Medieval windmill. Windmill device: diagrams, drawings

O.BULANOVA

They became a symbol of Holland, Don Quixote fought with them, fairy tales and legends were composed about them ... What are we talking about? Of course, about windmills. Centuries ago, they were used to grind grain, drive a water pump, or both.

The earliest example of the use of wind energy to drive a mechanism is the windmill of the Greek engineer Heron of Alexandria, invented in the 1st century BC. There is also evidence that in the Babylonian Empire, Hammurabi planned to use wind power for his ambitious irrigation project.

In the messages of Muslim geographers of the 9th century. Persian mills are described. They differ from Western designs in having a vertical axis of rotation and perpendicular wings (sails). The Persian mill has blades on the rotor, similar to the blades of a paddle wheel on a steamer, and must be enclosed in a shell that covers part of the blades, otherwise the wind pressure on the blades will be the same from all sides and, since. the sails are rigidly connected to the axle, the windmill will not rotate.

Another type of vertical axis mill is known as the Chinese mill or Chinese windmill, used in Tibet and China in the early 4th century BC. This design differs significantly from the Persian in the use of a free-turning, independent sail.

The first windmills put into operation had sails rotating in a horizontal plane around a vertical axis. There were from 6 to 12 sails covered with reed or cloth. These mills were used for grinding grain or extracting water and were quite different from later European vertical windmills.

A description of this type of horizontal windmill with rectangular blades used for irrigation can be found in Chinese documents from the thirteenth century. In 1219, such a mill was brought to Turkestan by the traveler Yelü Chutsai.

Horizontal windmills were present in small numbers in the 18th-19th centuries. and throughout Europe. The most famous are Hooper's mill and Fowler's mill. Most likely, the mills that existed in Europe at that time were an independent invention of European engineers during the Industrial Revolution.

The existence of the first known mill in Europe (it is assumed that it was of a vertical type) dates from 1185. It was located in the village of Weedley in Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Humber. In addition, there are a number of less reliable historical sources, according to which the first windmills in Europe appeared in the 12th century. The first purpose of windmills was to grind grain.

There is evidence that the earliest type of European windmill was called the post mill, so named because of the large vertical detail that makes up the main structure of the mill mill.

When mounting the mill body, this part was able to rotate in the direction of the wind. In northwestern Europe, where wind direction changes very quickly, this allowed for more productive work. The foundations of the first such mills were dug into the ground, which provided additional support when turning.

Later, a wooden support was developed, called a flyover (goats). It was usually closed, which gave additional space for storing crops and provided protection during bad weather. This type of mill was the most common in Europe until the 19th century, until they were replaced by powerful tower mills.

Gantry mills had a cavity inside which a drive shaft was placed. This made it possible to turn the structure in the direction of the wind, applying less effort than in traditional gantry mills. The need to lift sacks of grain to high-placed millstones also disappeared. the use of a long drive shaft made it possible to place millstones at ground level. Such mills have been used in the Netherlands since the 14th century.

Tower mills appeared by the end of the 13th century. Their main advantage was that in the tower mill, only the roof of the tower mill reacted to the presence of wind. This made it possible to make the main structure much higher and the blades to be larger, so that the rotation of the mill became possible even in light winds.

The upper part of the mill could turn in the wind due to the presence of winches. In addition, it was possible to keep the roof of the mill and the blades in the direction of the wind due to a small windmill installed at right angles to the blades. This type of construction has become widespread in the territory of the British Empire, Denmark and Germany.

In the Mediterranean countries, tower mills were built with fixed roofs, because. the change in wind direction was very slight most of the time.

An improved version of the tower mill is the tent mill. In it, the stone tower was replaced by a wooden frame, usually octagonal in shape (there were mills with more or less angles). The frame was covered with straw, slate, tar paper, sheet metal. This light-weight tent structure compared to tower mills made the windmill more practical, allowing mills to be erected in areas of unstable soil. Initially, this type was used as a drainage structure, but later the scope of use expanded significantly.

