It is known that windmills began to appear in Europe in the 12th century AD, in flat areas where rivers ran too slow to turn waterwheels for mills.
For areas that did not have easy access to running water but still required flour for bread, the windmill was the solution. The revolving sails, which can be trimmed according to the direction of the wind, turn the mill shaft.
The invention of the windmill appeared to some scholars to have originated in the east, because of the prior evidence of vertical, rather than horizontal axle, windmills in China and Afghanistan as early as the 700s.
Windmills were used first to grind wheat and later to pump for drainage. In Afghanistan they were used to grind flour.
Although the windmill was probably not a European invention, medieval Europeans made significant improvements.
Around AD 1100, the Mediterranean windmill began to appear in Italy. However, Mediterranean windmills only worked when the wind blew from the correct direction and when it blew within the correct range of velocities.
The first practical windmill emerged sometime around 1250. This design called ‘post mill’. Post mills were first developed in the Low Countries and spread very quickly to England.
Fifteenth-century windmills were larger, more stable and more efficient than earlier versions.
Probably the first windmill in United States was one erected at the Flowerdew Hundred Plantation on the James River not far from Jamestown, Virginia in 1621.
History of windmill
