Panemone windmill
type of vertical axis wind turbine
A panemone windmill is a type of vertical-axis wind turbine. It has a rotating axis positioned vertically, while the wind-catching blades move parallel to the wind. By contrast, the shaft of a horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) points into the wind while its blades move at right-angles to the wind's thrust. The panemone is a rudimentary and inefficient type of windmill. That is, a panemone primarily uses drag whereas the blades of a HAWT use lift.
Historically the earliest known wind machine was made by the Persians and it was the panemone design, consisting of a wall, with slits, surrounding a vertical axle containing four to eight fabric sails. As the wind blew, the sails would turn the axle, which was in turn connected to grain grinders or some form of water transportation device (though little is known of the actual details of such methods).
History
The earliest recorded windmill design found was Persian in origin, and was invented sometime around 700–900 AD. This design was the panemone, with vertical lightweight wooden sails attached by horizontal struts to a central vertical shaft. It was first built to pump water, and subsequently modified to grind grain as well. Wind-powered machines may have been known earlier, but there is no clear evidence of windmills prior to the 9th century.
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This entry incorporates text from “Panemone windmill” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.