Jan Leeghwater

Jan Adriaenszoon Leeghwater, usually dated 1575 to 1650, was a Dutch millwright and hydraulic engineer whose career belongs to the long history of wind power put to work on drainage. He took part in the reclamation of the Beemster polder, the first polder in the world made from a lake by draining it with wind mills, and he supervised the milling there from 1607. Between 1607 and 1635 the Purmer, Schermer and Heerhugowaard polders were also created under his supervision. His name later passed to Gemaal De Leeghwater, a pumping station at Kaag built with a steam engine in 1845, which shows how the Dutch drainage story moved from wind to steam. A later biographer judged him vain and a braggart and thought he had less to do with the reclaimed land than he claimed, so his own share in these works is debated.