Mills. windmills, history, types and designs. History of invention and production

How did the three elements influence each other? ancient technologies humanity: wheel, Potter's wheel and millstone? But it is absolutely clear that already in the Late Neolithic era, what we call “progress” began with these three adaptations. about crossbows, door locks and no one had even thought about it for hours, but the millstones were already turning. Also in ancient times grinding grain into flour began to be performed on millstones rotating one relative to the other. For quite some time they continued to spin, thanks to the effort human hands. Perhaps the use of mechanical force was first in demand in the production of flour because this work is very monotonous and unproductive. The greatest discovery in the history of mankind, comparable, perhaps, only with the ability to use fire, was the use of a force other than muscular for the operation of a mechanical device. Water and wind - that's what is called to help for the first time. How was the process of turning grain into flour? On the lower millstone lying horizontally, the upper millstone, having a hole in the middle, moved rotationally. Grain was poured into this hole. It was ground into flour as it moved to the outer edge. To facilitate the grinding process, radial straight or spiral grooves were applied to the millstones. It was then impossible to install heavy stone circles vertically, and how then to bring grain to them for grinding? The shaft, which transmits the force to the upper stone, was located vertically.

One of the earliest types of mills. The rotor (rotating part) of the windmill is located on the vertical axis and its shaft is directly connected to the upper millstone.
The wind trap walls direct the flow of air to half of the windmill, and make it rotate. Such mills have been known since the 7th century AD and may have first appeared in Persia. Model from the Deutsches Museum (1:20 scale model. Inv. No. 79235) reproduces an 18th-century Persian windmill.

On large millstones, levers were attached to it, which were pushed by workers, bypassing the millstone in a circle. Then animals were harnessed to the levers. At that moment, when sails began to be used instead of slaves and animals, one of the first mechanical drives in the history of mankind was born. The wind rotated the construction of several panels, fixed on the spokes of a giant wheel. And she set in motion the upper millstone. No gears, and therefore no power loss: the proto-rotor worked in any wind direction. A similar pattern was found in Persia. Only there soft sails were replaced by hard wooden blades, the whole structure was stretched in height, and the structure was supplemented with walls to direct the wind. Such a mill was somewhat more productive, but, unfortunately, it worked only with a certain direction and strength of the wind. And here it is appropriate to recall that at the same time as the wind drive, a water wheel already existed, but at first it was not used for grinding, but only for raising water during artificial irrigation in agriculture. In order for the power of water to be able to set the millstones in motion, it was necessary to invent an angular gear, which made it possible to turn the working shaft at a right angle. Such difficulties were inevitable due to the fact that it was not possible to either put the millstones on edge or position the wheel, driven by the force of falling water, horizontally. And as soon as the efforts coped with the task of turning, the water wheels began to rotate the millstones. In the period of late antiquity, such structures were quite well developed. Water mills became widespread in Europe and successfully survived the collapse of the Roman Empire and continued to be used in the Middle Ages. Somewhere in the south of Europe at the beginning of the second millennium AD, for the first time, the drive of a water mill was “crossed” with a windmill, creating the very model that existed from the beginning of the 12th century to the beginning of the 20th century.

Despite the apparent simplicity of design and the solid age of the invention, the pyramid of knowledge and technology, at the top of which was the first mechanical wind-driven mill, was already quite large. There was also knowledge about metalworking, without which it is impossible to make tools for working with wood, and the wheel, as well as its derivative - still primitive, but already working gear from pin and lantern wheels, and ceramics, aerodynamics (so far at the level of experiments and conjectures , but ...) and even knowledge of the weather and the prevailing winds, i.e., the beginnings of meteorology. The first windmills belonged to the tower and did not have a mechanism for turning the windmill. The windmill itself was a soft construction of slanting sails stretched over the spokes of a yard wheel. Later, the sails were replaced by blades. The tower house, together with millstones, mechanisms, a windmill and a miller (as in the painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder), began to turn into the wind. It is possible that such a mill entered the folklore in the form of “a hut that turns its back to the forest, to me in front”. It is simply impossible to call the gantry structure on which the mill was based other than a “chicken leg”. In Russia, such a mill was called a post-mill, or a German mill. Over time, the bollard was replaced by a device for turning only a tent with a windmill. In this case, turning into the wind was much easier. The fixed tower began to be made more durable - stone or brick, which increased the service life and resistance to the elements. Mills, gradually improving, regularly grinded, sawed, pounded and frayed until the beginning of the 20th century. Only in Germany in 1910 there were 22,000 windmills, by 1938 there were only 4500 left. After World War II, windmills were practically not used. Alexander Ivanov

