A windmill is a device that harnesses wind energy using sails on a rotating shaft. The sails are positioned at an angle or with a twist, so wind force divides into components, one of which rotates the sails. Windmills convert wind energy into mechanical energy to grind grain or pump water. The earliest windmill references are from Persia in 644 CE. By the 12th century, their use had become widespread in Europe. Modern wind turbines generate electricity. The force of wind pushes blades, causing a shaft to spin an electrical generator, creating power. These are sometimes called wind power plants or wind farms.

How does a windmill work?

Windmills harness wind energy using angled blades on a rotating shaft. As wind pushes against the blades, they turn, converting wind energy into rotational mechanical energy. This energy can then be used for various purposes, such as grinding grain, pumping water, or generating electricity. The rotating shaft is connected to a generator, which then produces power. To maximize efficiency, windmills often have a fantail that automatically adjusts the sails to face the wind.

What are the main parts of a windmill?

A windmill is a device that harnesses wind energy using sails mounted on a rotating shaft. The main parts of a windmill include: * Sails Sails are angled or twisted to convert wind force into rotational movement. * Windshaft The windshaft is an axle on which the sails are mounted. It is typically inclined upward at an angle of 5° to 15° to the horizontal. * Gearing Gears transfer the rotational energy from the sails to power machinery, such as millstones for grinding grain. * Fantail The fantail is a set of smaller vanes mounted at right angles to the sails, connected by gearing to wheels. It automatically turns the mill to face the wind. * Tower or Post The tower or post is the structure that supports the windmill's components. The tower is a fixed structure, while the post mill has a boxlike body that can be turned to face the wind.

What are some uses of windmills in history?

Windmills have been used since ancient times to convert wind energy into mechanical energy. The earliest known windmill-like device was described in the 1st century CE by Hero of Alexandria. By the 9th century, windmills were used in Persia to grind grain. Windmills spread to Europe by the 12th century, where they were adapted to drive millstones for grinding grain and were also used for pumping water and draining lowland areas . In the Netherlands, windmills powered drainage pumps. Colonists in America used windmills to power machinery to process crops and make household items.

How are windmills different from modern wind turbines?

Though the term windmill is still sometimes used, modern wind turbines primarily generate electricity rather than milling. Windmills, along with waterwheels, were widely used from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, but were later replaced by steam engines. Interest in wind turbines for electricity generation was revived by the oil crisis of the mid-1970s. Windmills have up to 20 flat sheet-metal blades, while modern wind turbines typically have one to four twisted metal blades that function at higher rotor-tip speeds. Automatic governors in modern turbines rotate the blades around their support axis to keep generator speed constant.

How do windmills help produce renewable energy today?

Wind turbines, often referred to as windmills, harness wind's kinetic energy and convert it into electricity. As the wind pushes against the blades, they rotate, driving an electrical generator to produce power. These turbines come in various sizes, from small-scale models for individual homes to large-scale wind farms. Wind farms, clusters of giant wind turbines, are becoming increasingly common. By 2022, wind power contributed over 7% of the world's total electricity. Wind turbines have a small effect on bird populations. The most common type of wind turbine is the horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT).

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Images

post windmill with grinding machinery in mill housing, 1588

A row of white wind turbines with spinning blades stands on golden grassy hills under a clear blue sky in Livermore, California.

Row of traditional white windmills with dark conical roofs on a rocky hilltop in Castilla-La Mancha, Consuegra, Toledo, Spain, overlooking a wide plain.

At a Glance

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Key People:: William Kamkwamba

Related Topics:: wind turbine; patent sail; tower mill; post mill; Jacobs three-bladed windmill

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Top Questions

What is a windmill?
A windmill is a device that harnesses wind energy using sails on a rotating shaft. The sails are positioned at an angle or with a twist, so wind force divides into components, one of which rotates the sails.

Windmills convert wind energy into mechanical energy to grind grain or pump water. The earliest windmill references are from Persia in 644 CE. By the 12th century, their use had become widespread in Europe.

Modern wind turbines generate electricity. The force of wind pushes blades, causing a shaft to spin an electrical generator, creating power. These are sometimes called wind power plants or wind farms.
5 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How does a windmill work?
Windmills harness wind energy using angled blades on a rotating shaft. As wind pushes against the blades, they turn, converting wind energy into rotational mechanical energy. This energy can then be used for various purposes, such as grinding grain, pumping water, or generating electricity. The rotating shaft is connected to a generator, which then produces power. To maximize efficiency, windmills often have a fantail that automatically adjusts the sails to face the wind.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What are the main parts of a windmill?
A windmill is a device that harnesses wind energy using sails mounted on a rotating shaft. The main parts of a windmill include:
* Sails Sails are angled or twisted to convert wind force into rotational movement.
* Windshaft The windshaft is an axle on which the sails are mounted. It is typically inclined upward at an angle of 5° to 15° to the horizontal.
* Gearing Gears transfer the rotational energy from the sails to power machinery, such as millstones for grinding grain.
* Fantail The fantail is a set of smaller vanes mounted at right angles to the sails, connected by gearing to wheels. It automatically turns the mill to face the wind.
* Tower or Post The tower or post is the structure that supports the windmill's components. The tower is a fixed structure, while the post mill has a boxlike body that can be turned to face the wind.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What are some uses of windmills in history?
Windmills have been used since ancient times to convert wind energy into mechanical energy. The earliest known windmill-like device was described in the 1st century CE by Hero of Alexandria. By the 9th century, windmills were used in Persia to grind grain.

