"fens, such as Romney Marsh, the Somerset Levels and the Fens; royal forests from the late 12th century onwards; and poorer lands in the north, south-west and in the Welsh Marches. The first windmills in England began to appear along the south and east coasts in the 12th century, expanding in number in the 13th, adding to the mechanised power available to the manors. By 1300 it has been estimated that there were more than 10,000 watermills in England, used both for grinding corn and for fulling cloth. Fish ponds were created on most estates to provide freshwater fish for"
"questioned on the grounds that it appears in a tenth-century document. Made of six to 12 sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind grain or draw up water, and were quite different from the later European vertical windmills. Windmills were in widespread use across the Middle East and Central Asia, and later spread to China and India from there. A similar type of horizontal windmill with rectangular blades, used for irrigation, can also be found in thirteenth-century China (during the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the north), introduced by the travels of Yelü Chucai"
"Sistan, a region in Iran and bordering Afghanistan, at least by the 9th century and possibly as early as the 7th century. These ""Panemone windmills"" were horizontal windmills, which had long vertical driveshafts with six to twelve rectangular sails covered in reed matting or cloth. These windmills were used to pump water, and in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries. The use of windmills became widespread across the Middle East and Central Asia, and later spread to China and India. Vertical windmills were later used extensively in Northwestern Europe to grind flour beginning in the 1180s, and many examples still exist."
"wheel was the prayer wheel, which has been used in Tibet and China since the fourth century. It has been claimed that the Babylonian emperor Hammurabi planned to use wind power for his ambitious irrigation project in the seventeenth century BCE. The first practical windmills had sails that rotated in a horizontal plane, around a vertical axis. According to Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, these panemone windmills were invented in eastern Persia, or Khorasan, as recorded by the Persian geographer Estakhri in the ninth century. The authenticity of an earlier anecdote of a windmill involving the second caliph Umar (AD 634–644) is"
"vertical windmill (so called due to the plane of the movement of its sails) is believed to date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the triangle of northern France, eastern England and Flanders. The earliest certain reference to a windmill in Europe (assumed to have been of the vertical type) dates from 1185, in the former village of Weedley in Yorkshire which was located at the southern tip of the Wold overlooking the Humber Estuary. A number of earlier, but less certainly dated, twelfth-century European sources referring to windmills have also been found. These earliest mills were used to"
"power an organ in the first century CE. The first practical windmills were later built in Sistan, Afghanistan, from the 7th century CE. These were vertical-axle windmills, which had long vertical driveshafts with rectangle shaped blades. Made of six to twelve sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind corn and draw up water, and were used in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries. Horizontal-axle windmills were later used extensively in Northwestern Europe to grind flour beginning in the 1180s, and many Dutch windmills still exist. High altitude wind power is the focus of over"
"fabric sails. As the wind blew, the sails would turn the axle, which was in turn connected to grain grinders or some form of water transportation device (though little is known of the actual details of such methods). No one knows when or where people first built windmills to do work. The first instance may have been in China more than 2,000 years ago, but archaeologists have found no definite record of their use there before 1219 AD. The earliest recorded windmill design found was Persian in origin, and was invented around 500–900 AD. Other sources date it to as"
"By 1000 AD, windmills were used to pump seawater for salt-making in China and Sicily. Wind-powered automata are known from the mid-8th century: wind-powered statues that ""turned with the wind over the domes of the four gates and the palace complex of the Round City of Baghdad"". The ""Green Dome of the palace was surmounted by the statue of a horseman carrying a lance that was believed to point toward the enemy. This public spectacle of wind-powered statues had its private counterpart in the 'Abbasid palaces where automata of various types were predominantly displayed."" The first windmills in Europe appear"
"Windpump A windpump is a type of windmill which is used for pumping water. Windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The use of wind pumps became widespread across the Muslim world and later spread to China and India. Windmills were later used extensively in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and the East Anglia area of Great Britain, from the late Middle Ages onwards, to drain land for agricultural or building purposes. Simon Stevin's work in the ""waterstaet"" involved improvements to the sluices and spillways to control"
"to Turkestan in 1219. Horizontal windmills were built, in small numbers, in Europe during the 18th and nineteenth centuries, for example Fowler's Mill at Battersea in London, and Hooper's Mill at Margate in Kent. These early modern examples seem not to have been directly influenced by the horizontal windmills of the Middle and Far East, but to have been independent inventions by engineers influenced by the Industrial Revolution. Due to a lack of evidence, debate occurs among historians as to whether or not Middle Eastern horizontal windmills triggered the original development of European windmills. In northwestern Europe, the horizontal-axis or"
"natural ventilation in buildings since similarly ancient times. The use of wind to provide mechanical power came somewhat later in antiquity. The Babylonian emperor Hammurabi planned to use wind power for his ambitious irrigation project in the 17th century BC. The windwheel of the engineer Heron of Alexandria in 1st-century AD Roman Egypt is the earliest known instance of using a wind-driven wheel to power a machine. Another early example of a wind-driven wheel was the prayer wheel, which has been used in ancient India, Tibet, and China since the 4th century. The first practical windmills were in use in"
