Windmill as De Museummolen
I noticed that there were three windmills in the distance just as we got out of the village of De Rijp. It didn’t seem to be that far and we had a car with us so we thought it was a good idea to try to visit the place. The windmills are along a highway heading away from Beemster. As you might expect, the windmills here are placed near a canal. Majority of windmills here in the Netherlands were used to pump water out. Although, there are other uses for the mills such as milling corn. It would be tough to do it manually but by harnessing the power of the wind, it makes things very easy.
Approaching the Windmill Museum
Turns out that these windmills are for tourists. Well, at least the first one was. It was actually a museum where visitors can go in and have a lot at a working windmill. Looking at the windmill from the outside, it is actually quite large and heavy. I was thinking how they manage to make the fins light enough for the wind to move them. The solution was to make the fins hollow. It is hollow in the sense that they made a cross hatch pattern out of the wood instead of one single solid piece. This will reduce the weight of the fins. Additionally, the cross hatch pattern lets air through thereby preventing the wind from moving it when they don’t want it to.
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