Jennifer Bohnhoff
  • Home
  • Upcoming Events, Presentations, and Classroom Visits
  • In the Shadow of Sunrise
  • Summer of the Bombers
  • Rebels Along the Rio Grande Series
  • A Blaze of Poppies
  • On Fledgling Wings
  • The Bent Reed
  • Code: Elephants on the Moon
  • The Anderson Chronicles
  • The Last Song of the Swan
  • Raven Quest
  • Thin Air: My Blog About Writing and My Books
  • Store

A short History of Windmills

4/26/2015

6 Comments

 
PictureNashtifan, the ancient city of windmills
No one knows who first acted on the idea of using wind to grind grain.  


We do know that there were windmills in Iran by the 7th century.  These windmills had a long, vertical drive shaft around which rotated six to twelve rectangular, reed-covered sails. This type of device is called a "panemone" windmill.

The first windmills in Northern Europe date from the 1180s and have a very different design.  They are called "post" windmills because of the large upright post on which the mill's main structure, the "buck," is balanced so that the mill can rotate to catch the wind when it comes from different directions. The mill was moved using a tailpole or tiller beam that extended from the rear of the body. The picture below, from a 14th century manuscript, shows a post windmill. The two prone figures to the right make me wonder if this illustrates Chaucer's Miller's Tale, but I might be wrong since the text is in Latin and Chaucer wrote in Middle English.

PictureFourteenth century windmill image licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
This is the kind of windmill that Nathan Marsall had to wrestle into position in my middle grade medieval novel, On Fledgling Wings.

It has widely been suggested that returning Crusaders brought the idea of windmills back to Europe with them.  While the timing is right, the huge difference in design suggests that this might not be the case, and that windmills might have been designed independently in Europe and the Middle East.

How do windmills work?  Inside the mill, a shaft attaches to the sails, and called a windshaft for obvious reasons, moves a large wheel.  This is called the brake wheel because it has a large wooden friction brake around its outer edge that could slow or stop the milling process.  The brake wheel transferres power to a smaller gear at right angles to it.  This smaller gear, called the wallower, shares a vertical shaft with a spur wheel, which drive the millstone.

Picture
By the 1300s, those who could afford it build tower mills.  This type of windmills has a rotating cap that holds just the roof, the sails, the windshaft and the brake wheel while the body of the mill remains stable.  They are built from stone or brick, and therefore can be built taller, allowing for larger sails and greater power. However, they were also expensive to produce.


 Photo by  Francis Franklin (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)],  via Wikimedia Commons

Picture
The Dutch developed a better windmill in the middle of the sixteenth century.  Smock mills, named after the dress-like peasants' clothing they resemble, these were large enough to be powerful, yet less expensive to build. (photo by Uberprutser (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en)]

Windmills were a major source of power in Europe from the 1300s to the 1800s. They went out of favor with the development of steam power, and for two hundred years they have languished. However, the trend for organic and non-manufactured foodstuffs has shifted the economics slightly back in their favor once again.
6 Comments

Not a Spring Chicken

4/16/2015

10 Comments

 
Picture
Last fall I visited my mother and entered the house to the luscious, comforting smell of roasting chicken.

On the three hour drive home the next day I kept thinking about that chicken and what I could do with the leftovers.  Enchiladas. Crepes.  Pot pies.  Tetrazzinis.  Soups.  My mouth watered and my mind wandered all the way home.

The next time I bought groceries I bought a chicken, but then the inevitable business of life got between it and getting it into the oven.  One night I got home too late.  Another night we ate out.  I began thinking that maybe I needed to put it in the crock pot, but my mornings proved just as harried as my evenings.  

The chicken languished in my fridge for a while.  A week?  Two?  I'm not sure. Over time, I forgot about the chicken in the bottom bin of the fridge.  What finally brought it back into my consciousness was a smell.  The smell wasn't overpowering.  It was just a teensy, tiny bit off, but it was definitely off.

Here I will admit that most of you are smarter than I am.  Most of you would have known what to do if you'd have taken one whiff of a chicken that's sat in solitary confinement for so long.  Your offending chicken would have gone directly into the trashcan.  But not mine.

Call me over optimistic.  Or cheap.  Or stupid.  Or a combination of all three, but I didn't throw away my smelly chicken.  I decided that maybe, just maybe a day in the crockpot would kill whatever was making that chicken smell bad. 

Instead, I came home that evening to a house filled with a stench that made me want to retch before I even got in the door. The crockpot had helped that smell multiply a thousand times over.  I took the crock out and dumped its contents into the garbage, opened every window in the house and turned on every fan. We ate out that night.