Of great importance in windmills has always been the design of the blades (sails). Traditionally, a sail consists of a frame-lattice, on which a canvas is stretched. The miller can independently adjust the amount of fabric depending on the strength of the wind and the required power.

In colder climates, the fabric was replaced with wooden slats, which prevented freezing. Regardless of the design of the blades, it was necessary to completely stop the mill in order to adjust the sails.

The turning point was the invention in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century. structure that automatically adjusts to the wind speed without the intervention of the miller. The most popular and functional sails were invented by William Cubitt in 1807. In these blades, the fabric was replaced by a mechanism of connected shutters.

In France, Pierre-Theophile Burton invented a system consisting of longitudinal wooden slats connected by a mechanism that allowed the miller to open them while the mill was turning.

In the twentieth century thanks to advances in aircraft construction, the level of knowledge in the field of aerodynamics has significantly increased, which led to a further increase in the efficiency of the mills by the German engineer Bilau and Dutch craftsmen.

Most windmills had four sails. Along with them, there were mills equipped with five, six or eight sails. They are most widespread in the UK, Germany and less frequently in other countries. The first mill canvas factories were in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia.

A mill with an even number of sails had an advantage over other types of mills, because if one of the blades was damaged, the blade opposite to it could be removed, thereby maintaining the balance of the entire structure.

It should be noted that windmills were used for many industrial processes other than grain grinding, such as oilseed processing, wool dressing, dyeing and stone products.

The total number of windmills in Europe at the time of the greatest distribution of this type of device reached, according to experts, the number of about 200 thousand. But this figure is quite modest compared to about 500 thousand watermills that existed at the same time. Windmills proliferated in regions where there was too little water, where the rivers froze in winter, and also in the plains where the flow of rivers was too slow.

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the importance of wind and water as major industrial energy sources declined; eventually a large number of windmills and water wheels were replaced by steam mills and mills powered by internal combustion engines. At the same time, windmills were still quite popular, they continued to be built until the end of the 19th century.

In addition to windmills, there were also wind turbines - structures specially designed to generate electricity. The first wind turbines were built at the end of the 19th century. by Professor James Blyth in Scotland, Charles F. Brush in Cleveland, and Paul La Cour in Denmark.

There were also wind pumps. They were used to pump water in the territory of modern Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan since the 9th century. The use of wind pumps became widespread throughout the Muslim world, and then spread to the territory of modern China and India. Windpumps have been used in Europe, especially in the Netherlands and the East Anglia areas of Great Britain, from the Middle Ages onward, to drain land for agricultural or building purposes.

In 1738-1740. In the Dutch town of Kinderdijk, 19 stone windmills were built to protect the lowlands from flooding. They pumped water from an area below sea level to the Lek River, which flows into the North Sea. In addition to pumping water, windmills were used to generate electricity. Thanks to these mills, Kinderdijk became the first electrified city in the Netherlands in 1886.

It is also worth noting that in 1997 windmills were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

According to the site ru.beautiful-houses.net

Buildings available on a personal plot or summer cottage are usually created in a strict functional style. As a rule, they do not have any specific decorative elements and look appropriate for their purpose. At the same time, the desire to somehow decorate, revitalize the territory of the site is characteristic of most owners. There are many options for solving this issue. Most often, landscape design technologies are used, with the help of which absolutely any piece of land can be decorated.

One of the options for creating an unusual appearance is building a windmill. The decision is somewhat unexpected, but invariably spectacular, requiring detailed consideration.

Device and principle of operation

A windmill is a device that converts into the work of a flour-grinding mechanism. This is the traditional purpose of the mills, which performed almost the only job - grinding grain, making flour. The blades (wings) of the mill received the wind flow on their planes and began to rotate. It was passed on to millstones that grinded grain and produced flour. The windmill device is a prototype of pumps and other mechanisms of today using flows.

