Chapter 1

Windmills and Windwheels

The utilisation of wind energy is not a new technology but draws on the rediscovery of
a long tradition of wind power technology. It is no longer possible now to tell from the
remainders of historical "wind power plants" just how important a role wind power
played in the past. The triumphal spread of the cheap coal and oil fuels and of easy
energy distribution in the form of electricity was so complete that the losers, windmills
and windwheels, could only survive in economic niches of little importance. Today,
while energy production based on the burning of coal and oil or on the splitting of the
uranium atom is meeting with increasing resistance, regardless of the various reasons,
the re-emergence of wind power is an almost inevitable consequence.
The objection could be raised that nostalgia is not a useful tool for solving future
energy problems. Today, the argument is not about milling grain or pumping water, but
about the energy requirements of modern industrial societies. Looking back, however, it
becomes obvious that wind energy technology at the beginning of the 20th century had
by no means lost out to the energy form of "electricity", to which currently no
alternative concept exists, nor that was it even unsuitable for the purpose. Measured
against the modest means of some pioneers, the successes they achieved in generating
electricity by means of wind power were remarkable. In some cases the generation of
electricity by means of the power captured from the wind had even passed beyond the
stage of experimentation.
When discussing modern wind turbines, recalling the historical roots of wind power
technology is, therefore, more than just passing time. The technical solutions and
economic conditions which led to the successes and failures of the past will still provide
hints for the development of today and the future. Thus, this book starts out with a look
at the past.

1.1 The Origins of Windmills

There are contradictory speculations about the historical origins of windmills. Some
authors maintain that they have discovered the remains of stone windmills in Egypt,
2 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEELS

near Alexandria, with a supposed age of 3000 years [1]. There is no convincing proof,
however, that the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks or Romans really knew windmills.
The first reliable information about the existence of windmills from historical sources
originates from the year 644 A.D. [2]. It tells of windmills from the Persian-Afghan
border region of Seistan. A later description, including a sketch, dates back to the year
945 and depicts a windmill with a vertical axis of rotation. It was obviously used for
milling grain. Similar, extremely primitive windmills have survived in Afghanistan up
to the present time (Fig. 1.1).
Some centuries later, the first news arrived in Europe that the Chinese were also
using wind wheels for draining rice fields. Whether the Chinese knew windmills even
before the Persians and whether the European mills might have been only an offshoot of
the Chinese invention, can no longer be determined with certainty today. It is
remarkable, however, that the Chinese windwheels, too, were simple structures made of
bamboo sticks and fabric sails and that they had a vertical axis of rotation (Fig. 1.2).
The windmill with a horizontal axis of rotation, which is the traditional windmill, was
probably invented in Europe independently of the vertical-axis windwheels of the Orient.
The first verifiable information has its origin in the year 1180 in the Duchy of Normandy.
According to this source, a so-called "post or trestle mill" is supposed to have stood there.

Fig. 1.1. Vertical-axis windmill for milling grain, Afghanistan. (Deutsches Museum)
1.1 THE ORIGINS OF WINDMILLS 3

Fig. 1.2. Ancient Chinese windwheel for pumping water. (Deutsches Museum)

Similar information also points to the province of Brabant, where a post windmill was said
to have been built as early as 1119. From this north-western corner of Europe, windmills
quickly spread all over North and Eastern Europe as far as Finland and Russia [3].
Numerous post windmills could be found in Germany in the 13th century (Fig. 1.3).
In addition to the post windmills, which are made entirely of wood, the so-called
"tower windmills" make their appearance one or two centuries later. In this type of
construction, the windwheel rests on a round tower made of stone. This type of mill
mainly spread from the Southwest of France into the Mediterranean region, which is
why it is frequently referred to as the Mediterranean type of windmill.
There is no reliable information as to whether the first post and tower windmills
could already be yawed into the wind. However, yawing soon became a commonly
found property of post windmills. The post windmill in its simple and serviceable form
remained in existence right into the 20th century.
In Holland, several decisive improvements were made on windmills in the 16th
century, leading to a new type of mill, the so-called "Dutch windmill". It is not known
whether it was the post windmill or the tower windmill, of which some examples were
also to be found in the north, which had served as the prototype. The fixed millhouse
structure of the Dutch mill, where only the tower cap turned with the windwheel,
permitted both the dimensions and the range of applications to be increased. Thus, the
historical windmill reached its perfection towards the middle of the 19th century.
4 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEELS

