A mill is a machine used to grind grain to obtain flour and corn, or to grind different materials, such as coal or ores, into small granules.
The oldest use of wind power was the sailboat. Since ancient times, people have understood that the wind caught in a canvas can be made to push a boat. Applying this principle to the windmills occurred much later.
The first documented windmill was built to grind the grain. At this type of mill, the millstone was caught by the vertical column. The grinding equipment was located inside the building to be housed in the wind. This arrangement was maintained in the windmills of Europe until the beginning of the 20th century.
The first windmills were built in Persia (Iran) around the year 600. They are believed to have been used to pump water. They do not know how they looked, because there were no plans or drawings left. But they were described. They had vertical-mounted canvas, made not from canvas, but from bundles of cane or wood. They were fastened by a horizontal vertical column through horizontal sleepers.
Documents attest to the existence of the windmills in China in 1219, and some believe they were built by the Chinese well before 600. In Europe, the windmills appeared in 1300, and not long after, the Dutch began to perfect them. One of the changes they made was to mount a higher peak, as its strength was diminished by ground rubbing. In this way, the stronger wind could be exploited from the height.
The floors inside the tower served various purposes: storage of cereals, separation of weeds, grinding of cereals, storage of flour. The tower and the mill had to be moved manually when the wind changes, so the mill always face the wind.
Image location: ROMANIA
Camera: Cannon Coolpix