150 year old windmill in Bellingwolde, the Netherlands

[jacquesm]

Last week while driving through the north of the Netherlands I visited a windmill built in 1855 that is still milling grain every Saturday. I asked the miller if it would be ok for me to return and bring a camera to make pictures, and today I did just that.

The machine is an amazing example of ingenuity and perseverance, it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.

The main story has many pictures and is extremely large, it may in fact take a while to load into your browser, you can find it at this page : http://greenbits.com/User+Pages/jam/Visit+to+Veldkamps+Meuln+in+Bellingwolde

The original images at much higher resolution are in this gallery: http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/bellingwolde+windmolen/  but there is no text there.

Enjoy !

[Garry]

Excellent!!! Thank you very much!!

Garry

[Old F]

There is no school like old school : )

Welcome back

Old F

[ghurd]

Wow!

I have never seen one in that much detail.

I didn't know that style blades had twist.  

Or flaps.

G-

[blueyonder]

a good find . and over 150 years old.

  now i need ask did you get any flour and make sum fresh bread.

 loads of the old mills still in use .but ive seen sum that were converted into a house . its a shame. but says a lot for the builders of that era.  

[Cloaked User]

Whoa! That's very cool. Built by some of my very distant cousins in the "old country." Thanks for the find!

[richhagen]

Jacques, that is a great tour, thanks for sharing.  I have never had such a look at one of those old workhorses.  No giant tapered roller bearings there.  It is interesting to see what would have been industrial scale machinery, prior to the industrial revolution.  Interesting and ingenious solutions to the problems of the scale of the machinery, using what was available in that time.  Rich

[Boss]

Well done and thanks for sharing. Was the mill in operation at the time of your tour?

Some of the close up shots of the gears, wow! Must be amazing to hear it working from inside.

[jacquesm]

I could have gotten the flour (it's quite special actually, a mix of three different kinds of grain) but I don't have an oven here !

Most of the mills in the Netherlands are 'conserved', in other words they are functional but not actually used. I know of quite a few other ones in this region, I'll see if I can find some more cooperative millers. Enkie is extremely friendly, going out of his way to get me into all the spaces of the mill (some of them, for instance the area forward of the main gear beteen the rotor and that gear are very hard to get in to).

Quite a few of the watermills here are officially retired but in actual fact they're on standby notice and during water trouble they're supposed to pull their weight so their state of maintenance is amazing.

[jacquesm]

I'll see what I can dig up. I've been informed that the big drum in the lower levels is a 'peeler', I don't know how it was driven though.

[jacquesm]

hi Brian,

The mill was working when I got there, Enkie shut it down so that it would be safe to go around it without having to pay constant attention to safety (but the wind was quite high and the mill was literally begging to be let go). After most of the pictures I got parked in the secondary gearbox (the floor with the huge gear and the pin gear) and then the mill was running again. That was very impressive, that gear wheel is immense, you can just about flatten yourself against the brick wall and there is about 4" of clearance between your body and the gear. Not a good time to be wearing any loose clothing. The whole floor moves and the building comes to life when the mill is in operation.

[Boss]

Thank you Jacques for the vivid description. I can almost smell the pig grease and 150 year old wood work.

I bet that place does come to life when it is running. How long has Enkie been miller there? I imagine that life in the building is big part of his personality.  

I mean can you image crawling through the interior of the renewable energy mill everyday performing a symbiotic role?

That is a unique relationship man and old timey machine. To know, as miller you aren't the first and provided you take good care of your machine, you won't be the last.

I want to place a link to your mill tour in my newsletter tomorrow if that's okay with you.  

[electrondady1]

thanks very much for this post.

 i have always been curious about the old style mills

[zap]

Fantastic write up and great pictures jacquesm... thank you very much!

Is a solar oven in your future so you can use some of that flour?  : )

[DamonHD]

18kW output!  That's something that I do understand.

What's this 'flour' and 'bread' stuff cluttering up a nice technical exposition?  B^>

Rgds

Damon

[Old F]

Damon

If Dan B gets a very  large order for wire an magnets

We will have a good idea where there heading : )

Old F

[boB]

>>>> Enkie shut it down so that it would be safe to go around it

So, where's the shorting switch

boB

[boB]

Do you know what kind of hardwood it is made from ?

boB

[PepeLapiu]

Thanx for sharing, this is an amazing piece of machinery. And without pollution and any other effect to the surroundings either. Too bad 'modern life' had to come around!

I too could almost smell the pig grease and the old wood work. I can only imagine what it would be like to be inside it while it's running.

Cheers,

PepeLapiu

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Great!

I've never gotten a closeup of those lattice-work blades before with an explanation of how they worked:

 - Narrow blade/leading edge serving as a drag airfoil for strong winds

 - A lattice which provides a small additional blade surface but exists mainly to be covered with sailcloth to extend the airfoil for slower winds

 - Twist (perhaps not optimal but still pretty good), to keep it powered over most of the length of the blade

 - Optional flaps on the outer part of the leading edge to adjustably depower the ends of the blades (or turn 90 degrees and serve as air brakes to slow down even further).

Right?

[jacquesm]

yes, you got it perfect. Additional braking power comes from the worlds largest drumbrake (well, the largest I've ever seen) running along the outside of the first gear.

[jacquesm]

I don't know how long he is the miller there, but his 'certificate' is dated 1996 so my guess would be about a decade. I'll ask him the next time I pass by there and he's in.

I like your symbiotic view, that's pretty much what it felt like, as if the mill is alive somehow and is your temperamental friend. I know that sounds a bit wacky, I guess you should have been there to sense what I mean here. Not sure if that comes across the way I mean it.

[jacquesm]

There are lots of different kinds of wood used in the mill, each with it's own particular kind of use. Enkie mentioned a whole batch of different woods while we were going through the mill, I don't know the English names for anything but the most obvious ones, I'll ask again and write it down then look them up.

[Boss]

yeah neat combination of wood wind grease and grain