As for engineering, to open up half a building with whirring cogs etc, to a gale force wind, could potentially be disastrous and very damaging. There are tales of regular destruction at all of these mills, and ultimately the reason why they became very expensive failures!
Interestingly Captain Hooper suddenly disappeared from owning a big chunk of Margate. Perhaps a disaster led him to leave quickly. He ended up being buried in Islington a few years later.