Wind spinners can be a do-it-yourself project or a high-dollar piece of art. Using one in the backyard gives motion to the area giving a calm feeling. The wind or breeze is now something you can see. In the garden, the movement helps keep the birds and animals away. In the flowerbed, the colorful glass ones can reflect color among the flowers.
Wind spinners, twirlers, pinwheel’s idea most likely comes from the design of a windmill. Windmills were developed in Persia around 500 BC to raise water. In the United States, early colonial farmers found small versions of the wind spinners that kept wild animals away and started calling them whirlygigs. The Dutch Americans started to design sound into them (like a fan with a farmer chopping wood) to better scare the animals. Whirlygigs became popular when farmers in the 1930s started to make them for city people as a way of making money.