The water wheel is the first mechanical drive in the history of mankind. water through a special chute is brought to the wheel from above and with its weight makes it rotate. Such wheels were used in the mining industry as a drive for winches and hoists. With a water flow of approximately 50 l / s. the wheel develops up to 1.3 kW of power. The first wheels appeared in Mesopotamia 3000 years ago and were used for irrigation. Two millennia ago, they began to be used in water mills. One of the earliest types of mills. The rotor (rotating part) of the windmill is located on the vertical axis and its shaft is directly connected to the upper millstone. The wind trap walls direct the flow of air to half of the windmill, and make it rotate. Such mills have been known since the 7th century AD and may have first appeared in Persia. Model from the Deutsches Museum (1:20 scale model. Inv. No. 79235) reproduces an 18th-century Persian windmill. Tower mill. Although the model in the German museum (Scale 1:20. Inv. No. 79227) repeats the windmill from the island of Crete built in 1850, windmills with a windmill equipped with sails appeared in the Mediterranean region at the beginning of the first millennium of our era. A complex spatial design of a windmill with yard spokes on which the sails are fixed. Rope extensions perceive axial wind load and make the whole structure simple and reliable. Jan Brueghel the Elder. Road after the flood, 1614
However, the idea to adapt wind energy to work has not died. In 2012, wind farms around the world generated 430 terawatt-hours (2.5% of all human production). electrical energy). Their total capacity reaches 283 gigawatts, which is about ¾ of the capacity of all nuclear power plants on the planet. In Denmark, for example, one third of all electricity is generated by windmills, while Germany intends to increase generation to 20% of total energy consumption by 2020, and to half of the total by 2030.

When it comes to windmills, the famous literary hero Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - Don Quixote, in whose inflamed brain they appeared in the form of giants. First windmill appeared on the banks of the Nile (about three thousand years ago), it was in these parts that wheat gave a generous harvest. The first designs were quite primitive. It took at least five to six hours of work to grind a bucket of grain. Hand millstones in the presence of one physically strong man allow you to grind a bucket of wheat in an hour and a half.

Principles of grinding grain into flour

The process of turning grain into flour in modern mills takes place in several stages. Before grinding, the grain is cleaned for special installations. Sieves allow you to divide the mass by size, and special trieres remove impurities from it. This is a rather clever machine, it recognizes the configuration of individual grains and discards anything that differs in shape. Next, the mass is soaked. This operation is needed so that the surface layer (it is called bran) is easier to remove. Husks and germinal zones of the grain remain in the bran. Now comes the most crucial moment - the stump is performed. It allows you to speed up the process of grinding grain on millstones. Modern millstones in many ways resemble those that were used in antiquity. These are two circles. One of them is stationary, and the other rotates relative to the first. There is a feeding hole in the upper one, grains come here. The grain moves from the center to the periphery, in contact with the surface of the millstones. They press with a certain effort, peeling off a thin layer, which turns into flour. As the grains are worn down, nothing remains but flour, which falls off the surface of a stationary millstone. The finishing operation is the separation of flour on sieves. High-grade flour passes through the thinnest, then other varietal fractions are separated. Relatively large particles remain on the coarsest sieve - this is semolina, beloved by many (but someone does not like it).

How to catch the wind

The nature of the wind is the movement of the stream air masses. Somewhere the wind blows daily from high speed, but there are places where they cannot wait for a long time. The sailors were the first to catch it, the sails easily caught a light breath and pulled the ships in the direction of the stream. Somewhat later, they learned to set oblique sails, it became possible to move at angles, tacking, experienced sailors can sail against the wind. To drive the rotating millstones, it was necessary to arrange several sails differently. They were sewn to radial guides sitting on the shaft. Then they converted it into blades. Now the pressure of the air flow makes each blade move, here the forward movement of the air is converted into a rotational movement of the shaft. A simplified drive windmill had millstones that rotated in a horizontal axis. The inventors of antiquity overcame many difficulties in order to find ways to press a stationary millstone to a rotating one. Among the drawings Egyptian pyramids there are those that show how the wind in the mill grinds grain into flour.

