Tower Mill

A tower mill is a type of windmill built as a fixed brick or stone tower, topped with a wooden cap or roof that rotates independently of the tower to bring the sails into the wind. Because only the cap needs to turn, rather than the whole body of the mill as with the earlier post mill, a tower mill can be built taller and carry larger sails, giving it greater reach into the wind. The tower mill was an important source of mechanical power in Europe for nearly 600 years, from about 1300 to 1900, and is estimated to have contributed roughly a quarter of the industrial power supplied by all wind machines before the arrival of the steam engine and coal power. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/