-based identities forged, part, through weather experience.