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A windpump is a wind-driven device which is used for pumping
water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
. Windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
,
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
and
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
. The use of wind pumps became widespread across the
Muslim world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...
and later spread to
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. Windmills were later used extensively in Europe, particularly in the
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 ...
and the
East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...
area of
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
, from the late
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
onwards, to drain land for agricultural or building purposes.
Simon Stevin Simon Stevin (; 1548–1620), sometimes called Stevinus, was a County_of_Flanders, Flemish mathematician, scientist and music theorist. He made various contributions in many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical. He a ...
's work in the ''waterstaet'' involved improvements to the
sluice A sluice ( ) is a water channel containing a sluice gate, a type of lock to manage the water flow and water level. There are various types of sluice gates, including flap sluice gates and fan gates. Different depths are calculated when design s ...
s and
spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...
s to control
flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...
ing.
Windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...
s were already in use to pump the water out, but in ''Van de Molens'' (''On mills''), he suggested improvements, including the idea that the wheels should move slowly, and a better system for meshing of the
gear teeth A gear or gearwheel is a rotating machine part typically used to transmit rotational motion and/or torque by means of a series of teeth that engage with compatible teeth of another gear or other part. The teeth can be integral saliences or ...
. These improvements increased the efficiency of the windmills used to pump water out of the
polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...
s by three times. He received a
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
on his innovation in 1586. Eight- to ten-bladed windmills were used in the
Region of Murcia The Region of Murcia (, ; ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain located in the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. The region is in area and had a popul ...
,
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, to raise water for irrigation purposes. The drive from the windmill's rotor was led down through the tower and back out through the wall to turn a large wheel known as a ''
noria A noria (, ''nā‘ūra'', plural ''nawāʿīr'', from , ''nā‘orā'', lit. "growler") is a hydropowered '' scoop wheel'' used to lift water into a small aqueduct, either for the purpose of irrigation or to supply water to cities and village ...
''. The ''noria'' supported a bucket chain which dangled down into the well. The buckets were traditionally made of wood or clay. These windmills remained in use until the 1950s, and many of the towers are still standing. Early immigrants to the
New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
brought with them the technology of windmills from Europe. On US farms, particularly on the
Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...
, wind pumps were used to pump water from farm wells for cattle. In 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 A tankhouse (also spelled tank house or tank-house) is a water tower enclosed by siding (construction), siding. Tankhouses were part of a self-contained domestic water system supplying the house and garden, developed before the advent of electric ...
). The self-regulating farm wind pump was invented by
Daniel Halladay Daniel Halladay (November 24, 1826 in Marlboro, Vermont – March 1, 1916 in Santa Ana, California) was an American engineer, inventor and businessman, best known for his innovative 1854 self-regulating farm wind pump at Ellington, Connectic ...
in 1854. Eventually, steel blades and steel towers replaced wooden construction, and at their peak in 1930, an estimated 600,000 units were in use, with capacity equivalent to 150 megawatts. Very large lighter wind pumps in Australia directly crank the pump with the rotor of the windmill. Extra back gearing between small rotors for high wind areas and the pump crank prevents trying to push the pump rods down on the downstroke faster than they can fall by gravity. Otherwise pumping too fast leads to the pump rods buckling, making the seal of the stuffing box leak and wearing through the wall of the rising main (UK) or the drop-pipe (US) so all output is lost. The multi-bladed wind pump or wind
turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...
atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel hence became, for many years, a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America. These mills, made by a variety of manufacturers, featured many blades so that they would turn slowly with considerable
torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational analogue of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). The symbol for torque is typically \boldsymbol\tau, the lowercase Greek letter ''tau''. Wh ...
in moderate winds and be self-regulating in high winds. A tower-top
gearbox A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device invented by Louis Renault (who founded Renault) which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/r ...
and
crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a reciprocating engine, piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating Shaft (mechanical engineering), shaft containing one or more crankpins, ...
converted the rotary motion into reciprocating strokes carried downward through a rod to the pump cylinder below. Today, rising energy costs and improved pumping technology are increasing interest in the use of this once declining technology.


