W... Windmill The Netherlands is famous for its windmills, some twelve hundred of which survive today. This is a Tower Mill in my hometown Zoetermeer. A Tower Mill is a type of windmill which consists of a brick or stone tower, on top of which sits a roof or cap which can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. It is thought to have been invented in Western Europe in the 13th century, a stone windmill being recorded at Dover in 1289. In the Netherlands windmills named torenmolens (tower mills) have a compact-built, cylindric or only slightly conical tower. The advantage of the tower mill is that it is not necessary to turn the whole mill ("body", "buck") with all its machinery into the wind; this allows more space for the machinery as well as for storage. Like other windmills tower mills have normally four blades.

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