Fig. 1.3. German post windmill in the 15th century. (Deutsches Museum)

1.2 European Windmills

It is interesting to note that the windmill types which evolved in the course of history
were able to maintain their original forms, coexisting with each other right up to the
present time. Even the archaic vertical-axis windwheels of the Orient have not entirely
disappeared. In Europe, the more powerful Dutch mill was not able to displace the
simpler post windmill. It seems that the considerably cheaper post windmill was the
more economical solution, as long as it was only a matter of milling grain in relatively
small amounts. Against this background, a look at the technology behind the various
windmill types is quite rewarding.

Post windmill
The post or trestle on which the entire millhouse rests and around which it revolves is
the main feature of the post windmill (Fig. 1.4). The trestle consists of a central main
post which is braced by four diagonal quarter bars. It extends upwards into the
millhouse to about half its height where it is joined to the so-called "meal beam" which
supports the millstone (Fig. 1.5). The meal beam divides the millhouse into an upper
level, the stone floor, and a lower level, the meal floor.
The wind wheel, which commonly had four sails, is mounted in the upper part of the
millhouse. The slightly inclined "wind shaft" supports the large-diameter "cog wheel".
The cog wheel drives the spindle or upright shaft via the smaller horizontal spindle gear or
1.2 EUROPEAN WINDMILLS 5

Fig. 1.4. German post windmill (photo Frode)

"wallower". The upright wallower shaft is joined to the millstone. In Central Europe, the
sails of a post windmill were almost always covered by fabric. In Northern and Eastern
Europe wood-covered sails were also common. The millhouse was turned into the wind
direction with the help of the so-called "tail" fixed to the back wall, which extended outwards
and down almost reaching the ground. The turning motion was facilitated by a rope winch
6 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEEELS

post windmill

1. Cog wheel 8. Millwork

M 15. Crown tree
2. Sack "take-off" 9. Stone floor 16. Brake chain
3. Windshaft 10. Meal
M board 17. Quarter bars
4. Brake 11. Meal
M beam 18. Main post
5. Wallower 12. Brrake beam 19. Cross trees
6. Upright Shaft 13. Meal
M spout 20. Piers
7. Hopper 14. Meal
M floor

Fig. 1.5. Construction of a post windmill [2].

1.2 EUROPEAN WINDMILLS 7

the rope of which was looped around posts arranged concentrically around the mill. Post
windmills were made almost completely from wood and were used exclusively for milling
grain. Their external shapes varied greatly according to regional preferences.

Hollow post mill

In the early 15th century, efforts were made to use post windmills for driving scoop
wheels for pumping water. However, the rotatable millhouse was unsuitable for this
purpose. In Holland, this situation inspired the development of the post windmill into
the so-called "hollow post mill" or "Wipmolen" (Fig. 1.6). In this type of mill, a fixed,
usually pyramid-shaped base was introduced which housed the scoop wheel drive. The
small rotatable millhouse now contained only the windwheel bearing, with cog wheel
and wallower. A hollow post, through which the extended vertical wallower shaft was
passed, formed the connection between millhouse and fixed base. Due to this hollow
post, this type of mill was also sometimes called "Kokermolen". In Holland, these mills
were used mainly for draining, later also for milling grain and sawing wood.

Fig. 1.6. Hollow post mill or "Kokermolen"

8 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEELS

Tower windmill
The tower windmill with its round stone-tower millhouse was widespread mainly in the
Mediterranean regions. Originally, the windwheel could not be yawed. Later, the wind
shaft was supported such that it could be repositioned — with some manual effort — to a
number of supporting positions thus providing for at least a rough orientation into the
wind. In the eastern Mediterranean regions the medieval tower windmills typically had
windwheels with triangular sails (Fig. 1.7). In other regions framed sails were also
commonly used. Large tower windmills were built much later. They should rather be
regarded as variants of the Dutch windmill and probably developed independently from
the Mediterranean type.