Classic windmill

The question of how to transfer rotation from the horizontal to the vertical axis could not be resolved for a long time. Repeatedly tried to change the direction of rotation of the shafts. But technical solution so it was not. The manuscripts contain diagrams of devices for converting directions of rotation. The most common design is attributed to Archimedes (the windmill according to Archimedes is depicted on frescoes taken by the Romans from Syracuse). He invented cogwheels made from logs attached to wheel rims. The brilliant idea was embodied in tens of thousands of windmills scattered around the world. In them, the wind makes a horizontal shaft rotate, at the end of which a wheel is installed. On its rim there are firmly fixed teeth (round bars) installed with a certain pitch. A vertical shaft is installed perpendicular to the horizontal shaft. It also has a wheel with similar teeth. The result is an analogue of a gear mechanism that transmits torque at a given angle (in this case, 90 °). The vertical shaft rotates the movable millstone, grain is evenly poured into it, which turns into flour. The result is a flour mill.

How a modern mill works

AT modern designs instead of a complex gear mechanism made of wood, other devices are used to transmit rotation. Today, only on the coast of the Iberian Peninsula, there are several dozen mills. They use friction variators - gearboxes that convert the direction of rotation, and also provide desired speed rotation of the working shaft. In Norway and Iceland, a slightly different drive is used, bevel gears made of bronze work there. It is the 21st century on the street, but the windmill still finds its use in our time.

What mills are in use today

Large volumes industrial processing grains cannot be mastered only with the use of wind. To drive the rotation of the millstones, synchronous electric motors with a phase rotor are used. They can smoothly change the shaft speed. For grain and flour, the manifestation of thermoplastic properties is characteristic - melting when heated. In the process of grinding flour, the surface temperature of the millstones rises, so the rotation speed is limited to reasonable limits. If not limited, flour may ignite, and its presence in the air, respectively, will lead to an explosion. Modern millstones inside themselves have a rather complex cooling system. Thermal sensors are installed in the area of ​​​​their work, which control the course technological process. The introduction of computers in technology has not bypassed mill production. In modern mills, control sensors different parameters installed throughout the entire technological chain: from receiving grain to the warehouse to packing flour into containers and loading into vehicle, which will deliver it to the bakery or to the store.

DIY mill

Mini-mills are used in farms for the preparation of feed using coarse flour. It is known that the body of animals better absorbs not whole grains, but crushed ones. For this, small grain crushers or coarse grinders are used. A do-it-yourself mill is created in the following sequence. You need to make millstones. For this, two thick-walled disks are used, their working surfaces are cut with a beard or chisel. The result is millstones. Then a hole is drilled in the upper millstone. A cone made of thin-walled tin is welded to it (a feeder that feeds grain to the grinding zone). They organize the drive of a rotating millstone; here it is easiest to use a V-belt drive. Therefore, a pulley is bolted to the upper disk. A pulley is also installed on the motor shaft. Now the rotation of the motor shaft will be transferred to the millstone. It remains only to enclose the entire structure in the case and start producing flour.

Today, wind energy is practically not used in Russian villages, and even at the time of my childhood, the ruins of 3 windmills were preserved in our village. One of them, as my grandmother told me, belonged to my great-grandfather. In the 50s of the last century, there was only one windmill in our area, located in the neighboring village of Esipovo. This is how I saw her work. In the room of this mill, everything was covered with white flour dust, the miller's clothes and beard were also in this dust. From time to time he went outside, and if the wind changed direction, he turned the head of the mill with a special rule with wings towards the wind. The rule was made of two rather thick poles (poles), with their upper ends attached to the "head" of the mill. In the lower part, the legs were interconnected, and the whole structure was actually an acute triangle with acute angle down below.

Millstones creaked, the main central axis creaked, turning, which was rotated by a horizontal shaft coming from the wings. All gears were made of wood, and they were literally polished from friction. But most importantly, there was flour dust everywhere.