At present, it is rare to find a working windmill; basically, they are kept in ethnographic reserves as exhibits. At the same time, they are quite serviceable and can do their job quite efficiently.

Decorative element or practical structure?

It is impossible to use a windmill as a full-fledged flour grinding facility. Firstly, the size of such a structure is not suitable for relatively small areas. In addition, there is currently no need for grain grinding. therefore windmills erected in garden plots play a decorative role. At the same time, a rotating rotor, if it is able to perform its functions, may well be used for various household needs:

• power generation;
• actuation of the water pump;
• the case of the windmill can be adapted to store various equipment.

The choice of how to use a windmill is the prerogative of the owner of the site, but the most common purpose of such structures is to decorate the site, bringing folklore motifs into the design style. This moment cannot be considered secondary or unimportant, since the appearance also needs a competent and creative approach, as well as practical application.

What might be needed?

In this case, the key point is the independent manufacture of the structure. In addition to certain practical goals that are pursued when creating a windmill, a creative approach is important, the ability to make efforts to independently design the site.

You can use such a structure in different ways, for example, using a windmill, you can decorate a water well. Often, such structures cover the exit to the surface of sewers. The use of a windmill for its intended purpose is not excluded - in order to set in motion mechanisms or generate electric current, for example, to illuminate a site.

Important! Decorating the territory is an important factor in itself, but if there is a possibility of practical use of a windmill for household needs, its value increases many times over.

Another possible use of such an element is a place for children's games. Children enjoy playing in various houses, and if it is stylized as a windmill, it becomes even more interesting.

Site selection for installation

The choice of location is influenced, first of all, by the owner's intention, the purpose of the structure. If a purely decorative use is planned, then the mill is placed on the basis of picturesqueness, external effect, that is, in an open area that provides a good overview of the structure. If the device is functional, then the choice will be affected by the level of the site, the absence of large buildings nearby that can close the blades from wind currents.

In addition, it is necessary to take into account the location of utilities, buildings or structures that may be interfered with by the rotating wings of the mill. If they are opposite the window, the constant flickering in the eyes will create a significant inconvenience for the people in the room.

It should also be borne in mind that the structure will need to have a normal approach, especially if it is planned to make it an element of a children's playground. Taking into account all these considerations, the choice of the optimal place for the construction of the mill is made.

Step-by-step instruction

Creating a windmill occurs according to the usual scheme used in the construction of any structures:

• creating a project (working drawing)
• purchase of materials, selection of tools
• site preparation
• housing and rotor assembly
• installation of mechanical elements (if planned)
• start, debug operating modes

Some of the steps in this checklist may be redundant, sometimes, on the contrary, additional steps may be necessary. The final plan of action can only be drawn up by considering the specific design, its operating conditions, dimensions and other parameters.

Important! In no case should you neglect the creation of the project. Often it is at this stage that significant errors or additional factors are discovered that radically change the approach to the work performed. Random production can lead to a waste of time and materials.

Necessary materials and tools

For creating a decorative windmill It is best to use traditional materials:

• beam,
• boards,
• turned logs,
• nails,
• self-tapping screws.

In addition, depending on the size and purpose of the mill, materials may be needed to create the foundation:

• cement,
• sand,
• reinforcing bar.

It is equally important to have the necessary tools:

• electric saw,
• electric plane,
• hand hacksaw,
• chisel, chisel,
• pliers,
• a hammer,
• electric drill with a set of drills,
• ruler, tape measure.

Depending on the design of the structure, other tools or devices may be involved, if necessary.

Foundation

The first steps that will need to be completed at the initial stage are the preparation of the site for construction. If the structure is planned to be large enough, for example, a storage for tools, inventory, engineering devices needs to be decorated for a mill, then a foundation will be required.