Dutch windmill
The basic idea which led to the design of the Dutch windmill was that which had
already triggered the evolution from post windmill to hollow post mill. The intention
was to provide the mill with a firm base in order to have better conditions for driving
the various machines. It was an obvious solution to build the entire millhouse as a fixed
structure and to only allow the roof cap to rotate with the windwheel.
This design was a decisive step towards larger and more powerful windmills. The
voluminous, fixed millhouse could now accommodate various machines. Apart from
scoop wheels, grain millstones, heavy pan grinders for milling dyes and the like,
hammering machines and wood saws were also driven by the Dutch windmill.

Fig. 1.7. Greek tower

windmill
1.2 EUROPEAN WINDMILLS 9

By the middle of the 19th century, Dutch windmills started to develop into powerful
prime movers with a remarkable range of applications. At this time their external shape
was also refined with regard to aerodynamics and they became the dominant windmill
type both technically and economically in several variations, for example the "Dutch
ground mill" or the "gallery mill" (Figs. 1.8 and 1.9).

Fig. 1.8. Dutch windmill (gallery type) (photo Frode)

10 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEEELS

Dutch windmill 6 Verticaal shaft 12 Feed of grain

1 Brake 7 Sack "taake-off" 13 Stone floor
2 Cog wheel 8 Spur wh heel 14 Millstones
3 Windshaft 9 Spindleegear 15 Mealslide
4 Rail bearing 10 Spindlee 16 Lift for millstones
5 Wallower 11 Stone crane 17 Meal floor
Fig. 1.9. Construction of a Dutch windmill [2]
1.3 ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF HISTORICAL WINDMILLS 11

Paltrock mill
The Paltrock mill, which is far less well known than the other types of mill, represents a
special variety which evolved in Holland in the 16th or 17th century (Fig. 1.10). As in
post windmills, the entire millhouse rotates in these mills. They are supported on a
wooden and later an iron rim bearing, which was set into the ground or placed on a
brick substructure. The millhouse rotates on numerous rollers or small wheels. Initially,
Paltrock mills were built exclusively as wood saw mills directly on the water. The
heavy logs were unloaded straight from the cargo boats directly onto the protruding
work platform. Later, Paltrock mills were also used to a lesser extent for milling grain.

Fig. 1.10. Paltrock windmill

1.3 Economic Importance of Historical Windmills

In Europe, windmills were initially only used for milling grain. A vitally important task such
as the milling of grain was a welcome source of income for the countries' rulers. In addition
to water rights, they now also claimed the "wind rights" — a sure indication of the economic
importance which windmills had rapidly achieved in this field. As a consequence,
12 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEELS

the construction and operation of windmills were subject to complex "mill laws". Terms
such as "milling obligation" or "mill construction ban" appear in numerous chronicles of
old.
Milling obligation prescribed that the inhabitants of a certain area were only allowed
to have their grain ground in a mill assigned to them — for a certain levy, of course.
This mill frequently was a "sovereign" mill. The mill construction ban prevented more
than one windmill being allowed to be built within a certain area. This restriction often
prevented a continued spreading of windmills. In many countries the outdated mill-right
was abolished only as late as 1800 with the invasion of Napoleonic troops. Combined
with the introduction of the freedom of trade, these events triggered a new boom in
windmill construction.
In no other country did windmills achieve as high a significance as in the Nether-
lands. Apart from the need for grain mills, the draining of land evolved here as the
second field of application. The Dutch started to build dikes and to reclaim land in the
15th century. Without the utilisation of wind-powered scoop wheels, initially used for
draining and then for permanently drying out the volumes of water which kept returning
into the newly reclaimed land areas, the Netherlands would not have become what they
were in the 16th and 17th century (Fig. 1.11).

