Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Historical Development of the Windmill
Dennis G. Shepherd
Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
Introduction
The wind turbine has had a singular history among prime movers. Its genesis is lost
in antiquity, but its existence as a provider of useful mechanical power for the last thousand
years has been authoritatively established. Although there are a few earlier mentions in the
literature, these are generally not acceptable for recognition as historical fact by most
professional historians of technology. The windmill, which once lourished along with the
water wheel as one of the two prime movers based on the kinetic energy of natural sources,
reached its apogee of utility in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its use then began
to decline, as prime movers based on thermal energy from the combustion of fuel took
precedence. Steam engines, steam turbines, and oil and gas engines provided more
powerful and more compact machines, adaptable to a multitude of uses other than just the
grinding of grain and the pumping of water. These new heat engines also were continuous-
ly available rather than subject to the vagaries of nature, and they could be located at the
job site rather than requiring that the job be brought to them.
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