The easiest way to fill the foundation is to create a tape type foundation. To do this, a ditch is dug along the perimeter of the future walls, inside which formwork is installed, a reinforcing cage is knitted and concrete is poured. The foundation is maintained for the right time for sufficient crystallization of concrete, after which further work can be carried out.

Note: for small decorative structures, a foundation is not required; it is enough to raise them slightly above ground level to exclude contact with groundwater.

After the foundation is completed, they begin to create the windmill housing.

Choose the type of walls and roof

The construction of the walls and roof of the mill is carried out in strict accordance with the working drawings made in advance at the very beginning. There are different options:

• construction of walls from turned logs. It is performed when creating a large mill designed to perform certain economic functions.
• erection of walls from timber. This method is somewhat simpler, since fitting a beam is much easier than logs. The size of the mill is also quite large.
• creation of a frame with subsequent sheathing with boards. This construction is suitable for a smaller mill.

The options considered involve the construction of a structure directly on site. There may be options when the entire structure is assembled in one place, for example, in a garage or in a workshop, and installed ready-made in a designated place. This approach can be used to create small decorative windmills that can be moved within the site.

The construction of the walls is completed with the beginning of the creation of the roof. Traditionally, a two- or four-slope structure is made. As a roofing material, any of the old, traditional roofing is used - tiles, shingles, etc.

Wood is a material that is unstable to atmospheric moisture and rain. The finished structure must be protected from water by applying a layer of varnish or drying oil. The best option would be pre-impregnation with an antiseptic and fire retardant to protect the walls from insects or fire.

Features of the construction of a functional mill

If the windmill will perform useful work, then it is arranged in a rather complicated way. The design consists of a rotating rotor that transmits movement to the generator, from which the resulting voltage is transmitted to the battery and inverter. This is the most difficult, there may be easier options. But all of them are united by one feature: the rotor shaft is connected to a certain mechanism.

This circumstance forces us to approach the construction from the other side:

• first, the working mechanism is mounted;
• walls or a protective box are built around it with the possibility of access to equipment for repair or maintenance.

In such situations, construction is carried out so that the walls and roof of the mill do not interfere with the rotation of the wings or block access to the mechanics. The rest of the work is carried out in a similar way using the same materials and tools.

Wind turbine installation

The installation of a windmill is necessary in cases where it was made in a workshop. Typically, such structures are small and quite accessible for transportation within the site. This option is good for repairs, upgrades or maintenance. The ability to perform work in a normal workshop, and not in the open, provides many advantages and ensures a high quality of repair or maintenance.

Installation of a mill is made on the dry prepared platform. If necessary, the device is attached to it with anchors. If the structure is horizontal and does not have the ability to be installed into the wind, then care should be taken in advance to select a location that allows you to use the prevailing direction of flow for a given region.

When it comes to windmills, one immediately recalls the famous literary hero of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - Don Quixote, in whose inflamed brain they appeared in the form of giants. The first windmill appeared on the banks of the Nile (about three thousand years ago), it was in these parts that wheat gave a generous harvest. The first designs were quite primitive. It took at least five to six hours of work to grind a bucket of grain. Hand millstones, in the presence of one physically strong man, allow you to grind a bucket of wheat in an hour and a half.

Principles of grinding grain into flour

The process of turning grain into flour in modern mills takes place in several stages. Before grinding, the grain is cleaned in special installations. Sieves allow you to divide the mass by size, and special trieres remove impurities from it. This is a rather clever machine, it recognizes the configuration of individual grains and discards anything that differs in shape. Next, the mass is soaked. This operation is needed so that the surface layer (it is called bran) is easier to remove. Husks and germinal zones of the grain remain in the bran. Now comes the most crucial moment - the stump is performed. It allows you to speed up the process of grinding grain on millstones. Modern millstones in many ways resemble those that were used in antiquity. These are two circles. One of them is stationary, and the other rotates relative to the first. There is a feeding hole in the upper one, grains come here. The grain moves from the center to the periphery, in contact with the surface of the millstones. They press with a certain effort, peeling off a thin layer, which turns into flour. As the grains are worn down, nothing remains but flour, which falls off the surface of a stationary millstone. The finishing operation is the separation of flour on sieves. High-grade flour passes through the thinnest, then other varietal fractions are separated. Relatively large particles remain on the coarsest sieve - this is semolina, beloved by many (but someone does not like it).

