Windmills

Why do we call them windmills?

Windmills use the energy of the wind.
In the first windmills were used to mill (grind) grain into flour.

How did they work?
As the wind turned the blades or sails of the windmill, a shaft from the sails, connect the sails to mechanisms stored inside towers that milled (ground) grain into flour.  

Later, the power of windmills was used to do many different jobs such as pumping water and sawing wood, but the name windmill stayed the same.

These windmills are in the Netherlands. They pump water off the land and into the canals. Without them parts of the Netherlands would be flooded.	Windmills like these pump water up from below the ground to irrigate the crops, and provide water for farm animals to drink.	This is an old flour mill, built in the United States of America.
On the Greek island of Mykanos, you can see windmills like these. They were used to grind grain.	These are Spanish windmills.	Modern wind turbines generate electricity

 Images © [2007] Jupiterimages Corporation

You can find out more about windmills here http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/WAKI-ViewArticle.aspx?pin=x-wi057000a&article_id=189&chapter_id=4&chapter_title=Environment&article_title=Windmill

http://www.windmillworld.com/

Thomas, Ron & Sydenham, Shirley. Windmills. [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2008)

 updated March 2009 © kidcyber