Corwith Windmill, Long Island, NY

Dee

According to what I can find on the web, this is the second oldest windmill on Long Island, circa 1800.


And a view from the other side


Notice the "wheel" on the lawn?

ian408

What does the wheel do? Is it a balance of sorts?

The second shot is a nice one!

Ian

BigAl

I also like the 2nd one - the clouds make it! I assume the wheel is to assist in rotating the vanes to point in the wind direction ??

regards
alan

Dee

A link with a little more information
BigAl and Ian, thanks for your comments!

I did a "google" and here's one link with some information:

Easthampton Star

I'm sure when they have the school tours there's someone to explain the workings of the mill. This one is actually open for tours and a search on "google" for "corwith mill" or windmill, will turn up quite a number of pages but I wasn't able to easily find what the wheel does.

There was some mention of "Sails" being attached to the "vanes and blades."

Some of these mills are open for tours, and others are not. Most all have been moved once or several times. The Gardiner's mill (different thread to come) seems to have been built on it's site.

Since we didn't arrange a tour, there are lots of questions.

Perhaps someone on Long Island remembers attending a school tour or will plan a visit to fill in some of the gaps. I did run across one article showing the interior of the mill.

It would be interesting to see if there were actually any working mills left.

snapapple

Great windmill shot Dee. Yes indeed, that long pole is pushed around to rotate the blades to catch the wind. When they want to catch more wind, sails, or sheets, are attached to the blades just like on a sailboat. They still use these old timers in Holland for pumping water. Especially when they have a power outage and the new "modern" electric windmills are not working.

Andy

nice, dee

bump for adrian van ammers.

Adrian van Ammers

Thanks Andy!

andy wrote:

nice, dee

bump for adrian van ammers.

I just ran into this message cause I checked your messages, looking for Canon lenses

Adrian van Ammers

I almost missed your mill!

Dee wrote:

According to what I can find on the web, this is the second oldest windmill on Long Island, circa 1800.


And a view from the other side


Notice the "wheel" on the lawn?

Hello Dee, I like the second one best. Nice sky! O boy and we have about a 1000 windmills left here in Holland. Not fair is't it?

Andy

Adrian van Ammers wrote:

I just ran into this message cause I checked your messages, looking for Canon lenses

well then, we are on the same wavelength holler if you need any help, adrian

Dee

Thanks Everyone -- Adrian...

Adrian van Ammers wrote:

Hello Dee, I like the second one best. Nice sky! O boy and we have about a 1000 windmills left here in Holland. Not fair is't it?

Do any of your mills have that wheel attached to them? Do they every put up actual sails on the wings or vanes?

I have a few more to post tomorrow.

Adrian van Ammers

Hi Dee, some answers

Dee wrote:

Do any of your mills have that wheel attached to them? Do they every put up actual sails on the wings or vanes?

I have a few more to post tomorrow.

To be honest I'm not in anyway a mill expert:D . I did some reading on the www and found that we have about 1200 windmills in Holland. I did not see a mill like yours.:): The weel of course is to get the mill "in the wind" by turning the top of the mill. As far as I can see the windmill designers found more complicated ways to do the same job. Looking at your mill one needs a lot of space. My guess is that they tried to make it smaller later on.

Of course the sails still get put on. It depends how strong the wind is. Here is an example of a mill with a wheel construction though much more compact already.

USAIR

Dee
Very cool windmill very good photos

Thanks
Fred

Dee

Thanks Adrian

Adrian van Ammers wrote:

To be honest I'm not in anyway a mill expert:D . I did some reading on the www and found that we have about 1200 windmills in Holland. I did not see a mill like yours.:): The weel of course is to get the mill "in the wind" by turning the top of the mill. As far as I can see the windmill designers found more complicated ways to do the same job. Looking at your mill one needs a lot of space. My guess is that they tried to make it smaller later on.

Of course the sails still get put on. It depends how strong the wind is. Here is an example of a mill with a wheel construction though much more compact already.

Hmmm, how do they put the "sails" on the "wings or blades" of the windmill? These windmills are interesting. You have a lot of windmills in Holland then. I have a few more to post but haven't finished processing them.

It's nice to see they are still in use! Interesting photo, too, there's not much room there at all. I'm not sure if we have any mills in actual use in the U.S. other than for demonstration purposes. But I could be wrong. I do see a lot of the tall skinny windmills that pump water in use and of course we now have the new tall metal ones that create electricity. I've seen those in Hawaii as well as in California. Slowly other areas are putting those to use too.

Adrian van Ammers

Tutorial to put sails on wings(haha)

Dee wrote:

Hmmm, how do they put the "sails" on the "wings or blades" of the windmill?

Believe it or not but they climb in the wings. If the mill is in use regularly they have a system to fold them on the wing. Less work to put them up again. Just unfold.

Dee

Well, if they are ever

Adrian van Ammers wrote:

Believe it or not but they climb in the wings. If the mill is in use regularly they have a system to fold them on the wing. Less work to put them up again. Just unfold.

climbing the wings to put up sails, I hope you get a chance to grab a photo of it. Also, of one with the sails on. Hmmm, I don't ask much do I