USE OF WINDMILLS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 September 1924, Page 8

USE OF WINDMILLS.

INTRODUCED: BY SARACENS

As long ago.as the twelfth century men had lehriied to grind 4 corn' and puyip water by means of windmills, which-were introduced into. Europe from Saracen countries. To-day they provide the cheapest powpr. obtainable for farm tasks where continuous operation is not. necessary. Within recent years, koAvever, the petrol motor is in many places displacing windmills, particularly where the winds are not to be relied on and where large power is needed.

Windmills are of two chief types; the older type, which lends much charm to the landscapes of Holland and other parts of Europe, with four or six huge sails thirty feet or more in length; aud the modern or American type, which has many fan blades arranged in a wheel usually 12 or 16 feet in diameter, mounted on wooden or steel framework towers, frogjt 60' to '7O feet high. In the American type the vane is used almost exclusively. In the older type the sails, which are great arms usually covered with canvas, are kept facing the wind either by rotating the entire tower or by moving the dome to which the sails are attached. This is done sometimes fey hand, sometimes by a rudder or vane at right angles to the sails, which automatically shifts the dome when the wind veers.