Fig. 1.11. Windmills in Holland, for draining polders

1.4 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WINDMILLS 13

Compared with other European countries, the economy of the Netherlands

experienced an unrivalled boom in the 17th century, the country's golden era. Holland
became an international distribution centre for imported goods of all kinds. Windmills
were now also used for other industrial processes. They ground dyes, spices, oil-seeds
and similar products. Holland achieved a monopoly in the export of sawed wood due to
the deployment of large wood sawmills. Around 1700, there were about 1200 windmills
in the Zaan region, north of Amsterdam, which supplied a complete industrial area with
power [2].
The economic significance of windmills continued to grow until the middle of the
19th century. In the middle of the century, the Netherlands had more than 9000
windmills and in Germany there were more than 20 000. For all of Europe, the total
number was estimated at about 200 000 [2]. Then came the decline. With the
introduction of steam engines, the number of windmills started to decrease. Even
though the number of windmills started to decline distinctly in the second half of the
century, it stood up quite well against its steam-driven competition. The last windmills
were still being built right up into the 20th century. This fact is significant as it shows
that the uncertain availability of wind power, as compared to steam, was obviously not
considered such a grave disadvantage.
The actual death of the windmill only began with the electrification of the rural areas.
The connection of the last farm to the grid, frequently carried out with not
inconsiderable pressure from the utility companies, made windmills an obsolete
technology. When electricity came out of the wall socket, no one was interested in
having to battle with work-intensive windmilling and the maintenance of the mills
which had become quite costly.
In 1943 only 1400 windmills were counted in Holland. The decline in Germany was
similar. The total of the windmills still more or less well preserved today comes to a
bare 400 in Germany, to about 1000 in Holland and to 160 in Belgium [2]. In the
meantime, however, figures are moving up again. Historical windmills, which are
increasingly protected today as cultural heritage monuments, are being restored and
maintained in many places with the help of government funding.

1.4 Scientific and Technical Development of Windmills

The development of the various types of windmill from medieval times to the 17th
century can hardly be considered the result of systematic research and development.
The basis for advances in development and the diversification of windmill designs were
improvements found more or less incidentally and an empirically founded evolution.
The first fundamental ideas concerning the design of windwheels were raised in the
Renaissance period. Italian artists and scientists contributed numerous suggestions for
new windwheel shapes, even though windmill construction was of little significance
there. Sketches of windmills by Leonardo da Vinci are known. Veranzo, in his book
"Machinae Novae", proposed various interesting designs of vertical-axis wind wheels
[1]. However, these ideas had no great practical significance. In accordance with the
spirit of the time, playful or artistic aspects dominated such deliberations about
mechanics to a great extent.
It was not until the 17th and 18th century, when physical-mathematical thinking
became more established, that windmill technology was systematically considered for
the first time. The subject was first picked up by the emerging natural sciences. It was no
14 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEELS

other than Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) who involved himself deeply in the
matter. In a paper on the "Wind Arts", he provided numerous impulses for the
construction of windmills, also proposing new designs. Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782)
applied his recently formulated basic laws of fluid mechanics to the design of windmill
sails. The mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) was the first to correctly
calculate the twist of the sails.
Important technical improvements came from Great Britain. In about 1750, the
Scotsmen Meikle and Lee invented the fantail which permitted automatic yawing for the
Dutch windmill (Fig. 1.12).
Some time later (1792), Meikle built the first windmills with so-called "spring sails"
(Fig. 1.13). The sailcloth frames, which had to be reefed by hand by the miller when the
wind was too strong, had been replaced by sails with hinged shutters interconnected by
an iron rod, which could be opened and shut easily. Initially, the slats were made of
wood, later of sheet metal. Some windmills were even built with self-regulating
shutters, the segments of which were connected to the surrounding frame by steel
springs. These innovations became established mainly in Great Britain.
For the first time ever, a certain amount of speed and power regulation of the
windmill was possible due to the spring sails. This, in combination with the automatic
yawing carried out by the fantail, enabled the Dutch windmill to reach the peak of its
technical development and a remarkable degree of perfection.
However, the aerodynamic efficiency of the spring sails was not as high as that of good
sailcloth sails. This fact became apparent after the physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb
had started to carry out systematic aerodynamic experiments with windmill sails in 1821
and when the Danish professor Poul La Cour, in about 1890, carried out comprehensive
scientific research in windmill sail aerodynamics and windmill design. Poul La Cour
deserves the merit of having comprehensively analysed and described the fundamentals of