Here is another brilliant invention - the transfer of rotation from one plane to another - parallel to the original one. And this invention was not patented, because. was made at least 4 thousand years ago. Its author is unknown, we don't even know his nationality. The angular speed of rotation of the drum (wheel) with a smaller diameter in this mill is 3.5 times greater than that of the large drum (wheel). Therefore, the vertical axis rotates 3 times faster than the horizontal one. As a result of this transmission, the millstone rotated at high speed. Drawing from the site: http://900igr.net/fotografii/t…

The plane of rotation of the wings of this mill is inclined to the surface of the earth. This reduces the loss of energy from friction when the rotation is transferred from a larger drum to a smaller one. The length of each blade (wing) of windmills varied from 5–6 to 7–8 m. In this mill, rotation was transmitted from the central axis to two millstones. When transferred to the millstones, the rotation speed increased several times. Drawing from the site: http://svershenie.info/goluboj…

Grain and flour at the Esipov mill were weighed on scales in the form of a metal beam suspended from the ceiling. 2 sheets of iron measuring 1.5x1.5 m were suspended from the rocker on chains. Sacks of grain were placed on one sheet, and weights on the other. Weights were with handles - two-pood, one-pood, half-pood and quite small, weighing several pounds. For grinding grain, the miller was paid with whatever he could - money, grain, flour, meat, milk, eggs. Then for workdays on the collective farm late autumn collective farmers were given 2-3 sacks of grain, which they ground for themselves at this mill. When the miller died, the mill in Esipovo was also quickly destroyed, and grain had to be ground on hand millstones at home. Oh, and it's hard work - to twist a heavy stone millstone with one hand, and pour handfuls of grain into the hole in its center with the other! But then, thanks to these trainings, I defeated all the students of the institute in arm wrestling competitions.

Later, in the early 60s, they stopped giving out grain to collective farmers for workdays, they replaced it with money, however, this money was ridiculous, and it was impossible to buy an equivalent amount of bread in a store with it. But my grandmother was very inventive: from the fields where the grain was threshed, she brought home several bags of chaff, winnowed it in the wind, and at the same time one bag of grain was obtained from 10 bags of chaff. These were the crop losses on the collective farm fields. But it was forbidden to collect chaff, although there it rotted, no one needed it. Grandmother took a large basket, put a bag in it, and went, as it were, into the forest to pick mushrooms. She collected chaff in a bag, and covered it with mushrooms or medicinal herbs. As they say among the people: "The need for inventions is cunning."

When grain is threshed with modern combines, grain losses are even greater than when threshing with stationary threshers. Why? Yes, because spikelets that have just been cut are threshed. And the grain in spikelets does not ripen at the same time. In some spikelets it is already ripe and, when shaken for the first time, falls out and falls to the ground, while in others it is not yet ripe and goes into chaff when threshed. AT northern Russia, where it constantly rains in autumn, the loss of grain during threshing by combines is up to 30% of the crop. In the "primitive" peasant economy, grain losses were no more than 5%, so much grain remained in the chaff on the threshing floor (on the current). But even this grain was used by chickens and geese, which in autumn fed on nagutens. It is no coincidence that one of the species of wild goose is called the bean goose. When migrating to the south in autumn, these geese fed on the threshing floors - places for threshing bread.

Yes, today there are electrically driven mills, as well as electric coffee grinders, meat grinders, etc. But what is the energy efficiency of this? But when generating electricity, considerable harm is done environment, ancient windmills did not harm nature. The wings rotated rather slowly, they could not even kill flies and mosquitoes. There was no smoke or noise pollution. A respiratory bandage saved the miller from flour dust.

A dilapidated windmill in the village of Zakharyino near the village of Kukoboy in the north Yaroslavl region. Photo from the site: http://www.geocaching.su/?pn=101&cid=3720

This mill was built in the 20s of the twentieth century by women from the women's commune. N.K. Krupskaya. In fact, it was a convent disguised as a commune, which was liquidated by the Bolsheviks. In order to survive under Soviet rule and avoid persecution, the nuns cheated and organized a women's commune in 1921. But all the same, communard nuns were persecuted. Many of them spent 5 or more years in Soviet camps, and some were shot.

Top part dilapidated windmill in the village of Zakharyino near the village of Kukoboy in the Yaroslavl region. Photo from the site: http://www.10102010.ru/road/Tr…

It is hard to imagine that this mill was made by young women nuns. I have not seen a single mill decorated with ornaments. This case with the Kukoboy commune is worthy of world fame. But so far there has not been a smart journalist or director who would write a story about this story or make a film. But about this you can create a very interesting Feature Film! Maybe then the Russian soul will not be so mysterious to foreigners. Where is local authorities Pervomaisky district and the Yaroslavl region, why didn't they make this story widely known? The Zakharya commune is no less interesting for tourists than the Kukoboy Baba Yaga.