Worldwide use

The
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 ...
is well known for its windmills. Most of these iconic structures situated along the edge of
polders A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed # Flood plains ...
are actually windpumps, designed to drain the land. These are particularly important as much of the country lies below
sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
. In the UK, the term ''windpump'' is rarely used, and they are better known as ''drainage windmills''. Many of these were built in
The Broads The Broads (known for marketing purposes as The Broads National Park) is a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Although the terms "Norfolk Broads" and "Suffolk Broads" are correctly used ...
and
The Fens The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system o ...
of
East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...
for the draining of land, but most of them have since been replaced by
diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...
or electric powered pumps. Many of the original windmills still stand in a derelict state although some have been restored. Windpumps are used extensively in
Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...
, Australia, and on farms and ranches in the central plains and Southwest of the United States. In South Africa and Namibia thousands of windpumps are still operating. These are mostly used to provide water for human use as well as drinking water for large sheep stocks.
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
has also benefited from the African development of windpump technologies. At the end of the 1970s, the UK
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...
Intermediate Technology Development Group provided engineering support to the Kenyan company Bobs Harries Engineering Ltd for the development of the Kijito windpumps. Bobs Harries Engineering Ltd is still manufacturing the Kijito windpumps, and more than 300 of them are operating in the whole of
East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
. In many parts of the world, a
rope pump A rope pump is a type of pump that uses a loose-hanging rope, which is lowered into a well and drawn up through a long pipe, with its bottom end submerged in water. Round disks or knots, matching the diameter of the pipe, are attached to the rope, ...
is being used in conjunction with wind turbines. This easy-to- construct pump works by pulling a knotted rope through a pipe (usually a simple PVC pipe) causing the water to be pulled up into the pipe. This type of pump has become common in
Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
and other places.


Construction

To construct a windpump, the bladed rotor needs to be matched to the pump. With non-electric windpumps, high
solidity Solidity is a programming language for implementing smart contracts on various blockchain platforms, most notably, Ethereum. Solidity is licensed under GNU General Public License v3.0. Solidity was designed by Gavin Wood and developed by Chri ...
rotors are best used in conjunction with positive displacement (piston) pumps, because single-acting
piston pump A piston pump is a type of positive displacement pump where the high-pressure seal reciprocates with the piston. Piston pumps can be used to move liquids or compress gases. They can operate over a wide range of pressures. High pressure operation ca ...
s need about three times as much torque to start them as to keep them going. Low solidity rotors, on the other hand, are best used with
centrifugal pump Centrifugal pumps are used to transport fluids by the Energy transformation, conversion of rotational kinetic energy to the hydrodynamic energy of the fluid flow. The rotational energy typically comes from an engine or electric motor. They are ...
s,
waterladder pump A waterladder pump, water ladder, dragon spine, dragon wheel or rahad is a low lift pump which is composed of sprockets that move a chain with paddles over a trough. Water is pumped as the paddles push the water up the trough. Application The wat ...
s and chain and washer pumps, where the torque needed by the pump for starting is less than that needed for running at design speed. Low solidity rotors are best used if they are intended to drive an electricity generator; which in turn can drive the pump.


Multi-bladed windpumps

Multi-bladed wind pumps can be found worldwide and are manufactured in the United States, Argentina, China, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia. Commonly known in the US and Canada as a "weathercock" because it behaves much like a traditional weather vane, moving with the direction of the wind (but also measuring wind speed).The Butler brand added improvements to the technology of windpumps in 1897, 1898 and 1905 A 16 ft (4.8 m) diameter wind pump can lift up to 1600 US gallons (about 6.4 metric tons) of water per hour to an elevation of 100 ft with a 15 to 20 mph wind (24–32 km/h). However they take a strong wind to start so they turn over the crank of the piston pump. Wind pumps require little maintenance—usually only a change of gear box oil annually. An estimated 60,000 wind pumps are still in use in the United States. They are particularly attractive for use at remote sites where electric power is not available and maintenance is difficult to provide. A common multi-bladed windpump usefully pumps with about 4%–8% of the annual windpower passing through the area it sweeps This lower conversion is due to poor load matching between wind rotors and fixed-stroke piston pumps.


Fundamental problems of multi-bladed windpumps


Inefficient rotor

The main design feature of a multi-bladed rotor is "high starting torque", which is necessary for cranking a piston pump operation. Once started a multi-bladed rotor runs at too high a tipspeed ratio at less than its best efficiency of 30%.Hau, Erich "Wind Turbines", 2005, page 101, Fig.5-10 On the other hand, modern wind rotors can operate at an aerodynamic efficiency of more than 40% at higher tipspeed ratio for a smaller swirl added and wasted to the wind. But they would need a highly variable stroke mechanism rather than just a crank to piston pump.


Poor load matching

A multi-bladed windmill is a mechanical device with a piston pump. Because a piston pump has a fixed stroke, the energy demand of this type of pump is proportional to pump speed only. On the other hand, the energy supply of a wind rotor is proportional to the cube of wind speed. Because of that, a wind rotor runs at over speed (more speed than needed), yielding a loss of aerodynamic efficiency. A variable stroke would match the rotor speed according to wind speed, functioning like a "variable-speed generator". The flow rate of variable stroke windpump can be increased two times, compared to fixed stroke windpumps at the same wind speed.Clark, Nolan "Variable Stroke Pumping for Mechanical Windmills", 1990, AWEA Proceedings
/ref>


Cyclic torque variation

A piston pump has a very light suction phase, but the upstroke is heavy and puts a big backtorque on a starting rotor when the crank is horizontal and ascending. A counterweight on the crank up in the tower and yawing with the wind direction can at least spread the torque to the crank descent.