"view Chinese windmills was Jan Nieuhoff, who spotted them in Jiangsu while traveling along the Grand Canal in 1656, as part of the Dutch embassy to Beijing. The first European windmills written of were those of Dean Herbert of East Anglia in 1191, who competed with the mills of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. After the windmill, wind power applications in other devices and even vehicles were found in China. There was the 'sailing carriage' that appeared by at least the Ming dynasty in the 16th century (although it could have been known beforehand). European travelers to China in"
"21st century began, rising concerns over energy security, global warming, and eventual fossil fuel depletion led to an expansion of interest in all available forms of renewable energy. Worldwide, many thousands of wind turbines are now operating, with a total nameplate capacity of 194,400 MW. Europe accounted for 48% of the total in 2009. Windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The use of wind pumps became widespread across the Muslim world and later spread to China and India. Windmills were later used extensively in Europe, particularly"
"Irish coast where watermillers knew and employed the two main waterwheel types: a 6th-century tide mill at Killoteran near Waterford was powered by a vertical waterwheel, while the tide changes at Little Island were exploited by a twin-flume horizontal-wheeled mill (c. 630) and a vertical undershot waterwheel alongside it. Another early example is the Nendrum Monastery mill from 787 which is estimated to have developed seven to eight horsepower at its peak. Vertical windmills (1180s) Invented in Europe as the pivotable post mill, the first surviving mention of one comes from Yorkshire in England in 1185. They were efficient at"
"the 7th century, while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled watermills were both in widespread use by the 9th century. A variety of industrial watermills were used in the Islamic world, including gristmills, hullers, sawmills, shipmills, stamp mills, steel mills, sugar mills, and tide mills. By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial watermills in operation, from al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia. Muslim and Middle Eastern Christian engineers also used crankshafts and water turbines, gears in watermills and water-raising machines, and dams as a source of water, used to provide additional power"
"from Stephen de Pencastor of Dover, but the earliest illustrations date from 1390. Other early examples come from Yorkshire and Buckinghamshire. Other sources pin its earliest inception back in 1180 in the form of an illustration on a Norman deed, showing this new western-style windmill. The Netherlands has six mills recorded before the year 1407. One of the earliest tower mills in Britain was Chesterton Mill, Warwickshire, which has a hollowed conical base with arches. The large part of its development continued through the Late Middle Ages, towards the end of the 15th century tower mills began appearing across Europe"
"one of the most commonly re-invented and patented forms. Panemone windmill A panemone windmill is a type of vertical axis wind turbine. It has a rotating axis positioned vertically, while the wind-catching blades move parallel to the wind. By contrast, the shaft of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) points into the wind while its blades move at right-angles to the wind's thrust. That is, a panemone primarily uses drag whereas the blades of a HAWT use lift. Historically the earliest known wind machine was made by the Persians and it was the panemone design, consisting of a wall, with"
"windmills from the 9th and 10th centuries in what are today Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. In the Indian subcontinent, sugar mills came into extended use in the 13th and 14th centuries, which greatly increased sugar production. The draw bar was applied to sugar-milling, with evidence of its use at Delhi in 1540, but possibly dating back several centuries earlier, and was mainly used in the northern Indian subcontinent. Sugar rolling mills also first appeared in the Indian subcontinent, using the principle of rollers as well as worm gearing, by the 17th century. Sugarcane mill A sugar cane mill can refer"
"The earliest certain reference to a windmill in Europe (assumed to have been of the vertical type) dates from 1185, in the former village of Weedley in Yorkshire which was located at the southern tip of the Wold overlooking the Humber Estuary. The first electricity-generating wind turbine was a battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish academic James Blyth to light his holiday home in Marykirk, Scotland. In 1878 the world's first hydroelectric power scheme was developed at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William George Armstrong. It was used to power a single Arc lamp in his art"
"Panemone windmill A panemone windmill is a type of vertical axis wind turbine. It has a rotating axis positioned vertically, while the wind-catching blades move parallel to the wind. By contrast, the shaft of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) points into the wind while its blades move at right-angles to the wind's thrust. That is, a panemone primarily uses drag whereas the blades of a HAWT use lift. Historically the earliest known wind machine was made by the Persians and it was the panemone design, consisting of a wall, with slits, surrounding a vertical axle containing four to eight"
"for Europe for nearly 600 years from 1300–1900, contributing to 25 percent of the industrial power of all wind machines before the advent of the steam engine and coal power. 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. The tower mill originated in written history in the late 13th century in western Europe; the earliest record of its existence is from 1295,"
"and was cheaper than the alternative of erecting a smock mill. Post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. The earliest post mills in England are thought to have been built in the 12th century. The earliest working post mill in England still used today is to be found at Outwood, Surrey. It was built in 1665. The earliest remaining example"
