A tower mill is a type of vertical windmill consisting of a brick or stone tower, on which sits a wooden 'cap' or roof, which can rotate to bring the sails into the wind.[1][2][3][4][5]
This rotating cap on a firm masonry base gave tower mills great advantages over earlier post mills, as they could stand much higher, bear larger sails, and thus afford greater reach into the wind. Windmills in general had been known to civilization for centuries, but the tower mill represented an improvement on traditional western-style windmills. The tower mill was an important source of power for Europe for nearly 600 years from 1300 to 1900, contributing to 25 percent of the industrial power of all wind machines before the advent of the steam engine and coal power.[6]
It represented a modification or a demonstration of improving and adapting technology that had been known by humans for ages. Although these types of mills were effective, some argue that, owing to their complexity, they would have initially been built mainly by the most wealthy individuals.[7]
- ^ Righter, Wind energy in America: A History, (1996) 14
- ^ A short history of technology: from the earliest times to A.D. 1900 (1993), 255
- ^ Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia (2005), 520
- ^ Watts, Water and wind power (2000), 125
- ^ Ball, Natural sources of power (1908), 243
- ^ Righter, Wind energy in America: A History, (1996) 15
- ^ Langdon, Mills in the medieval economy: England, 1300–1540 (2004), 115