How to catch the wind

The nature of the wind is the movement of the flow of air masses. Somewhere the wind blows daily at high speed, but there are places where they cannot wait for it for a long time. The sailors were the first to catch it, the sails easily caught a light breath and pulled the ships in the direction of the stream. Somewhat later, they learned to set oblique sails, it became possible to move at angles, tacking, experienced sailors can sail against the wind. To drive the rotating millstones, it was necessary to arrange several sails differently. They were sewn to radial guides sitting on the shaft. Then they converted it into blades. Now the pressure of the air flow makes each blade move, here the forward movement of the air is converted into a rotational movement of the shaft. A simplified drive windmill had millstones that rotated in a horizontal axis. The inventors of antiquity overcame many difficulties in order to find ways to press a stationary millstone to a rotating one. Among the drawings of the Egyptian pyramids there are those that show how the wind in the mill grinds grain into flour.

Classic windmill

The question of how to transfer rotation from the horizontal to the vertical axis could not be resolved for a long time. Repeatedly tried to change the direction of rotation of the shafts. But the technical solution was never found. The manuscripts contain diagrams of devices for converting directions of rotation. The most common design is attributed to Archimedes (the windmill according to Archimedes is depicted on frescoes taken by the Romans from Syracuse). He invented cogwheels made from logs attached to wheel rims. The brilliant idea was embodied in tens of thousands of windmills scattered around the world. In them, the wind makes a horizontal shaft rotate, at the end of which a wheel is installed. On its rim there are firmly fixed teeth (round bars) installed with a certain step. A vertical shaft is installed perpendicular to the horizontal shaft. It also has a wheel with similar teeth. The result is an analogue of a gear mechanism that transmits torque at a given angle (in this case, 90 °). The vertical shaft rotates the movable millstone, grain is evenly poured into it, which turns into flour. The result is a flour mill.

How a modern mill works

In modern designs, instead of a complex gear mechanism made of wood, other devices are used to transmit rotation. Today, only on the coast of the Iberian Peninsula, there are several dozen mills. They use friction variators - gearboxes that convert the direction of rotation, as well as provide the desired speed of rotation of the working shaft. In Norway and Iceland, a slightly different drive is used, bevel gears made of bronze work there. It is the 21st century on the street, but the windmill still finds its use in our time.

What mills are in use today

Large volumes of industrial processing of grain cannot be mastered only with the use of wind. To drive the rotation of the millstones, synchronous electric motors with a phase rotor are used. They can smoothly change the shaft speed. For grain and flour, the manifestation of thermoplastic properties is characteristic - melting when heated. In the process of grinding flour, the surface temperature of the millstones rises, so the rotation speed is limited to reasonable limits. If not limited, flour may ignite, and its presence in the air, respectively, will lead to an explosion. Modern millstones inside themselves have a rather complex cooling system. Thermal sensors are installed in the area of ​​their work, which control the course of the technological process. The introduction of computers in technology has not bypassed mill production. At modern mills, sensors for monitoring various parameters are installed throughout the entire technological chain: from receiving grain to a warehouse to packing flour into containers and loading it into a vehicle that will deliver it to a bakery or a store.

