by Ben Hughes

Created on: February 02, 2008

Wind has always been a source of energy and has been used to power transport and assist production methods, until the industrial revolution nearly relegated it to the history books. Thankfully, they now seem to be making a comeback.

Windmills were developed as an alternative and more efficiently modern method of grinding corn for making bread, taking over from animal power and water power.

The basic form of windmill was described by Hero of Alexandria in the first century. No-one's quite sure the exact location or date of the first windmill, but one suggestion is they originated in Persia. From here, the design could've spread back to Europe from the Crusades.

Early Windmills

The Persian windmills had long vertical shafts with rectangle shaped blades and the early European windmill was known as a horizontal-shaft or vertical windmill because of the dimension of the movement of its blades.

By the 9th century, Muslims were reporting that vertical axis windmills were being used in Persia, while the horizontal axis design was developing in Europe by the end of the 12th century. As the two different types of windmill have different designs, it suggests it's more likely that they developed independently from each other.

The European windmills then took precedence and European millwrights became highly skilled craftsmen. They developed the technology and British craftsmen were at the forefront, developing many advanced "automatic control" mechanisms over the centuries. The Dutch followed and also used windmills for other reasons such as pumping water and for other industrial uses.

Early mills were used to grind cereals. These types, known as post mills, balanced the mill's main structure on a large upright post in order to rotate the face of the mill to the changeable wind direction of northern Europe.

A century later, the masonry tower mill, on which only the timber cap rotated rather than the whole body of the mill, had been introduced. The Dutch had also developed cylindrical tower mills which meant they could be made much taller, with longer blades, which enabled them to work in the low winds of the Netherlands.

From the tower mill, the smock mill was developed. This was made of timber and originally used for land drainage. Subsequent developments introduced scoop wheels, Archimedes' screws and piston pumps which improved both design and efficiency.

The Spread of Windmills Around the World

As Europeans set off colonizing the rest of the globe, windmills spread throughout

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