Wheels to Allow the Head of the Windmill to Turn
The inside of a traditional Dutch windmill was surprisingly interesting. For one thing. the body itself is quite hollow. There is a central pillar which the fans of the windmill drive which in turn turn a screw at the bottom of the mill. This in turn allows the windmill to carry water. This is using this technique that the Dutch have been able to pump water out from wet lands. It was using a network of these structures that their country was born. It is not an exaggeration since almost twenty percent of the country used to be under water.
Gears Which Drive Other Parts of the Windmill
We spent the rest of the time looking at how the windmill works. Most of the material here is wood, perhaps the central pillar is the main exception. There is a large wheel looking thing and it has teeth on it making it look like a gear. It actually is a massive wooden gear. It works together with other wooden gears here to help turn the pillar. Another interesting part is that there seem to be ring of wooden wheels which goes around the head of the windmill. I immediately understood this to mean that the head can actually turn around to face wherever the wind is coming from. The wheels make it easier to turn it the head around. It was really impressive to see this and how there seem to be wooden equivalents to what we take for granted these days.
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