DIY mill

Mini-mills are used in farms for the preparation of feed using coarse flour. It is known that the body of animals better absorbs not whole grains, but crushed ones. For this, small grain crushers or coarse grinders are used. A do-it-yourself mill is created in the following sequence. You need to make millstones. For this, two thick-walled disks are used, their working surfaces are cut with a beard or chisel. The result is millstones. Then a hole is drilled in the upper millstone. A cone made of thin-walled tin is welded to it (a feeder that feeds grain to the grinding zone). They organize the drive of a rotating millstone; here it is easiest to use a V-belt drive. Therefore, a pulley is bolted to the upper disk. A pulley is also installed on the motor shaft. Now the rotation of the motor shaft will be transferred to the millstone. It remains only to enclose the entire structure in the case and start producing flour.

A mill is a mechanism in which various grains, such as wheat, are ground in order to obtain flour or fine animal feed.

Mills come in different shapes and sizes.

There are several types:
Manual
Water
windmills
Electrical

All types of mills have grinding mechanisms called millstones. They are driven by different forces.

hand mills operate on applied force. While a person is turning the handle, the mill is running; as soon as he is tired and decides to rest, the mill does not grind grains.

water mills use the power of water. Such mills are usually built near fast-flowing rivers. A water mill has special blades on the wheel, when water flows, it rests against these blades, thereby pushing them and setting the entire wheel in motion, and they, in turn, rotate the millstones.

Works in a similar way

Windmills work with the wind. They have blades with bevelled edges. When the wind blows, it slides on sloping surfaces and pushes them away. They start spinning.

Electric mills millstones are rotated with the help of special motors that run on electricity.

At present, mainly electric mills are used.

When a person wants to get flour, he goes to the mill, pours the wheat into a special container, from which the grains are fed in a small amount into the millstones. There they are ground into small pieces, which are cleaned and sieved. In the end, we get pure white flour, from which our mothers bake delicious buns and pies for us.

mini test

1. What is the mill for?
2. What types of mills are there?

The landscape with windmills is more familiar to us on the canvases of European masters of painting of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Now many working windmills can only be seen in the Netherlands. True, they do not grind flour at all, although there are some. They pump water from one canal to another. How was the windmill built? You can only see this in the Baltic States and the Netherlands themselves. The first thing to do to make it work well is to catch the wind. To do this, its roof was turned in the right direction with the help of a special wheel and lever. The wheel was just connected to the roof. When the roof reached the required position, the wheel was stopped with a special chain. Then a special brake was released, and the wings of the mill began to rotate, slowly at first, and then faster and faster. The shaft on which the wings were attached transmitted rotation to the main vertical axis through wooden ones.

Application.

Further, the device of the windmill could be different. With its help, they pumped out water, squeezed oil from seeds, even made paper with it and sawed wood, and, of course, ground flour. The flour mill did its job with the same stone millstones. With the advent of steam and other types of engines, it can be said to have lost its significance for industry. But in our time, when people are learning to save energy and nature, the windmill has been revived in a different capacity, as a cheap and environmentally friendly source of electricity. Hundreds of windmills, her great-grandchildren, operate in Holland, the Netherlands and Germany. In the US, Canada and Australia, remote farms are successfully using wind turbines to generate electricity for their homes and businesses.

Decorative element. Its construction.

Today, the windmill has gained popularity as a decorative element of homesteading. Make it easy. Such a mill, assembled with your own hands near a country house or cottage, will decorate any corner of the garden. Work begins with the manufacture of the foundation. A hole is dug to a depth of 70 cm, and a brick foundation is laid. A frame is welded from 50x50 in dimensions 80x120x270. The frame is sheathed with timber 40x40. It is possible to sheathe the construction on top with clapboard. The frame is installed on the foundation. The wood is coated on top with a protective impregnation in several layers. From the inside, the body is insulated with foam and plywood. Next up is the roof. A continuous crate is laid on the roof rafters, which is then covered with roofing material in two layers. Roofing material is laid on the roofing material. Then the mechanism is assembled. An axle and two bearings are selected and installed. The blades are assembled from wooden planks with a section of 20x40mm, which are fastened with self-tapping screws. The blades are mounted on the axle. The upper part of the foundation is also sheathed with timber. The interior can be used for storage, for example,

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