Windmill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Windmill (disambiguation).

A windmill is an engine powered by the wind to produce energy, often contained in a large building as in traditional post mills, smock mills and tower mills. The energy windmills produce can be used in many ways, traditionally for grinding grain or spices, pumping water, sawing wood or hammering seeds. Modern wind power machines are used for generating electricity and are more commonly called wind turbines.

1 History
2 Modern windmills
3 See also
4 More images
5 External links
- 5.1 History links

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

Windmills have been around for at least 1,300 years. The first windmills had vertical shafts and were reportedly built in Persia around the 7th century AD. Made of six to twelve sails covered in fabric or palm leaves, they were used to grind corn and draw up water. A similar type of vertical shaft windmill can also be found in 13th century China.

[edit] In Europe

A Dutch windmill surrounded by tulips

In Europe, windmills were developed in the Middle Ages. The earliest mills were probably grinding mills. They were mounted on city walls and could not be turned into the wind. The earliest known examples date from early 12th century Paris. Because fixed mills did not suffice for regions with changing wind directions, the post mill was developed so named because of the large upright post on which the mill's main structure (the "body" or "buck") is balanced. By mounting the body this way, the mill is able to rotate to face the (variable) wind direction. The Post Mill was soon improved upon by the Smock mill , on which only the cap rotated rather than the whole body of the mill, it did so automatically due to the tail. Due to the fact that only the cap of the smock mill needed to be turned the base could be made far larger, enabling the sails to catch more wind and be made longer. With some subsequent development mills became versatile in windy regions for all kind of industry, most notably grain grinding mills, sawmills (late 16th century), threshing, and, by applying Archimedes' screws, pumping mills.

Muttons Mill, one of the many drainage windpumps on the Norfolk Broads (United Kingdom)

With the industrial revolution, the importance of windmills as primary industrial energy source was replaced by steam and internal combustion engines. Polder mills were replaced by steam, or diesel engines. The industrial revolution and increased use of Steam and later Diesel power however had a lesser effect on the Mills of the Norfolk Broads in the United Kingdom, these being so isolated (on extensive uninhabitable marshland), therefore some of these mills continued use as drainage pumps till as late as 1959. More recently historic windmills are being preserved for their historic value, which requires regular use because the wooden machinery is likely to be destroyed by woodworm and dry rot when the mill remains stationary for too long.

With increasing environmental concern, and approaching limits to fossil fuel consumption, wind power has regained interest as a renewable energy source. This new generation of wind mills produce electric power and are more generally referred to as wind turbines.

See Flood control in the Netherlands for use of windmills in land reclamation in the Netherlands.

[edit] In the United States

Farm windmill, Sheridan County, Kansas, USA, 1939

The development of the water-pumping windmill in the USA was the major factor in allowing the farming and ranching of vast areas of North America, which were otherwise devoid of readily accessible water. They contributed to the expansion of rail transport systems throughout the world, by pumping water from wells to supply the needs of the steam locomotives of those early times. They are still used today for the same purpose in some areas of the world where a connection to electric power lines is not a realistic option.

The multi-bladed wind turbine atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel was, for many years, a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America. These mills, made by a variety of manufacturers, featured a large number of blades so that they would turn slowly but with considerable torque in low winds and be self regulating in high winds. A tower-top gearbox and crankshaft converted the rotary motion into reciprocating strokes carried downward through a pole or rod to the pump cylinder below.

Windmills and related equipment are still manufactured and installed today on farms and ranches, usually in remote parts of the western United States where electric power is not readily available. The arrival of electricity in rural areas, brought by the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in the 1930s through 1950s, contributed to the decline in the use of windmills in the US. Today, the increases in energy prices and the expense of replacing electric pumps has led to an increase in the repair, restoration and installation of new windmills.

In the heyday of the windmill, there were thousands of windmill manufacturers in the United States; today, Aermotor Windmill is the only manufacturer of conventional windmills left in the USA. GE Energy, a unit of General Electric, manufactures windmills for electricity generation.[1]

[edit] Modern windmills

Modern windmill in Aalborg, Denmark

Modern Windmills are properly called wind turbines or wind generators and are operated to generate electricity.

[edit] See also

[edit] More images

Pitstone Windmill, believed to be the oldest windmill in the British Isles	Windmills of Western Siberia, taken by Prokudin-Gorskii, c. 1910	The windmills of Kinderdijk, the Netherlands	Mediterranean style windmill used for cereal milling (Portugal)
Double windmill and common Aeromotor windmill in Texas	The middle-18th-century windmill of Nesebar, Bulgaria	A Tower Windmill located in the village of Weybourne, North Norfolk, England