Quote:
Originally Posted by dkveuro
Well you both make good points....however, I grew up in eastern UK and we had a lot...well, a few windmills there for grinding wheat to make flour.
The grinding stone was at the ground level. On the water wheel type of power provider, the belt in the mill was very l-o-n-g running all the machines....mostly used in the cotton industry.
So, if it worked a hundred years ago.....?  |
Think about the energy necessary to get the mass of a long belt or shaft started and up to speed -- that's wasted energy.
Then think about the same energy source without having to overcome all that inertial. The energy that would have been wasted on starting (and maintaining a spinning mass) would be net output instead of net loss.
The type of technology they had was dictated by the material available and the engineering knowledge. Belts were made of animal skin. Wheels of plant material. They have a lot of mass for the amount of strength they provide. That put an upper limit on how much energy they could transfer, too.