5 ms·
Thousand year-old windmills in Iran (2017)
- milani 7y agoAs an Iranian, this is the first time I hear about these windmills! Unfortunately, the only source of info about them is this National Geography video. There is no exclusive page for them on wikipedia, but I could find how they work generally here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panemone_windmill https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panemone_windmill
- mattlondon 7y agoThat wiki page suggests that the sails are articulated? In the video these are very much fixed sails - looks like battens of woods lashed or nailed together so I don't think the sails themselves can turn. I do wonder which way the prevailing wind is for those windmills though as they are surrounded by walls. The knee jerk reaction is that the wind comes "face on" but then surely there would not be a turning force if the wind blows on both sides of the axis equally (especially since the sails look to be fixed) I did notice there was a small vertical slit on the back wall, which makes me wonder if the wind blows "sideways" and generates lower pressure by blowing over the slit, causing the sails to move.
- lancefisher 7y agoI would guess the wind blows into the slit, driving just one side of the paddle.
- Jestar342 7y agoJust watching the video shows how they work just the same as a water wheel does, except "on their side". The wall(s) erected around them are shielding one half of the windmill, thus there is wind flowing onto one side of the windmill only.
- mattlondon 7y agoHmm yes of course :) So in the videos we are seeing the "back" of the windmills.
- pjc50 7y agoThey look surprisingly similar to a modern vertical axis wind turbine, although without the "lift" shape to the blades.
- joelbluminator 7y agoSo they were trying to enrich Uranium and acquire nukes 1000 years ago already!
- TheGallopedHigh 7y agoPlease leave non-substantive comments for elsewhere; the reason people come back to HN is because of the high quality comments.
- frankzander 7y agoAnd your's is one of that substantive comments? By the way I come because of the news ... the comments more or less worthless for me.
- louhike 7y agoYes it is as he's explaining what's generally accepted here (not downvoted). Maybe you do not usually read the comments but it's often discussed. And your personal case does not make it less valid.
- dang 7y ago"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- sumithegde 7y agoThis is so cool!
- Leszek 7y agoThere's likely an interesting Ship of Theseus debate to be had about whether these are indeed thousand-year-old windmills, and whether it's accurate to consider the windmills build a thousand years ago to be "still standing".
- growlist 7y ago'In one of the most iconic scenes in British television comedy, Trigger, the butt of so many ‘Only Fools and Horses’ jokes, proudly reveals that he has used the same road sweeping brush for his entire career. “This old broom”, he says “ has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles”. We, the audience, are laughing at his apparent stupidity long before Sid points out “how the hell is it the same bloody broom then?”'
- faceplanted 7y agoOnly Fools and Horses, Ship of Theseus edition, wait till you see Plato fall through the bar.
- baxtr 7y agoAnd of course there is a “Wait but Why” article about that... PS: scroll down to “Continuity” https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/12/what-makes-you-you.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/12/what-makes-you-you.html
- fergie 7y agorelevant -> https://lullabydust.tumblr.com/post/65438836771/john-dies-at-the-end-opening-lines https://lullabydust.tumblr.com/post/65438836771/john-dies-at...
- jacobush 7y ago"This is not the same river! All the water is new!"
- noja 7y agoWell so are you. None of you exists from ten years ago. Are you still you?
- growlist 7y agoThey also have incredible underground aqueducts that have been maintained for thousands of years. Smart people.
- mehrdadn 7y ago3000 years old: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/05/iran-qanat-irrigation-engineering-history-video/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/05/iran-qanat-i... > The technology spread, through Silk Road trade and Muslim conquest, and qanats can be found as far as Morocco and Spain.
- dghughes 7y agoPetra in Jordan also has water system although not tunnels.
- jeltz 7y agoOther ancient cities in Jordan had tunnels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadara_Aqueduct https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadara_Aqueduct). These tunnels, which are thought to be originally from Iran but adopted by many cultures including the Romans, exist all over the world including in Luxembourg.
- ZeroGravitas 7y agoThe distance these cover and the depth they tunnel into mountains is part of what makes them incredible, in case the description of underground aquaducts doesn't sound cool enough.
- growlist 7y agoTrue! :) I first learnt of them years back on TV - think it was a Channel 4 (UK broadcast channel) documentary, in which they sent a British academic into somewhat hazardous situations. He walked underground along one of these tunnels. Haven't been able to find the documentary since, unfortunately.
- gherkinnn 7y agoFascinating how these windmills come across as a symbiosis between man and nature. They’re an integral part of the landscape, part of the culture (or used to be), and harness the local environment to produce something. Same goes for rice terraces, vineyards, etc. And yet I see many people complain about us sticking wind turbines on top of hills. One can only imagine how the Iranian wind wills were received a thousand years ago. I suspect it will take a generation or two for these turbines to turn them in to an integral part of our life as well. Or utter necessity.
- taneq 7y agoPeople whinge about new things. You don't see anyone complaining that the pyramids are an eyesore or the Arc de Triomphe is a waste of taxpayers' money.
- gherkinnn 7y agoThe Eiffel Tower wasn’t well received at first, now it’s a part of Parisian identity. Gotta love that cycle.
- saalweachter 7y agoMy vague understanding is there are still mixed feelings about it.
- agumonkey 7y agoSure but the ratio is pretty overwhelmingly positive now.
- jjgreen 7y agoGuy de Maupassant loathed it so much that he ate lunch there daily, since it was the only place that it didn't spoil the sklyine.
- Nasrudith 7y agoThe Eiffle Tower is the best example of this as it was derided as an eyesore allowed for the World Fair.
- LegitShady 7y agoNot sure how this climbed up here, seems like OP is some form of bot and this has been pushed to the top of the site. Looking at the articles that surround it about infosec and computers and suddenly there's this bot posted article about windmills with 10 comments. Smells like manipulation.
- andrew_c_v 7y agoWhat are the windmills used for? Is it for milling grains?
- nick_g 7y agoYes, wheat into flour for naan. In this video[0] linked by twic you can see them in operation 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv3Pn2DFkDw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv3Pn2DFkDw
- ranDOMscripts 7y agoI suspect many bread makers would immediately recognize the name of the province where the windmills are located. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khorasan_wheat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khorasan_wheat
- twic 7y agoAnother film about the windmills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv3Pn2DFkDw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv3Pn2DFkDw From the International Wood Culture Society, who have a ton of other wood-related content: http://iwcs.com/allSubject.cfm http://iwcs.com/allSubject.cfm
- dharma1 7y agoIran also has ancient natural air conditioning tech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher Persians are very smart people
- e40 7y ago> Persians are very smart people I agree, but doesn't this have more to do with the stability of their society, in that period?
- behnamoh 7y agoWhat stability? Persia (current Iran) has been under constant attack from its neighbors for thousands of years, most notably Alexander's conquest, the Arab invasion, and the Mongols.
- agumonkey 7y agoI wonder if they enjoyed fame and technical 'supremacy' (pardon the term) at the time kinda like the western world in the last century.