Fig. 1.12. Dutch windmill

with fantail for automatic
yawing
1.4 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WINDMILLS 15

Fig. 1.13. Windmill (Dutch ground windmill) with spring sails (photo Fröde)

windmill technology — even though this was at a time when this technology had almost
become obsolete. However, he was quite aware of the fact that his findings would no
longer have any practical consequences for windmill construction. For this reason, he
quickly turned to the experiments described later (Chapt. 2.1), namely how to generate
electrical current with the help of wind power. The second half of the 19th century also
saw efforts of using new materials in windmill construction. Up to this point, windmills
had almost exclusively been built from wood (Fig. 1.14).
Above all, the windshaft, which had to bear high loads, was made of cast iron
(Fig. 1.15). It quickly turned out, however, that the traditional oakwood windshaft was able
to sustain such loads at least as well due to its better material damping properties and higher
fatigue strength.
After the aerodynamicist Albert Betz had formulated the modern physical principles
of wind-energy conversion in 1920 and, moreover, modern airfoil designs had been
developed in aircraft engineering, Major Kurt Bilau applied this knowledge to the
design of windmills.
The "Ventikanten" sail developed by him in co-operation with Betz was formed of
aluminium sheets, like an aircraft airfoil, and had an adjustable auxiliary flap which
permitted power and speed regulation of the windmill (Figs. 1.16 and 1.17).
16 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEELS

Fig. 1.14. Wooden "windshaft" with "cogged wheel" and "wallower" of a Dutch windmill
(Deutsches Museum)

Fig. 1.15. Cast iron wind shaft of a Dutch windmill

1.5 THE AMERICAN WIND TURBINE 17

Fig. 1.16. Windmill with subsequently added "Venti- Fig. 1.17. Function of the Venti-
kanten" sails (photo Fröde) kanten sail [2]

By 1940 Bilau had equipped about 130 windmills with these sails, achieving a
considerable increase in their power output. Looking at such a windmill it becomes
evident that this technology probably did transcend traditional windmill technology,
while it managed to extract a last breath of life from some of the mills.

1.5 The American Wind Turbine

In the early 19th century, when windmill technology was reaching its peak in Europe,
numerous windmills were also built in the New World, mainly on the East Coast where
the Dutch and British had their settlements. Simultaneously, the great movement to the
West started in the USA. The settlers of the great plains of the Mid-West needed water,
above all, when they wanted to settle down. In those places which did not have natural
surface water, water had to be pumped up from wells. The large windmills were of little
help for this purpose. They were too heavy to follow those pioneers rapidly enough. But
in the land of unlimited possibilities, solutions were also found for this problem.
In about 1850, the mechanic Daniel Halladay from Connecticut found the first solution.
Reportedly, Halladay heard frequent complaints that the few windwheel pumps existing at
the time, the wind wheels of which were sailcloth-covered like the windmills, were a
downright nuisance to their owners. The hard-working settlers simply did not have the
18 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEELS

time to permanently look after their windpumps, and to reef the sails in time when bad
weather threatened. Frequent damage was the consequence. After having listened to the
complaint of one such sufferer, Halladay is said to have answered: "I can invent a self-
regulating windmill that will be safe from destruction in violent windstorms, but I don't
know of a single man in the world who would want one" [4]. Time would prove him wrong.
In steam engines Halladay had seen flyweight governors which opened a safety valve
in the case of overspeeding. With this concept in mind, he designed a windwheel the
blades of which were not directly joined to the shaft, but suspended loosely on a ring.
Using a second movable ring collar, the blades were connected such that a movement of
the ring effected a change in the blade pitch angle. The movement of the ring was
triggered by flyweights. He also divided the wheel into six sections. At low wind

