Herkules - Zaandam - Windmills on Waymarking.com

The Herkules is located in the Kalverpolder at Zaandam, North of the hamlet Haaldersbroek. It is an American Wind engine. She's installed as a polder mill in 1922. In 1993 she is replaced by an electric pumping station. Because for decay and demolition of this industrial monument was feared, funds were raised for the restoration of the mill, which was restored from 1995 to 1996. She now lies along a hiking trail and is one of the sights of the Kalverpolder These mills feature a large number of blades, so they turn slowly with considerable torque in low winds and are self-regulating in high winds. A tower-top gearbox and crankshaft convert the rotary motion into reciprocating strokes carried downward through a rod to the pump cylinder below. Such mills pumped water and powered feed mills, saw mills, and agricultural machinery. The farm windpump was invented by Daniel Halladay in 1854. In early California and some other states, the windmill was part of a self-contained domestic water system including a hand-dug well and a redwood water tower supporting a redwood tank and enclosed by redwood siding (tankhouse). Eventually, steel blades and steel towers replaced wooden construction, and at their peak in 1930, an estimated 600,000 units were in use. The multiple-bladed wind turbine atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel hence became, for many years, a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America. A custom shape with a smaller wheel was produced in Europe by Herkules Metallicus in Dresden.In the Netherlands, she was used as a poldermill. Between 1902 and 1925 there are some 200 of these mills placed, especially where a pumping station would too large and too expensive.

Date of Manufacture: 01/01/1922 Purpose: Water Pumping Open to the public: yes Is This Windmill Functional?: Yes! Windmill Farm: no Cost: 0.00 (listed in local currency) Museum on Site: no

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/25/2022 vanBaarsel visited it 04/04/2015 dapastni visited it

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