In 1921, the former nuns of the closed Pavlo-Obnorsky convent Anna Solovieva, Anfisa Patakova, Anna Ezeleva, Maria Metenicheva and four other women notified the authorities that they were creating a commune and asked for land adjacent to the church in the village of Zakharyevo, and also asked for the premises of the former church gatehouse. Officials allowed it - after all, famine came to the Volga region then, people were dying of hunger like flies, so the authorities warmly approved the initiatives of everyone who wanted to feed themselves. Then Anna Solovieva sold her only expensive thing- a coat, and with this money the artel bought a cow. Harnessing a collar instead of a horse, the girls plowed the field, planted wheat and rented a house where they set up a sewing workshop.

And soon the artel began to grow at the expense of the daughters of priests, former nuns and ordinary believers. A year later, she already had 36 women. Some successfully mastered carpentry skills, others learned to be masons, and others completed a six-month shoemaker's course. During the day they worked - and in the evenings, tightly closing the door, they held common prayers and studied spiritual literature. By the way, the “secret nuns” replicated it themselves, copying the sacred texts by hand and supplying them with drawings.

In 1923, the artel was officially registered, and Anna Solovieva was elected chairman. The charter of the artel evoked an ironic smile from Soviet employees - it noted that the enterprise was organized in order to “prove to men that a woman can build her life without their assistance,” the charter forbade employees to meet with local guys. The communards could not directly admit that they live according to the laws of the monastery. N.Krupskaya herself was asked by letter for permission to name the farm after her. Nadezhda Konstantinovna had nothing against it - and even tried to get the commune a soft loan from the State Bank.

At the all-Union review of collective farms-communes in 1927, "nuns" from the village. Zakharyevo received the third prize. After that, delegations came to the commune, eager to learn from best practices. The visitors were especially shocked by the shoe shop, where the communard nuns made not only work shoes, but also, as noted, “shoes with French heels”, which fashionistas from the neighboring large village of Kukoboy came to buy. Many also paid attention to eight comfortable residential buildings and an apiary with 21 beehives. “There is still no simple and beautiful song about this, which would itself be torn from the tongue and give unbridled joy. But we know that there will be a song, ”the Yaroslavl party newspaper Severny Rabochiy wrote about the successes of the“ woman’s commune ”on March 8, 1929. By that time, the farm already had 30 heads of large cattle, 25 sheep, 8 horses, 150 Belgian rabbits, a rolling mill, a tannery, a dectar shop and a brick workshop, a windmill, an electric generator and a tractor bought on credit. The commune then numbered already 104 people.

But in 1931, 17 of the most active workers of the commune named after N.K. Krupskaya. The indictment read: “The organization of the agricultural artel, and, subsequently, the agricultural commune, was carried out by a counter-revolutionary group in order to disguise it from the public and had the ultimate goal of preparing the opening of a monastery after the fall of Soviet power. Being convinced of the inevitability of this fall, the leaders of the counter-revolutionary group, accordingly, conducted preparations by organizing monastic cadres. A year later, by an extrajudicial decision of the OGPU commission, the women were sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 3 to 5 years. Some of the communal women were exiled to Kazakhstan, and another part - to the forced labor camp of the Ivanovo department of the NKVD. It was there that the former head of the commune, Anna Solovieva, turned out to be, who, by the way, became a foreman in the prison camp. The ordinary “communards” who remained at large continued to live in Zakharyino, they huddled in one “communal” house, ran a separate household and waited for the release of the “sisters”, but the authorities forbade them to return to the village. Maria Blagoveshchenskaya, after serving her term in 1936, was again arrested, brought to Yaroslavl, and shot six months later. Anna Vasilievna Shakshina was sent to a Far Eastern camp near Nagaevo Bay (Magadan), where in 1939 she died of sepsis.

