| Show weather vane Is traced 0 to times before christ almost ever since the wind began to blow man has had a weather vane there are records of vanes that go back to B C the date of the erection of the tower of the winds at athens on the top of the tower is perched a triton and his wand as a weather vane in the early days writes alice rollins in the los angeles times the emblems selected had some bearing on the ownership of the buildings or the purposes for which they were to be used on towers castles and secular buildings a banner was the correct device while on ecclesiastical edifices it was the barnyard fowl it is said that the cock as the emblem of cherl clerical cal vigilance had reference to the story of saint peter the rules also stated that the coats of arms or crest of a family should be incorporated in the design of the weather vane at a later date ecclesiastical buildings bore the symbol of the patron saint in place of a weather vane the early settlers in america were not long in making an and using dusing weather vanes the first vane made in the colonies was a cock made by deacon shem drown for he new brick church in boston in 1721 this vane was blown down in the great gale of 1869 and was later set up at cambridge it is of note that this weather cock which stands more than five feet and is almost as broad as it is long weighs almost pounds deacon drown also made the grasshopper weather vane for danuell hall in 1742 new yorks first church in the fort had a weather cock and many metropolitan churches have weather cocks as a distinguishing feature of their church architecture |
