276

OX PRIME-MOVERS.

CHAP. IX.

ON WINDMILLS.

Atmospheric disturbances causing wind have from a high an-tiquity been employed as a motive power, and probably theearliest application of this force was the propulsion of ships bysails. Amongst the most primitive races, long before theirintercourse with civilisation, this power was applied in the navi-gation of small vessels; and the ancient Phoenicians , Greeks,and Eomans were all of them well acquainted with this modeof employing the force of the wind for purposes of humanindustry. It is to be regretted that we have no records of thetime when it was applied as a motive power in mills ; this eventis lost in the oblivion of the past, and it was not till early inthe thirteenth century that we find the Dutch and French employed in the construction of windmills adapted to the wantsof an energetic and industrious population. These times weremarked by a growing intelligence that encouraged and fosteredinventive talent, and the Dutch millwrights and engineers werelong celebrated for their skill and knowledge in every art thathad for its object the improvement of the industrial resources ofthe people.

It was from Holland that our knowledge of windmills and .wind as a motive power was first imported, and it is within myown recollection that the whole of the eastern coasts of Englandand Scotland were studded ivith windmills; and that for a con-siderable distance into the interior of the country. Half acentury ago, nearly the whole of the grinding, stamping, sawing,and draining was done by wind in the flat countries, and noone could enter any of the towns in Northumberland, Lincoln-shire, Yorkshire , or Norfolk , but must have remarked thenumerous windmills spreading their sails to catch the breeze.Such was the state of our mechanism sixty years since, and