Tower mill

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A Tower Mill is a type of windmill which consists of a brick or stone tower, on top of which sits a roof or cap which can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. It is thought to have been invented in Western Europe in the 13th century, a stone windmill being recorded at Dover in 1289. In the Netherlands four mills of that type survived, the oldest one since 1441. The cap of three of those mills is turned by a mechanism built in the cap. Older types of the tower mill could be found on castles, fortresses or city walls with a fixed cap since the 14th century, and are still be found around the Mediterranean Sea. They were built with the sails facing the main wind direction.

The advantage of the Tower Mill over the earlier Post Mill is that it is not necessary to turn the whole mill with all its machinery into the wind; this allows more space for the machinery as well as for storage.

In the earliest tower mills the cap was turned into the wind with a long pole which stretched down to the ground at the back of the mill. Later an endless chain was used which drove the cap through gearing. In 1745 an English engineer, Edmund Lee, invented the windmill fantail – a little windmill mounted at right angles to the sails, at the rear of the mill, and which turned the cap automatically to bring it into the wind.