Development of improved windpumps

Although multi-bladed windpumps are based on proven technology and are widely used, they have the fundamental problems mentioned above and need a practical variable stroke mechanism.


USDA experiments at Texas

Between 1988 and 1990, a variable stroke windpump was tested at the USDA-Agriculture Research Center-Texas, based on two patented designs (Don E. Avery Patent #4.392.785, 1983 and Elmo G. Harris Patent #617.877, 1899). Control systems of the variable stroke wind pumps were mechanical and hydraulic; however, those experiments did not attract the attention of any windpump manufacturer. After experiments with this variable stroke windpump, research focused on wind-electric water pumping systems; no commercial variable stroke windpump exists yet.


Fluttering windpumps

Fluttering windpumps have been developed in Canada with a pump stroke varying strongly with amplitude to absorb all the variable power in the wind and to stop the uniblade from swinging too far beyond horizontal from its vertical mean position. They are much lighter and use less material than multiblade windpumps and can pump effectively in lighter wind regimes.


Variable stroke windpump

A Turkish engineer re-designed the variable stroke windpump technology by using modern electronic control equipment. Research began in 2004, with governmental R&D support. The first commercial new generation variable stroke wind pumps have been designed after ten years of R&D. The 30 kW variable stroke windpump design includes a Darrieus-type modern wind rotor, counterbalance and regenerative brake technology.


Vertical axis wind pump (VAWP)

Using a vertical axis wind turbine, the redirection of the turbine torque from horizontal to the vertical axis can be solved, thus creating a basic shaft connection between the turbine and the pump. The direct connection can produce a more efficient wind-pump. for example, Combining the VAWP system with a high-pressure (HP-VAWP) drip irrigation system can lead, with proper optimization, to two to three times higher efficiency than traditional windpumps.


Combinations


''Tjasker''

In the
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 ...
, the ''tjasker'' is a drainage mill with
common sails Windmills are powered by their sails. Sails are found in different forms, from primitive common sails to the advanced patent sails. Jib sails The jib sail is found in Mediterranean countries and consists of a simple triangle of cloth wound r ...
connected to an
Archimedean screw The Archimedes' screw, also known as the Archimedean screw, hydrodynamic screw, water screw or Egyptian screw, is one of the earliest documented hydraulic machines. It was so-named after the Greek mathematician Archimedes who first described it ...
. This is used for pumping water in areas where only a small lift is required. The windshaft sits on a tripod which allows it to pivot. The Archimedean screw lifts water into a collecting ring, where it is drawn off into a ditch at a higher level, thus draining the land.


Thai windpumps

In Thailand, windpumps are traditionally built on Chinese windpump designs. These pumps are constructed from wire-braced bamboo poles carrying fabric or bamboo-mat sails; a paddle pump or
waterladder pump A waterladder pump, water ladder, dragon spine, dragon wheel or rahad is a low lift pump which is composed of sprockets that move a chain with paddles over a trough. Water is pumped as the paddles push the water up the trough. Application The wat ...
is fixed to a Thai bladed rotor. They are mainly used in salt pans where the water lift required is typically less than one meter.


See also

*
Aermotor Windmill Company The Aermotor Windmill Company, or Aermotor Company, is an American manufacturer of wind-powered water pumps. The widespread use of their distinctive wind pumps on ranches throughout the arid plains and deserts of the United States has made their ...
, an American windpump manufacturer * Blade solidity *
Coil pump The pumping of water is a basic and practical technique, far more practical than scooping it up with one's hands or lifting it in a hand-held bucket. This is true whether the water is drawn from a fresh source, moved to a needed location, purifi ...
, another frequently used pumpCoil pump frequently used for windpump construction
/ref> * Loeriesfontein, Northern Cape, where there is a museum dedicated to water-pumping windmills * ''
Tjasker The tjasker (West Frisian: , German: ) is a small type of windmill used solely for drainage purposes. It is distinctive for its simple construction, featuring only a single inclined shaft that carries the sails on one end and an Archimedes' screw ...
'' on Dutch Wikipedia *
Wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...
*
Zaanse Schans Zaanse Schans () is a neighbourhood of Zaandam, near Zaandijk, Netherlands. It is best known for its collection of historic windmills and wooden houses that were relocated here from the wider region north of Amsterdam for preservation. From 1961 t ...


References


External links


A detailed photographic record of the restoration of an 8' Stewarts & Lloyds windpump in South Africa




{{Authority control Windmills Energy harvesting Sustainable technologies Wind power Water supply infrastructure Water wells