The familiar lattice style of windmill blades allowed the miller to attach cloth sailsto the blades (while applying a brake). Trimming the sails allowed the windmill toturn at near the optimal speed in a large range of wind velocities.Upminster (Essex, UK) Windmill in June 2006; a smock mill - before it lost one of its sails in an early 2007 storm.The fantail, a small windmill mounted at rightangles to the main sails which automatically turns the heavy cap and main sailsinto the wind, was invented in England in 1745. The smock mill is a later variationof the tower mill, constructed of timber and originally developed in the sixteenthcentury for land drainage. With some subsequent development mills becameversatile in windy regions for all kind of industry, most notably grain grindingmills, sawmills (late 16th century), threshing, and, by applying scoop wheels,Archimedes' screws, and piston pumps, pumping water either for land drainage orfor water supply. In 1807, William Cubitt invented a new type of sail, known thereon as patent sails, that could be regulated whilst moving and became the basis of self-regulating sails, which avoided the constant supervision that had beenrequired up till then.With the industrial revolution, the importance of windmills as primary industrialenergy source was replaced by steam and internal combustion engines. Poldermills were replaced by steam, or diesel engines. The industrial revolution andincreased use of Steam and later Diesel power however had a lesser effect on theMills of the Norfolk Broads in the United Kingdom, these being so isolated (onextensive uninhabitable marshland), therefore some of these mills continued useas drainage pumps till as late as 1959. More recently historic windmills have beenpreserved for their historic value, in some cases as static exhibits when theantique machinery is too fragile to put in motion, and in other cases as fullyworking mills.See Flood control in the Netherlands for use of windmills in land reclamation in theNetherlands.In Canada and the United StatesFarm windmill, Sheridan County, Kansas, USA, 1939.Windmills feature uniquely inthe history of New France, particularly in Canada, where they were used as strongpoints in fortifications.[3] Prior to the 1690 Battle of Québec, the strong point of the city's landward defenses was a windmill called Mont-Carmel, where a three-gun battery was in place.[3] At Fort Senneville, a large stone windmill was built ona hill by late 1686, doubling as a watch tower.[3] This windmill was like no other inNew France, with thick walls, square loopholes for muskets, with machicolation atthe top for pouring lethally hot liquids and rocks onto attackers.[3] This helpedmake it the "most substantial castle-like fort" near Montréal.[5]In the United States, the development of the water-pumping windmill was themajor 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
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