Windmill

A windmill is a machine driven by wind acting on vanes or sails to grind grain or pump water, first known in Persia, where windmills were working in Khorasan in the 9th century. These had sails turning around a vertical shaft and spread across the Middle East and Central Asia, reaching southern Europe by the 11th century. The vertical windmill developed in north-western Europe in the 12th century, and the earliest certain reference to one in northern Europe dates from 1185, at Weedley in Yorkshire. Europe's windmills peaked at about 200,000 around 1850.