Historical Development of the Windmill - Wind Turbine Technology: Fundamental Concepts of Wind Turbine Engineering - page 23

and subsequent rotting from water seepage, Their multi-sided design included walls with
slanted corner posts and beams with beveled ends, all of which required expert craftsman-
ship and constant maintenance to make them secure and leak-resistant.
Brown states that the largest windmill ever built in Europe was a tower mill 37 m high
to the top of the cap and 12 m in diameter at the base [1976]. Its rotor diameter would
have been at least 30 m, based on the proportions in Figure 1-12. It was built in East
Anglia (U.K.) in 1812 and demolished in 1905, after being severely damaged in a storm.
What may have been the largest-diameter tower mills ever built were a pair erected in San
Francisco's Golden Gate Park to pump water to a hilltop lake [Torrey 1976]. Built in 1902
and 1905, they had rotor diameters of 34.7 m and towers 24 m tall.
Figure 1-12. Cross-sectional view of a large Dutch tower mill with dual millstones and
living quarters [Stokhuyzen 1965]. (Courtesy of DeHaan/Unieboek)