After the Great Patriotic War When the persecution of the church by the authorities weakened, the sisters who had served their terms and survived gradually began to arrive in Zakharyevo. On the reconstruction of the "secret monastery", of course, there could be no question. But believing women just wanted to be together. Through joint efforts, they also found the former chairman of the commune, Anna Aleksandrovna Solovieva. The camp did not break her. Having been released, Anna graduated with honors from the teacher's institute at Leningrad University and worked as a teacher until her retirement. She, a pensioner, was brought back to Zakharyevo, where the founder of the “secret monastery” lived out her life. The last “communist nun” was buried in 2004. By the way, even at the local churchyard, the graves of all the sisters are nearby. Maria Blagoveshchenskaya and Anna Shashkina were canonized by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church like martyrs. The history of the creation, existence of an underground Orthodox community - the Commune. N.K. Krupskaya in the village of Zakharyevo was studied by students of Pervomaiskaya (Kukoboyskaya) high school under the guidance of teacher Irina Derunova. They collected documents telling about an amazing commune, whose workers worked hard during the day, and prayed earnestly in the evenings. (Information was used from the site: http://yarportal.ru/topic56368.html).

Communard nuns from the village of Zakharyino. Photo from the site: http://yarportal.ru/topic56368.html

I was then 6-7 years old when my grandmother Anna took me with her to the village of Zakharyino (she called it the Commune). She had a childhood friend in this village, with whom they grew up in the same village - Prince Pochinka. Our trip there took place in the summer of 1953 or 1954. It was about 18 km from our village of All Saints to Zakharyino. We walked there for 4 or 5 hours, passed several villages and the large village of Kukoboy. I well remember the beautiful village of Zakharyino: the houses stood in a single row on a high root bank along the stream, all with windows to the south towards the stream. Thick lindens grew along the edge of the shore, and between a row of houses and a row of lindens there was a clean, not hackneyed path-path. At one end of the village stood a stone church that was then in operation. While my grandmother was talking with her friend, I ran around the village, went down to the stream, which then seemed to me a river. There was probably a dam downstream. I also remember the windmill in the photo above, then it was still working - its wings were slowly rotating. But I hesitated to go inside.

I recently learned that the last communard nun died in Zakharyino in 2004.

Windmill. Photo from the site: http://www.alva-ural.ru/photo/

In the questionnaire of the owner of the windmill Ivan Timofeevich Zavershinskiy for 1920, it is said that his mill “on stones”, that is, with stone millstones, had a daily output with a good wind, on average, about 25 pounds of flour per day. This is approximately 400 kg. Almost half a ton of grain per day was ground by this rural mill.

Windmills in Ukraine. Photo from the site: http://foodmarkets.ru/news/vie…

The number of windmills in Russia in the 19th century reached 200 thousand pieces. (official statistics), in total they grinded about 34 million tons of grain a year, supplying flour to the entire population of what was then Russia. The average power of the windmill was about 3.5 kW. But there were windmills and more powerful ones, they developed a power of about 10-15 kW. At the same time, all windmills were built by the peasants themselves (the information was borrowed from the book by V.I. Zavershinskiy “Essays on the history of Tarutino”).

Most often, the mills had 4 wings, but there were also mills with six wings - such as in this picture. The power of such a mill, of course, was greater. The power of the mill also depends on the width of the wings and their angle of inclination to the plane of rotation. When transferring rotation from a horizontal rotor to a vertical shaft, the angular velocity of rotation increases by about 5–6 times. When transferring rotation from a vertical shaft to a millstone, the rotation speed increases again by 5–6 times. Consequently, the angular velocity of the millstones is 25–30 times greater than that of the wings of the mill.

This windmill has a mechanism by which it adjusts itself to the direction of the wind. The principle of operation of this mechanism is the principle of a weather vane. As soon as the wind changes direction, it blows on the blades of the mechanism and turns them in accordance with the direction of the wind. This shift is transferred by a lever to a star wheel which turns the axle, at the other end of which is a smaller star wheel, and the smaller star wheel turns a very large wheel on which the top of the mill is fixed along with wings and a horizontal rotor. To facilitate the rotation of the upper rotary part of the mill, the upper and side parts of the hoop, the roller axles were lubricated. (http://brunja.livejournal.com/26061.html)

It took a long time until a person learned to get flour from the grain grown by him. The very first devices for grinding grain were a stone mortar and pestle. Later, the grain began to grind, thanks to this method, the flour was better. From the movement of the grater back and forth, they switched to rotation. A flat stone, grinding grain, rotated on a flat stone dish. By making one stone slide over another in the process of rotation, man invented the millstone. In the middle of the upper stone there was a hole where grain was poured. Getting between the upper and lower stone, the grain was ground into flour during rotation. This is how the manual was invented. mill, widespread in Rome and Ancient Greece. The mills were different sizes, large mills were rotated with the help of slaves or donkeys.

