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PowerPedia:Windmill

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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 properly called wind turbines.

Table of contents
1 History

1.1 Early history
1.2 In Europe
1.3 In the United States

2 List of windmills

2.1 Collections
2.2 By country

2.2.1 Germany
2.2.2 United Kingdom

3 England

3.1 Netherlands
3.2 France
3.3 United States

4 Windpump

4.1 UK

5 Related concepts
6 External articles and references
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History

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Early history

Windmills have been around for at least 1,300 years. The first windmill 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.

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In Europe

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, mill types that could be turned into the wind were developed. 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.

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.

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In the United States

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 (http://www.aermotorwindmill.com/Company/History.asp) is the only manufacturer of conventional windmills left in the USA. GE Energy, a unit of General Electric, manufactures windmills for electricity generation.[1] (http://www.gepower.com/businesses/ge_wind_energy/en/)

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List of windmills

The List of windmills is a link page for any windmill or windpump.

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Collections

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By country

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Germany

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United Kingdom

Windmills in the United Kingdom is a link page for any windmill or windpump in the United Kingdom.

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England

Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
East Riding of Yorkshire
Essex
Kent
Greater London
Hampshire
Lancashire
Leicestershire
Lincolnshire
Merseyside
Norfolk

Some of the windmills in this area receive maintenance from the Norfolk Windmills Trust.

North Lincolnshire
North East Lincolnshire
Nottinghamshire
Peterborough
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Surrey
Sussex
Tyne and Wear
Warwickshire
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
Wales

Anglesey

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Netherlands

Virtually every small town and polder in Holland has its own windmill.

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France

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United States

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Windpump

A windpump is similar to a windmill. However, it is not used for milling grain, but for pumping water from a well or draining arable or other land. On US farms, particularly in the midwest, windpumps of the type pictured were used to pump water from farm wells for cattle. Most pumping today is done by electric pumps, and only a few windpumps survive as unused relics of a previous technology. The Netherlands is well known for its windmills. These iconic structures situated along the edge of polders are actually windpumps, designed to drain the land. These are particularly important as much of the country lies below sea level.

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UK

As with the Dutch area of Holland with which it shares some similarities, many windpumps were built in The Broads, of East Anglia for the draining of land. They have since been mostly replaced by electric power but both the preserved and derelict structures dot the landscape.

Tower mills:

Post mills:

Smock mills:

To be categorised:

  • Priory Mill, St. Olaves
  • Boardman's Mill, open framed timber trestle windpump
  • Briggate Mill
  • Stracey Arms Mill
  • Lockgate Mill
  • Mutton's Mill
  • High's Mill
  • Cadge's Mill
  • Kerrison's Level Mill
  • Runham Swim Mill
  • Windpump, Wicken Fen
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Related concepts

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External articles and references

General
History articles

Theory

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