Windmills, anyone?

Not wind turbines, but the old windmills usually found out on the Cape. I got a book yesterday of windmills of New England. They are pretty cool, but the book didn't have many photos of the insides. I'm thinking a small windmill on top of a blacksmith shop to pump the bellows is in order. Anyone work on one?

Hi Dave,

A full book reference would be much appreciated.

Windmills are very much a specialist area where the outcome from poor decision making can cost people's lives. Windmills are difficult to define in terms of whether they are a building, structure, aerodyamic device, machine, factory, tourist attraction, landmark, etc. and as a consequence the various groups of people involved in the maintenance, repair, restoration, conservation and preservation can all be pulling in their own selfish and hence different directions, potentially resulting in the type of project outcomes that typically gave rise to the platypus duck.

Windmills are akin to dinosaurs. For example in England there used to be thousands of post mills and now there are only but 50 or so fairly complete mills remaining. In Barbados windmills were used to crush sugar cane and there were 500 or so on this one small island alone but now only one (dodo mill) remains. Decision making on windmills such as these should only be contemplated by those who are good first principals thinkers and analysts. The well meaning weekend preservation society amateur who has gathered and applies information about windmills, in a fashion similar to that of a stamp collector, is potentially a very dangerous person.

Someone at Penn State University built a half scale postmill on campus a few years back and The Guild built one in Iowa (?). The Guild's expert in this field of millwrighting is Jim Cricker.

My suggestion is to lie down in a darkened room until the notion wears off.

Regards

Ken Hume

The Guild built one, a huge one, at a museum entirely devoted to windmills in north eastern most Indiana.
http://midamericawindmillmuseum.org/

If you like hanging around clever people with high levels of enthusiasm, this is one place to be. The TFG strives to be another.

We had a good time, and we learned a thing or three, and we struggled mightily. It was all worth it.

We did have a good time,


We made good friends,




It was worth it !

"Windmills of New England: Their Genius, Madness, history & Future" Daniel Lombardo. ISBN 0-9719547-7-1

Sometime I'd like to get out to the cape and see some of the mills out there. I like the machinery of old water mills, and I imagine the wind mills are similar.

Dutch Windmill- Fulton, IL. lots of photos of construction and internal gears.

I would also recommend the book "Mill, the history and future of naturally powered buildings" by David Larkin. ISBN 0-7893-0501-1

I will look for that title, Tom, Thanks. I have been on a search lately for things that are timber framed, that don't fall into the normal house, barn, church category. Cider presses, corn cribs/cratches, mills of all sorts, trebuchets.

That is a really cool website, a lot of great photos of the "works"

I guess this photo of a buhrstone grinding wheel is appropriate here. It is from a Shaker water powered mill about 7 miles from here. There is another buried in the lawn at the Hancock Shaker Village. A friend of also noticed a bunch of them in Lancaster County PA. The Buhrstone was imported from just outside Paris, France. Being of a segmented design, it could be rebuilt over and over.

Hi Joel,

I have briefly reviewed Tom's photos and already see a number of design related items on which I would like to comment but before doing so I would like to be a little more informed on the design provenance of this post mill.

Regards

Ken Hume

Photos from Guild project in Kendallville, IN. at Mid- America Windmill Museum
Finished photo here

Information on the original Robertson Post Windmill

From the Mid- America Windmill Museum website,

" The layout is based on plans of a 17th century post windmill preserved in Cambridgeshire, England and Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Museum directors worked with Ford Motor Company who owns the original construction plans and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to obtain a copy of the plans and build the replica."


That's Jim Kricker with the orange hard hat standing on top of the wind shaft in the first picture.

Hi Tom,

Forgive me but I do not believe that the Ford Motor Company was in existence in the 17th century and so how could they "own" the plans ?

Do you know the name of the Cambridgeshire mill ? Given its 17th century provenance I would take a guess that it is Bourn Mill. I do have a set of drawings for this mill but no mention of Ford Motor Company.

Regards

Ken Hume

Hi Ken,

The way I understand it, Ford owned the construction documents from the replica that was built in Williamsburg, VA. The replica was based on a Chambridgeshire mill of the time period because no plans or drawings of the original Williamsburg mill were available.

How similar to the Bourn Mill are the pictures I posted?

Hi Tom,

There are obvious similarities between the two mills however there are other post mills in Cambridgeshire for which I only have photos however I seem to recall that there are only 3 or 4 posts mills in the whole of England that have exposed trestles and so its very likely to be Bourn Mill.

Regards

Ken Hume