"grind cereals. The evidence at present is that the earliest type of European windmill was the post mill, so named because of the large upright post on which the mill's main structure (the ""body"" or ""buck"") is balanced. By mounting the body this way, the mill is able to rotate to face the wind direction; an essential requirement for windmills to operate economically in north-western Europe, where wind directions are variable. The body contains all the milling machinery. The first post mills were of the sunken type, where the post was buried in an earth mound to support it. Later,"
"an increasingly important source of intermittent renewable energy and are used by many countries as part of a strategy to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. One assessment claimed that, , wind had the ""lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions, the least water consumption demands and... the most favourable social impacts"" compared to photovoltaic, hydro, geothermal, coal and gas. The windwheel of Hero of Alexandria (10 AD – 70 AD) marks one of the first recorded instances of wind powering a machine in history. However, the first known practical wind power plants were built in Sistan, an Eastern province of Persia"
"7th century, Persian engineers in Greater Iran developed a more advanced wind-power machine, the windmill, building upon the basic model developed by the Babylonians. The 9th century mathematician Muhammad Ibn Musa-al-Kharazmi created the Logarithm table, developed algebra and expanded upon Persian and Indian arithmetic systems. His writings were translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona under the title: ""De jebra et almucabola"". Robert of Chester also translated it under the title ""Liber algebras et almucabala"". The works of Kharazmi ""exercised a profound influence on the development of mathematical thought in the medieval West"". Other Persian scientists included Abu Abbas Fazl"
"passed through Muslim states between China and Europe. Muslim engineers in the Islamic world made a number of innovative industrial uses of hydropower, and early industrial uses of tidal power and wind power, fossil fuels such as petroleum, and early large factory complexes (""tiraz"" in Arabic). The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th century, while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled water mills were both in widespread use since at least the 9th century. A variety of industrial mills were being employed in the Islamic world, including early fulling mills, gristmills, hullers, sawmills, ship mills, stamp"
"horizontal operation. Before the invention of the sawmill, boards were made in various manual ways, either rived (split) and planed, hewn, or more often hand sawn by two men with a whipsaw, one above and another in a saw pit below. The earliest known mechanical mill is the Hierapolis sawmill, a Roman water-powered stone mill at Hierapolis, Asia Minor dating back to the 3rd century AD. Other water-powered mills followed and by the 11th century they were widespread in Spain and North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, and in the next few centuries, spread across Europe. The circular"
"has been used on some windmills, the fantail, a small windmill mounted at right angles to the main sails which automatically turns the heavy cap and main sails into the wind, (invented in England in 1745). (When the wind is already directly into the main vanes, the fantail remains essentially motionless.) Only few manufacturers have been successful with systems that operate an auxiliary rudder directly from the windvane (Non-servo systems: Windpilot Atlantik, Hydrovane); the picture of the windvane shown uses this principle with the large fabric vane on a vertical axis (the use of wind vanes with a nearly horizontal"
"upright shaft to drive a scoop wheel or Archimedes' screw. Sawmills use a crankshaft to provide a reciprocating motion to the saws. Windmills have been used to power many other industrial processes, including papermills, threshing mills, and to process oil seeds, wool, paints and stone products. In the 14th century windmills became popular in Europe; the total number of wind-powered mills is estimated to have been around 200,000 at the peak in 1850, which is modest compared to some 500,000 waterwheels. Windmills were applied in regions where there was too little water, where rivers freeze in winter and in flat"
"the power of wind. More reliable than this account were the windmills of the Banu Musa brothers (850 to 870), while there are also several authors confirming the windmills of Sistan (Iran), written of by Abu Ishaq al-Istakhri and Abu al-Qasim ibn Hauqal. The northern Chinese under the rule of the Jurchen Jin dynasty became acquainted with the windmills of the Islamic world in the early 13th century. This is seen in an account of the ""Shu Zhai Lao Xue Cong Tan"" (Collected Talks of the Learned Old Man of the Shu Studio), written by Sheng Ruozi. It read: In"
"By the 11th century, stamp mills were in widespread use throughout the medieval Islamic world, from Islamic Spain and North Africa in the west to Central Asia in the east. Water-powered and mechanised trip hammers reappeared in medieval Europe by the 12th century. Their use was described in medieval written sources of Styria (in modern-day Austria), written in 1135 and another in 1175 AD. Both texts mentioned the use of vertical stamp mills for ore-crushing. Medieval French sources of the years 1116 and 1249 both record the use of mechanised trip hammers used in the forging of wrought iron. Medieval"
"such a type of mill is from the Irish Little Island (c. 630). As for the use in a common Norse or Greek mill, the oldest known horizontal-wheels were excavated in the Irish Ballykilleen, dating to c. 636. The earliest excavated water wheel driven by tidal power was the Nendrum Monastery mill in Northern Ireland which has been dated to 787, although a possible earlier mill dates to 619. Tide mills became common in estuaries with a good tidal range in both Europe and America generally using undershot wheels. Cistercian monasteries, in particular, made extensive use of water wheels to"
"country by the Romans, with sites in Ikenham and Willowford in England being from the 2nd century AD. At the time of the compilation of the Domesday Book (1086), there were 5,624 watermills in England alone, only 2% of which have not been located by modern archaeological surveys. Later research estimates a less conservative number of 6,082, and it has been pointed out that this should be considered a minimum as the northern reaches of England were never properly recorded. In 1300, this number had risen to between 10,000 and 15,000. Windmills first appeared in Europe during the Middle Ages."