Windmills spread to Europe by the 12th century, where they were adapted to drive millstones for grinding grain and were also used for pumping water and draining lowland areas. In the Netherlands, windmills powered drainage pumps. Colonists in America used windmills to power machinery to process crops and make household items.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How are windmills different from modern wind turbines?
Though the term windmill is still sometimes used, modern wind turbines primarily generate electricity rather than milling. Windmills, along with waterwheels, were widely used from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, but were later replaced by steam engines. Interest in wind turbines for electricity generation was revived by the oil crisis of the mid-1970s.

Windmills have up to 20 flat sheet-metal blades, while modern wind turbines typically have one to four twisted metal blades that function at higher rotor-tip speeds. Automatic governors in modern turbines rotate the blades around their support axis to keep generator speed constant.
2 Britannica Sources
1. turbine: Horizontal axis machines
2. windmill
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How do windmills help produce renewable energy today?
Wind turbines, often referred to as windmills, harness wind's kinetic energy and convert it into electricity. As the wind pushes against the blades, they rotate, driving an electrical generator to produce power. These turbines come in various sizes, from small-scale models for individual homes to large-scale wind farms.

Wind farms, clusters of giant wind turbines, are becoming increasingly common. By 2022, wind power contributed over 7% of the world's total electricity. Wind turbines have a small effect on bird populations. The most common type of wind turbine is the horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT).
6 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

windmill, device for tapping the energy of the wind by means of sails mounted on a rotating shaft. The sails are mounted at an angle or are given a slight twist so that the force of wind against them is divided into two components, one of which, in the plane of the sails, imparts rotation.

Like waterwheels, windmills were among the original prime movers that replaced human beings as a source of power. The use of windmills was increasingly widespread in Europe from the 12th century until the early 19th century. Their slow decline, because of the development of steam power, lasted for a further 100 years. Their rapid demise began following World War I with the development of the internal-combustion engine and the spread of electric power; from that time on, however, electrical generation by wind power has served as the subject of more and more experiments.

The earliest-known references to windmills are to a Persian millwright in ad 644 and to windmills in Seistan, Persia, in ad 915. These windmills are of the horizontal-mill type, with sails radiating from a vertical axis standing in a fixed building, which has openings for the inlet and outlet of the wind diametrically opposite to each other. Each mill drives a single pair of stones directly, without the use of gears, and the design is derived from the earliest water mills. Persian millwrights, taken prisoner by the forces of Genghis Khan, were sent to China to instruct in the building of windmills; their use for irrigation there has lasted ever since.

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The vertical windmill, with sails on a horizontal axis, derives directly from the Roman water mill with its right-angle drive to the stones through a single pair of gears. The earliest form of vertical mill is known as the post mill. It has a boxlike body containing the gearing, millstones, and machinery and carrying the sails. It is mounted on a well-supported wooden post socketed into a horizontal beam on the level of the second floor of the mill body. On this it can be turned so that the sails can be faced into the wind.

The next development was to place the stones and gearing in a fixed tower. This has a movable top, or cap, which carries the sails and can be turned around on a track, or curb, on top of the tower. The earliest-known illustration of a tower mill is dated about 1420. Both post and tower mills were to be found throughout Europe and were also built by settlers in America.

To work efficiently, the sails of a windmill must face squarely into the wind, and in the early mills the turning of the post-mill body, or the tower-mill cap, was done by hand by means of a long tailpole stretching down to the ground. In 1745 Edmund Lee in England invented the automatic fantail. This consists of a set of five to eight smaller vanes mounted on the tailpole or the ladder of a post mill at right angles to the sails and connected by gearing to wheels running on a track around the mill. When the wind veers it strikes the sides of the vanes, turns them and hence the track wheels also, which turn the mill body until the sails are again square into the wind. The fantail may also be fitted to the caps of tower mills, driving down to a geared rack on the curb.

The sails of a mill are mounted on an axle, or windshaft, inclined upward at an angle of from 5° to 15° to the horizontal. The first mill sails were wooden frames on which sailcloth was spread; each sail was set individually with the mill at rest. The early sails were flat planes inclined at a constant angle to the direction of rotation; later they were built with a twist like that of an airplane propeller.

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In 1772 Andrew Meikle, a Scot, invented his spring sail, substituting hinged shutters, like those of a Venetian blind, for sailcloths and controlling them by a connecting bar and a spring on each sail. Each spring had to be adjusted individually with the mill at rest according to the power required; the sails were then, within limits, self-regulating.

In 1789 Stephen Hooper in England utilized roller blinds instead of shutters and devised a remote control to enable all the blinds to be adjusted simultaneously while the mill was at work. In 1807 Sir William Cubitt invented his “patent sail” combining Meikle’s hinged shutters with Hooper’s remote control by chain from the ground via a rod passing through a hole drilled through the windshaft; the operation was comparable to operating an umbrella; by varying the weights hung on the chain the sails were made self-regulating.

The annular-sailed wind pump was brought out in the United States by Daniel Hallady in 1854, and its production in steel by Stuart Perry in 1883 led to worldwide adoption, for, although inefficient, it was cheap and reliable. The design consists of a number of small vanes set radially in a wheel. Governing is automatic: of yaw by tail vane, and of torque by setting the wheel off-centre with respect to the vertical yaw axis. Thus, as the wind increases the mill turns on its vertical axis, reducing the effective area and therefore the speed.

The most important use of the windmill was for grinding grain. In certain areas its uses in land drainage and water pumping were equally important. The windmill has been used as a source of electrical power since P. La Cour’s mill, built in Denmark in 1890 with patent sails and twin fantails on a steel tower. Interest in the use of windmills for the generation of electric power, on both single-user and commercial scales, revived in the 1970s.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.

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