Beatrix Potter Blog

Weathervanes have been an important weather instrument since ancient times. Even called a weathercock, the weather vane usually comes with a figure which revolves on a vertical rod that’s mounted on a rooftop to point the direction of the wind. The word “vane” comes from the Old English “fane,” that means flag or banner. We have sophisticated weather instruments nowadays, but the weather vane remains as a decorative collector’s item that a lot of householders continue to use for both style plus function.  

Ancient writings from Mesopotamia, around 3500 B.C., offer us the 1st mention of weather vanes. In ancient Greece, the god Triton was depicted on the 1st weather vane to be recorded. It sat on top of the Tower of the Winds in Athens, designed by Andronicus, an astronomer in forty-eight B.C. This ancient weather vane was a combo of a man and a fish plus is thought to have been 4 to 8 feet long.  

Deacon Shem Drowne was the first known weather vane builder in the US. We may still  admire his creation of a grasshopper weather vane, which he designed in 1742, on Faneuil Hall in Boston. Towards the end of the Revolutionary War, George Washington commissioned a weather vane in the shape of the dove of peace for his home at Mount Vernon. Thomas Jefferson enhanced the planning of his weather vane by extending its pole into his home, that enabled him to detect the wind’s direction from indoors.  

If the weather vane was first invented in Mesopotamia round 3500 B.C., we don’t know the name of its creator. Maybe the person belonged to the Chaldeans, who were the creators of astronomy, astrology and the first zodiac. Maybe Andronicus, in ancient Greece, embellished the design. Surely, American weather vane maker Shem Drowne contributed to the look, as did Thomas Jefferson thru his ingenious invention which allowed him to “see” his weather vane inside his home.  Find copper weathervanes here.

Weather instruments come with the hygrometer, which measures moisture and humidity; the rain gauge, thermometer and barometer. Others come with the ombroscope, or rainfall recorder, and a mechanical anemometer, or wind speed indicator. The weather vane has served as an equally crucial tool for farmers plus scientists alike allowing them to tell at a glance the direction the wind is blowing. Today, we have weather satellites and complicated equipment that help weather forecasters to know not solely what direction the wind is blowing, but much other important data.