Read the first part here.
Don Quixote against windmills:
Then they saw thirty or forty windmills standing in the middle of the field. Noticing them from afar, Don Quixote said to his squire:
- Favorable fate sends us good luck. Look that way, friend Sancho! There are giants on the plain there. Now I will go into battle with them and kill them all. They own countless treasures; by defeating them, we will become rich. This is a righteous battle, for God himself wants this evil seed to be wiped off the face of the earth.
- But where are these giants? Sancho Panza asked.
- Yes, here they are in front of you! - answered Don Quixote. - See how huge their hands are? Others are nearly two miles long.
This novel by Miguel de Cervantes was published already in 1615, where it is clearly stated how quantitatively the mills were already in those years. Thirty or forty mills and all in one place. Plus the fact that they were gigantic in size. I will not argue with the fact that perhaps the author exaggerated something somewhere, but that there were many mills and some of them were really gigantic in size, he conveyed well. And I repeat again, these are the 1600s and they were already standing. And what is needed to reach such a level of development? The fact that today we can assemble something similar from the drawings is one thing. Although even in this case we will come to the conclusion that it is very difficult for us to build in this twenty-first century, if not to say that it is impossible for a number of reasons. But it was necessary to come to this somehow.
Promotional video:
On this score, a person noticed well with a comment under the first part of our film:
Here you are absolutely right! The mill is not as simple as it seems. I will give examples from life, if interested.
First. Windmill. Studied and staged in 2005 in the Leningrad region. To do this, you need to know meteorology, aerodynamics, electrical engineering, materials science, strength materials, be able to work with planetary gears, make and maintain them, etc. Alas, this does not work properly for us (the average annual wind speed is 3.6m / s, and the windmill needs from 6m / s). The cost of a modern complex is 2-3 dollars per watt plus storage and conversion of energy, this is multiplied by 2. In addition, the gearbox makes noise so that the neighbors hang, the gearless one works from 600 rpm (this is an unprofitable minimum), the propeller is like a two-bladed aircraft, howls in the wind too. We also need a reliable system of protection against hurricanes, this makes the twist more expensive. Etc.
Second. Now I am making a cascade fountain - a water mill. Small, 2 meters long and the wheel is only 55cm. You need to know hydrodynamics, mechanics, materials, wild stone masonry, concrete work, work with inert materials, etc. Even such a small wheel for a water mill is very difficult to manufacture. only now I can fully imagine what is needed to manufacture mechanisms for a full-size water mill. No axes and hand saws of illiterate peasants can accomplish this with its ideal centering, balance, stabilization mechanisms, etc. and ensure work for a long time. With respect!
This was written by a practitioner. To this I will add what was in the first part. The mill was used not only for grinding flour. The mills were used as paper mills. The mills were used as sawmills. Weaving cloth. They ground snuff and spices. Used as an oil mill. Mills were used to produce electricity. Forged iron. And it went and went according to the list of production, which was produced thanks to the mill, which automatically adds an even greater level of knowledge and the need for specialists qualified in this area.
According to surviving sources, in 770 there was already a Mill for the production of malt. 1080 Felting mill. 1134 Leather mill. 1200 Blacksmith mill. 1203 Grinding mill for tools. 1209 Hemp mill. By the way, hemp production involves a lot of industries, from the strongest ropes and durable clothing to food, which our politicians in quotation marks pretend not to know about. By the way, at the expense of paper in the first part, he said that there are sources since 1500, but I found another one, which says that paper mills were present in 1200 as well. Also in the same years, an Air-blowing mill was recorded. In Germany in 1300, an Ore Crushing Mill was observed. In the same years in France, a Mill for blast furnace technology. B 1443 Mill for making wire. In 1890, a plant was built in Sendagaya, Japan. It worked from a water mill, from which we see in Japan a production of rubber-insulated wires was created, powered by mills. Can you imagine how complex and wide-profile the mill is?
In the first part we looked at windmills, and now let's also look at the already mentioned water mills.
