The New Amsterdam Windmills The crusaders brought the idea of the windmill to the Netherlands after seeing those in use in the eastern Mediterranean. The Dutch brought the windmill to New Netherlands, where it was a prominent feature of the New Amsterdam skyline. Written sources and maps indicate three windmills, two on the lower tip of Manhattan Island, and another nearby on Governor's Island. Since there were no polders to drain in New Netherland, these were grain or sawmills. |
Most of these windmills are sawmills near the Haut
Vaart outside the western wall
of Alcmaar in North Holland in the Netherlands.
| Ten thousand windmills were in use in the Holland during the golden age in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were used for purposes such as grinding grain, draining water from lowlands, and sawing timber. By 1923 there were only three thousand of these mills left, and today 975 survive. In modern times steam engines, internal combustion engines, and electric motors have replaced the windmill. |
A windmill, used for grinding corn, was a
prominent feature in this woodcut
from about 1630, showing the Fort Amsterdam and lower tip of
Manhattan Island.
| Frederick Stokhuyzen wrote
in his book The Dutch Windmill that, "In
the Dutch landscape the windmill is symbolic of the
gravity of the Dutch character. Planted solidly on the
earth, it is an incarnation of force; it seems as if it
had grown up quite naturally from the soil, forming an
integral part of the surroundings.... [windmills] carry
our thoughts back to the remote past, these windmills
which saw so many generations come and go, which in their
unspoilt beauty absorbed and preserved, as it were,
something of the spirit of the past generations, with
their toil, their joy, and their grief. The windmills to
us are symbolic of daily human labour, their sails turn
round in sunshine and rain, in the biting cold of a
winter's day, in the bright spring skies as well as in
the heat of summer."
You can view Stokhuyzen's book online at The Dutch Windmill There are many wonderful line drawings of the workings of various types of windmills in the book. But think twice before connecting, because the whole book and all the illustrations are on a single Web page. Go make a cup of tea while you're waiting. It's well worth downloading and printing for reference. __________ |