Over time, the need arose for the invention of such a machine that would work without the use of animal or human power. Such a machine has become water Mill, but its invention and use was preceded by the invention of the water engine. Already in ancient times, man invented a machine with which he drew water from the river and watered his lands. Such a watering machine (chadufon) consisted of a series of scoops mounted on the rim of a large wheel with a horizontal axis. When the wheel rotated, the lower scoops descended into the river and, filled with water, rose up, where they overturned into a chute at the highest point of the wheel.

In places where water flows quickly, they began to install wheels with special blades, which, under the pressure of water, began to rotate, and then, in turn, scooped up water without human effort. The invention of a simple and reliable water engine was of great importance for further development technology. People quickly realized that the rotation of a water wheel could be used not only to scoop up water, but also for other purposes, such as grinding grains. In places where the flow velocity is low, they began to dam the river, raising the water level and directing the stream along a special chute onto the wheel blades.

Now that the water engine had been invented, a transmission mechanism was needed that would not only transmit, but also transform rotary motion.And here the idea of ​​the wheel was used. If we take two wheels that are tightly in contact with rims, with parallel axes of rotation, and one of them (leading) starts to rotate, then due to friction between the rims, the second wheel (driven) will also rotate. The distance traveled by each of the points lying on the rims of these wheels will be the same. Of two interconnected wheels, the large wheel will make as many times less revolutions as its diameter is larger than the diameter of the smaller wheel. This means that when using a system of two wheels of different diameters, we not only transmit, but also transform the movement. The use of smooth wheels was inconvenient, as the grip between them was not very tight and the wheels slipped. Over time, smooth wheels were replaced with gears. The invention of the water engine, the creation of a transmission mechanism that converts rotational motion, contributed to the emergence of a water mill.

Renowned mechanic and architect ancient rome Vitruvius was the first to describe in detail the device of a water mill, consisting of three main constituent parts: motor, transmission and actuator mechanisms. The watermill was the first machine to find wide application in production, became the first step towards machine production.

The landscape with windmills is more familiar to us on the canvases of European masters of painting of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Now many working windmills can only be seen in the Netherlands. True, they do not grind flour at all, although there are some. They pump water from one canal to another. How was the windmill built? You can only see this in the Baltic States and the Netherlands themselves. The first thing to do to make it work well is to catch the wind. To do this, its roof was turned in the right direction with the help of a special wheel and lever. The wheel was just connected to the roof. When the roof reached the required position, the wheel was stopped with a special chain. Then a special brake was released, and the wings of the mill began to rotate, slowly at first, and then faster and faster. The shaft on which the wings were attached transmitted rotation to the main vertical axis through wooden ones.

Application.

Further, the device of the windmill could be different. With its help, they pumped out water, squeezed oil from seeds, even made paper with it and sawed wood, and, of course, ground flour. The flour mill did its job with the same stone millstones. With the advent of steam and other types of engines, it can be said to have lost its significance for industry. But in our time, when people are learning to save energy and nature, the windmill has been revived in a different capacity, as a cheap and environmentally friendly source of electricity. Hundreds of windmills, her great-grandchildren, operate in Holland, the Netherlands and Germany. In the US, Canada and Australia, remote farms are successfully using wind turbines to generate electricity for their homes and businesses.

Decorative element. Its construction.

Today, the windmill has gained popularity as a decorative element household farm. Make it easy. Such a mill, assembled with your own hands near a country house or cottage, will decorate any corner of the garden. Work begins with the manufacture of the foundation. A hole is dug to a depth of 70 cm, and a brick foundation is laid. A frame is welded from 50x50 in dimensions 80x120x270. The frame is sheathed with timber 40x40. It is possible to sheathe the construction on top with clapboard. The frame is installed on the foundation. The wood is coated on top with a protective impregnation in several layers. From the inside, the body is insulated with foam and plywood. Next up is the roof. A continuous crate is laid on the roof rafters, which is then covered with roofing material in two layers. Roofing material is laid on the roofing material. Then the mechanism is assembled. An axle and two bearings are selected and installed. The blades are assembled from wooden planks with a section of 20x40mm, which are fastened with self-tapping screws. The blades are mounted on the axle. The upper part of the foundation is also sheathed with timber. The interior can be used for storage, for example,

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