1. Water mill in the village of Pechora, Vinnytsia region
Built according to the official legend in 1894. It is also claimed that it was allegedly exclusively for grinding flour. All the interior of the mill was destroyed by fire in 1992. But if you look closely, you can see that it was destroyed before:
In 1921 they tried to restore it … why do you think? For flour? No, for the production of electricity! For that we are told how there was no electricity before. Of course, after the so-called Crimean Turkish intervention, the First World War, the Revolution, the Second World War, people were simply bent into a backward position. Where did the electricity come from if wind power plants, water, steam, atmospheric, manure and others and others were disabled in the first place? The wars were organized for that, reformatting the World, so that people could bend from autonomy to modern dependence on the sovereigns of invented states.
The walls in this mill, as visitors notice, are striking in many places.
I hope you appreciate the scale.
What have we been told that the mill is a primitive flour mill of a backward society? And here we see a whole castle. As if not a mill was built, in terms of scale, but a whole nuclear power plant, and with the most beautiful elements of art.
2. The mill and the estate of Count Nikolai Ivanovich Taldykin
The mill was built in 1867. It is located on the banks of the Vorgol River in the unique nature reserve Vorgolskie Rocks.
The thickness of the walls of the building is more than 1 meter. The mill was burned down in 1941 so as not to leave the advancing Wehrmacht troops. And then you never know, suddenly the Germans would have abandoned the fight and would have started grinding flour.
It is somewhat reminiscent of the Brest Star. The same masterpieces of masonry with such high-quality bricks that today we have to envy the past. The same thing - destroyed by war. Burned burned and no one wanted to restore.
Where are the Egyptologists who like to run to the seams with a knife?
3. Big and Small Mills, Poland
A very large red brick building with a triangular roof that descends almost to the ground is an old mill, according to an official funny legend, built in the middle of the 14th century by the knights of the Teutonic Order. It is called Wielki Młyn (Big Mill), and the Small Mill is located just across the street:
Both of them worked on the Radunya stream with a rather strong current.
4. Water mills of the city of Hama. Syria
Dated to the 12th century.
In ancient times, there were hundreds of norias along the river, and about 20 survived to this day. Large wooden wheels (the largest has a radius of 21 m), now, for the most part, play the role of decorations. Grinding and squeaking, wooden axles rub against the stone beds on which they are installed, and, just like hundreds of years ago, the wheels continue to function properly, capturing water from the river.
5. How do you like the mill colonnade located in the Czech Republic?
6. Italy
Abandoned mill, built in 1866. Sorrento, Italy. Directly below Piazza Tasso, in the heart of Sorrento, there is a wonderful view down the valley called "Valle Dei Mollini". Destroyed by whom, I do not know.
7. Japan. The mill wheel is considered the largest in the country
8. Spain
Spain also has enough interesting mills.
9. India
Watermill, a landmark in Aurangabad.
Also itself - more like a palace than a mill.
10. Laxey Mill
Quite a small island in the Irish Sea, but it has such a whopper, built, as the official version says, in 1854.
This mill, in order to amuse tourists, is turned on at this time. Works great.
Well, the final
If it seemed to you that there is a steamer in the photo, then you are partly wrong. The picture shows a ship's mill. Why partly wrong? Yes, because a water mill, a steamer is a kind of hybrid technology, which means that in some ways you are right. Also present in the past centuries and steam mills, as well as steam power plants. But this is probably, if there is time, I will leave it for the next chapter. I will only say that mills and steam technologies began to walk so close that enough sources have survived, as people altered steam tractors for any need - for example, for a sawmill. Therefore, steam technologies and mills were removed into oblivion.
After all, any steamer can be converted for any need - you want to make a sawmill, or make paper, or maybe make products from hemp, an oil mill or wire making - everything can essentially be modernized easily. While not entirely steam technology has disappeared, nuclear power plants are essentially the same steam power plants used by the kings. It is also worth noting that steam technologies are distorted, they say they are dependent on coal. Coal gives off smoke, not steam. Steam technologies are water-based technologies. And the coal is already for the furnace, which can also be upgraded for gas, electricity or plasma energy. And my inner compass for some reason tells me that it was a century ago that steam technologies were transferred exclusively to coal. Were there steam trams? Were there steam tractors and cars? There were steamers from small sizes,to big ones? And where are the coal stations? There is silence about this. Plus, we inherited the production of electricity and gas from the past centuries. And in the past centuries, gas and electricity technologies were development, more interesting and versatile than it is now.
Read the continuation here.
Bullets of Snowfall