Windmills, Picturesque and Historic: The Motors of the Past

BY F. H. SHELTON Philadelphia. Member of the Institute Reprinted from the Journal of The Franklin Institute February, 1919
PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1919 (Reprinted from the Journal of The Franklin Institute, February, 1919.)
BY F. H. SHELTON. Philadelphia. Member of the Institute.
The pessimist says that man is a lazy animal and that he invents machines to save himself work. The optimist, that man is an industrious creature who invents machines that he may accomplish the more. Whichever doctrine is right, there is but little question that of all the ingenious contrivances evolved by man none is more picturesque, of more historic interest nor of greater usefulness in its day than the old-fashioned windmill, the world’s principal motor for some eight hundred years. And “motor” is the viewpoint to take of this old piece of mechanism, for just as the later devices of steam, electricity or gasoline are for the purposes of making power for the needs of man, so was this old appliance for the prime purpose of securing power from the wind, and by thus harnessing that most widely distributed of Nature’s forces, of enabling the accomplishment of work far beyond the limits of manual power.
The steam engine came into use in the early part of the nineteenth century. By 1825 most of the principal English cities had it in use. Before that period, and dating back to remote ages, the only sources of power—other than man or bullocks, etc.—were the two great forces of wind and water. But only countries of waterways and varying levels afforded waterfalls; while the wind was universal. Therefore, while water wheels were in use in parallel periods with the oldest of windmills, in number they were infinitely less, so that one can properly say that the world’s motor for some eight centuries was the old-time windmill. These eight centuries are from about 1000 to 1825, when, with the advent of Watt’s invention, the zenith of windmill design and use had been attained. After that date they so declined that in fifty years not only had new construction ceased, but the old structures in very large measure had fallen into decay and abandonment. It is evident from the above that an account of this old, picturesque, historic and effective tool of mankind should have some interest, both from the standpoint of engineering and that of sentiment; and it is believed that what follows will give the essential facts relating to it. It may be proper to say here that what is related applies entirely to the old-style windmill, and in no measure whatever to the modern American type of windmill, which, while cheap, effective and useful, is nevertheless a prosaic, galvanized iron, squeaky thing, of which happily the larger proportion of the millions annually made is exported out of our country!