De Wielewaal () is a tower mill in

Beneden-Leeuwen Beneden-Leeuwen is a town in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of West Maas en Waal, and lies about 7 km east of Tiel, on the opposite (southern) bank of the river Waal. Beneden-Leeuwen has 6,925 inhabitants ...

Gelderland Gelderland ( , ), also known as Guelders ( ) in English, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands, located in the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Nethe ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

which was built in 1857 and is in working order. The mill is listed as a

Rijksmonument A (, ) is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. At the end of February 2015, the Netherlands had 61,822 l ...

History

''De Wielewaal'' was built in 1857. It is similar in construction to Zeldenrust, Oss and De Nijverheid, Ravenstein. The three mills were probably built by the same

millwright A millwright is a craftsman or skilled tradesman who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. The term ''millwright'' (also known as ''industrial mechanic'') ...

. In the 1930s, improvements were made to the mill. The speed of the

millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, used for triturating, crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a s ...

s was increased by introducing smaller stone nuts. The mill was restored in 1967. In 1999, repairs were done to the sails and stage. The mill was sold to the Gemeente West Maas en Waal in 2002. It is listed as a

, No. 38428.

Description

''De Wielewaal'' is what the Dutch call a "Stellingmolen". It is a six-storey tower mill with a stage. The stage is above ground level. The cap is covered in dakleer. The sails are Common sails, which have a span of . They are carried on a

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

''windshaft''. The windshaft also carries the ''brake wheel'', which has 65 cogs. This drives a ''wallower'' with 32 teeth, which is situated at the top of the ''upright shaft''. At the bottom of the ''upright shaft'' is the ''great spur wheel'', which has 77 cogs. This drives a pair of diameter Cullen millstones via a ''lantern pinion stone nut'' with 22 staves and a pair of diameter French Burr millstones via a ''lantern pinion stone nut'' with 23 staves. A 1916 Brons

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

drives a pair of French Burr stones and an

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

drives a pair of French Burr stones.

Public access

''The mill'' is generally open on Sunday afternoon. or by appointment.

References

{{Dutch Windmills Windmills in Gelderland Windmills completed in 1857 Tower mills in the Netherlands Grinding mills in the Netherlands Agricultural buildings in the Netherlands Rijksmonuments in Gelderland 1857 establishments in the Netherlands 19th-century architecture in the Netherlands