Fig. 1.18. Design of a Halladay wind turbine, built under license by Herzog, Dresden, Germany in
1904
1.5 THE AMERICAN WIND TURBINE 19

the windwheel turned slowly, with the flyweight governor keeping the blade pitch at a
shallow angle. With increasing wind speed and higher revolutions, the blade-pitch angle
became continuously steeper, until ultimately the six wheel sections swung completely
out of the plane of the wheel (Fig. 1.18).
Initially, Halladay used only a few thin wooden blades, but he increased their number
until the entire wheel surface was covered with blades, like a turbine. A wind vane took
care of yawing. The aerodynamic characteristics of such a "wind turbine" thus differed
greatly from the previously known windmill sails. His wind turbine already started
turning at low wind speeds, it turned comparatively slowly and developed a high torque
at low speeds, exactly the right preconditions for driving a reciprocating water pump.
The water pump was driven via a crank mechanism with a long vertical shaft which
reached to the foot of the lattice mast.
Despite his scepticism, Halladay started manufacturing wind turbines and soon sold
large units to the American railroad companies. These had an increasing need for water
pumps for refilling their water tanks en route (Fig. 1.19).

Fig. 1.19. Halladay wind turbine for refilling water tanks of the Union Pacific Railroad in
Laramie, 1868 [4]
20 CHAPTER 1 WINDMILLS AND WINDWHEELS

With its many joints and bolts, Halladay's wind turbine was a comparatively complex
machine. Although it was manufactured until 1929, it remained rather a rarity. The
Reverend Leonhard R. Wheeler of Wisconsin found a simpler solution a few years later.
Instead of dividing the windwheel into sectors, Wheeler mounted an additional wind
vane which was positioned at right angles to the wind direction. This vane was used to
turn the entire wind wheel out of the wind. The vane was connected to a weight, so that
when the wind speed decreased, the wheel turned back into its original position (Fig.
1.20). Wheeler's concept was manufactured under the name of "Eclipse" and became the
standard design of the American wind turbine.

Fig. 1.20. American wind turbine of the "Eclipse" design (Deutsches Museum)
REFERENCES 21

The two new wind turbine concepts were presented to the general public at the World
Exhibition in 1876 in Philadelphia. Farmers were highly interested in this relatively
simple and cheap piece of equipment. In the following years, wind turbines were
manufactured in ever greater numbers by an ever increasing number of relatively small
firms, especially the model developed by Wheeler, which was built in numerous
variants.
By 1899, as many as 77 "windmill factories" were counted. By 1930 their number
had increased to almost 100 companies with a total of about 2300 employees [4]. Wind
turbines also became a lucrative export article and were sold almost worldwide.
However, they were no longer able to establish a foothold in Europe, as wind power
utilisation was too much on the retreat there by that time. Some German firms like
Herkules or Köster nevertheless manufactured wind turbines under license in modest
numbers.
By 1930, more than six million American wind turbines had been manufactured. For
the first time ever, the utilisation of wind energy was based on an industrially mass-
produced article. A remarkable fact, and it can hardly be considered a coincidence that it
was in the USA where it happened for the first time. However, the "Rural Electrification
Programme" of the thirties which provided electrification to the rural areas put paid to
wind turbines also in the New World and their numbers dwindled rapidly. The
remaining stock is estimated to be about 150 000 units in the USA today. In recent
years, several manufacturers have resumed production, so that possibly their numbers
are on the rise again.

References
1. König, F.V.: Windenergie in praktischer Nutzung. Udo Pfriemer Verlag, München (1978)
2. Fröde, E.U.F.: Windmühlen. Du Mont Buchverlag, Köln (1981)
3. Notebaart, J.C.: Windmühlen. Mouton-Verlag, Den Haag (1972)
4. Torrey, V.: Wind Catchers. The Stephen Greene Press, Brattleboro (1976)