A chicken is just a chicken unless you're a writer or a teacher.  Then, it's liable to become a metaphor or an object lesson.  What part of your life is just a teensy, tiny bit off?  What failures are you holding onto in the hopes that someday you can make good on them?  Sometimes it's smart to recognize that a situation or relationship isn't going to get any better, and it's time to s


  

10 Comments

The Crusades: the Middle Ages for Middle Graders

4/1/2015

4 Comments

 
PictureBy Anomyme (Livre d'heures, Londres, British Library)
For many middle grade readers, the Middle Ages were exciting times! Knights on horseback!  Damsels in distress!  Dragons!  (Forget the dragons.  Contrary to popular opinion, there were no more dragons in Europe during the Middle Ages than there are now.)

PictureGrateful Jews accept Crusader protection.
One of the most exciting of times for readers of Medieval fiction is the Crusades.  In 1095, Emperor Alexius I of Byzantium asked Pope Urban II for help in fighting the Seljuk Turks. Urban's call received a tremendous response from western Christians.  One reason so many wanted to go was the promise of an indulgence: the forgiveness of sins for any who accepted the mission.  Not only was this a free pass for anyone who wanted to act badly, but a "get out of purgatory free" card for those who wanted continued amnesty from consequences in their next life. 

Picture
 Historians aren't completely sure what Urban asked of Europe's Christians.  Many people wrote down their remembrances of his call to arms, but not until many years later.  Perhaps he just asked for Europe's warriors to help Alexius repel the Turkish threat.  Perhaps he asked for more.  Whatever he asked for, those who went on Crusade decided that the recapture the Holy Land, especially the holy city of Jerusalem, from the Moslems was their primary focus.  The Holy Land remained the central battlegrounds of the Crusades until 1291.

Picture
The Third Crusade (1187-1197) is the one that receives the most literary attention.  This is primarily due to the star power of Richard the Lionheart, whose tall frame and handsome face helped him become known as the noblest and most chivalric of England's kings.   

Picture
Richard's primary opponent was Saladin, an extraordinary Moslem leader and war lord who managed to rally the disparate Arab and Middle Eastern Tribes into one united force even though he was a minority Kurd.

Picture
Add to that the mystique of the Knights Templars.  These men were a heady combination of warrior knight and religious monk, and, because their order was both widespread and wealthy, also became the chief financiers and bankers of the Middle Ages.  The favorite figures of conspiracy theorists (think Da Vinci Code!), the Templars show up in almost every work of literature about the Crusades.  

Want to read more about the Crusades?  Check out these works of historical fiction.






4 Comments
    Picture

    ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

    I am a former middle school teacher who loves travel and history, so it should come as no surprise that many of my books are middle grade historical novels set in beautiful or interesting places.  But not all of them.  I hope there's one title here that will speak to you personally and deeply.

    What I love most: that "ah hah" moment when a reader suddenly understands the connections between himself, the past, and the world around him.  Those moments are rarified, mountain-top experiences.



    Can't get enough of Jennifer Bohnhoff's blogs?  She's also on Mad About MG History.  

    ​
    Looking for more books for middle grade readers? Greg Pattridge hosts MMGM, where you can find loads of recommendations.

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    A Blaze Of Poppies
    Ambrose Bierce
    Animal Stories
    Baking
    Baking Mixes
    Baltimore
    Baseball
    Beowulf
    Biography
    Bobbed Hair
    Cemeteries
    Chocolate
    Christmas
    Civil War
    Classic Western Writer
    Code Talkers
    Cookies
    Cowgirls
    D Day
    Dickens
    Drummer Boy
    Educators
    Exclusion
    Famous Americans
    Famous Women
    Fathers Day
    Feisty Women
    Fiction
    Folsom
    Fort Craig
    France
    Gabriel Rene Paul
    George McJunkin
    Gettysburg
    Ghost Story
    Glorieta
    Graphic Novels
    Great Depression
    Hampton Sides
    Hiking
    Historical Fiction
    Historical Novels
    History
    Horses
    Howitzer
    Isle Royale
    Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
    Juvenile Novels
    Karen Cushman
    Kit Carson
    Lewis And Clark
    Lindenmeier
    Middle Ages
    Middle Grade
    Middle Grade Fiction
    Middle Grade Novels
    Mother's Day
    Muffins
    Mules
    Museums
    Nanowrimo
    Native Americans
    Nazi
    Neanderthal
    New Mexico
    New Mexico History
    Normandy
    Paddy Graydon
    Pancho Villa
    Poetry
    Poets Corner
    Pony Express
    Poppies
    Prejudice
    Presidents
    Pumpkin Bread
    Punitive Expedition
    Race
    Rebels Along The Rio Grande
    Religious Persecution
    Sacajawea
    Scottish Americans
    Sleepy Hollow
    Song Writers
    Southwest
    Sports
    Spur Award
    St. Bernard Pass
    Swiss Alps
    The Last Song Of The Swan
    The Worst Enemy
    Travel
    Valentines Day
    Valverde
    Vichy Regime
    Western Writers Of America
    Where Duty Calls
    Wildfires
    World War 1
    World War Ii
    World War Two
    Writing
    Ya
    YA Fiction

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014


Web Hosting by iPage