Chapter 157 Windmill
Karatu, the capital of the Northern Highlands region.
A tall windmill began to work. As the breeze blew, the huge windmill blades began to turn slowly, and the wooden blades and drive shafts made a squeaking sound.
The debugging personnel walked down the spiral staircase. A huge wooden gear was fixed in the air inside the windmill. As the external windmill blades turned, the gears and other parts inside the windmill also began to turn. The running track of the huge wooden gear was clearly visible.
"Okay, starting today, this windmill can start operating!" The technician said to the residents of Karatu after the windmill had been running for a while.
This windmill is a miniature of the Dutch windmill that was originally intended to be introduced. Currently, many windmills have been newly built in East Africa, but most of them are used for water diversion and irrigation. This one is the first to be used to power a mill.
"Seeing this windmill, I feel that the East African colonies are almost the same as my hometown in Bavaria!" said a Bavarian immigrant.
In his hometown, there is also a windmill, built at the entrance of the village. Villagers go there to grind flour, so it is very impressive.
However, his comparison between the rural areas of Bavaria and the capital of the East African region is really hilarious, and fully demonstrates the fact that East Africa is a large rural area.
Currently, only a few port cities and first towns in the coastal areas of the East African colonies can be compared with some small cities in Europe.
"Let's add the wheat first and see what the effect is?" said the technician.
Two men poured half a sack of wheat into the bucket above the millstone, and the technicians operated the ropes that controlled the windmill's millstone, and the mill started to operate.
The millstone began to rotate along with the crankshaft, grinding the wheat grains. The wheat gathered towards the center of the millstone and was gradually swallowed up by the millstone.
As the stone mill grinds, the originally granular wheat begins to turn into powder, and the bran becomes yellow coarse flour.
"If it works properly, this windmill can basically solve the local flour processing problem." said the technician.
"Is it that simple, it turns into flour?" asked a Chinese immigrant.
"Of course, that's how flour is made in our area. It's just that in recent years, cities have been using steam engines, and the flour mills built are very large and can process large quantities, and the quality is much better than this. So most people in cities buy flour produced in factories, but we still use more windmills in the countryside." said an immigrant from Bavaria.
Most Chinese immigrants used stone mills, which were driven by human and animal power, so they were curious about windmills.
“Before, when we were at the river, I thought this thing was amazing enough just for drawing water, but I didn’t expect it could be used in this way,” said the Chinese immigrant.
Due to the increase in the German population in East Africa and the advancement of adult education, many Chinese in East Africa can now communicate with European immigrants in simple German.
"I've only seen windmills. In fact, it's rare to see windmills used for irrigation in Germany," said the Bavarian immigrant.
The technician then interrupted and said, “If we really look at the purpose of windmills, then our Netherlands is definitely world-class. In the past, windmills were the most important source of power in the Netherlands.
We use windmills to divert water, make paper, process food, and drive machinery...
Even much of our land was snatched from the sea using windmills.
That is to say, now that steam engines are widely used, the windmill has lost its former importance. "
“Using windmills to grab land from the sea?”
"Yes, the Netherlands is a low-lying country connected to the sea. Once, much of our land was covered by the sea and swamps. We built dams and used windmills to drain the water from the dams. This way, we have a lot of land for farming and living." Dutch technicians proudly introduced the story of their windmills and the Netherlands.
This is hard to imagine for the Chinese and Bavarian immigrants living inland. The only time they saw the sea was when they took the immigration ship to East Africa. Even before arriving in East Africa, they had never left their village.
"I have only seen the sea once in my life, when I was drifting on the sea. But the sea is so big, and you Dutch people can still snatch land from the sea. It's amazing!" The Bavarian immigrant said with sincere admiration.
The technicians from the Netherlands were very pleased to hear this. After all, it is a proud thing to hear others praising one's country.
In fact, the cultural level of Dutch technicians was not high, and they were hired to the East African colonies only because of their skills in building windmills.
But when compared with the Chinese who had never seen the world and the German bumpkins, a sense of superiority immediately came up.
East Africa actually has its own flour mill in Bagamoyo, but the flour produced by that factory is mainly exported to Europe, not to meet the flour grinding needs of East African immigrants.
Therefore, every village and town in the East African colonies still had to solve the problem of processing wheat and other food rations on their own.
Previously, it had always relied on manpower, and even in the early days there were not enough stone mills. Later, some stone processing workshops of the Zanzibar Sultanate were annexed and the problem was solved by reorganizing the personnel to produce stone mills.
As for using animals to pull mills, East Africa does not have the conditions to do so. After all, it takes time to popularize animal power, and animals also need to reproduce and grow. Among the few animals that exist in East Africa, many are used to pull carts or for use by the military.
Therefore, in East Africa, only the natives can be used as animal power and to pull the millstones.
However, the indigenous people are also an important labor force after all. They are used in building bridges and roads, digging ditches and canals. In addition, East Africa intends to control the size of the indigenous people, so the indigenous people as a labor force are not as wealthy as imagined.
The large-scale construction of windmills in the East African colonies can at least save more native people and invest them in other projects.
Moreover, after the windmill is built, it can be used for a long time. As long as the parts are replaced and it is maintained, it will not be a problem to use it for more than ten years.
Forget about the more advanced steam engines, as they are too expensive and difficult to popularize. However, the materials for windmills can be made and provided by East Africa itself.
For example, the canvas on the windmill and the unsalable sisal cloth in East Africa could be used, and stones and wood were in unlimited supply.
Moreover, windmills are not considered backward. They are still used extensively in Europe and the United States. After all, the cost of steam engines is high.
In the current western development of the United States, in order to solve the water problem for people and livestock, many windmills have been built, which are the famous farm windmills in the United States in the past.
The windmills in the United States are different from those in the East African colonies. The windmills in the wealthy United States use many metal parts and even metal blades. After all, the United States has a high steel production, which is not possible in East Africa at present.
(End of this chapter)
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