Grinding in the Industrial Age

When this mill was being built in Edewecht, the milling business was approaching its end. Steam-power, combustion engines and soon even electricity would (for the moment) replace this form of power generation. The German term for this style of windmill, Kokerwindmühle, is derived from the term for the windshaft, the Köcher, which was a wooden cylinder connecting the gear system in the cap of the mill with the grinding machinery in the sub-structure. Even in 1879, this mill was already using a narrower shaft made of steel, a sinful product of the foundry business that bloomed during the Industrial Age and replaced the miller in the traditional working environment.

Rough and fine

The smock windmill has two grinding gears, which can produce either rough meal or fine flour. After serving in Edewecht for 25 years, the mill was sold to the Schrand Farm outside of Altenoythe. There, it was placed in service again for several decades, before the owner sold it as a ruin to the open-air museum.