Wind Powered Paper Machine

When we think of paper machine drives we naturally think of such systems as sectional electric, mechanical differential, hypoid gear boxes, transfer gear cases or in some cases cone pulley drives with belt shifters for differential draw control.

There was life before these sophisticated machine drive systems. Many early paper machines were water powered or in some cases a combination of wind and water powered by windmills. I set off, rambling around the Internet to see if I could find information about wind & water powered paper machines. The web site sources for some of this information are listed at the end of this article. Most of the web sites were in Dutch or German languages. Not being any where near fluent in either language, my interpretation of the information may be suspect in some areas.

Perhaps our European Correspondent, Oyvind Haugen (who is fluent in quite a few languages) can review the information and comment. The windmill background is courtesy of the Windmill Backgrounds web site.

Here are some of the gems I located. Click any of the images to see an enlarged view.

	This is a windmill powered paper mill in the town of Loenen in Holland. The windmill powers the mill by water.
	The water is pumped over a trestle to a weir then to a waterwheel that transmits rotation to a line shaft over the paper machine
	The Loenen paper machine associated with the windmill. Note the overhead belted line shaft
	This windmill on Paper mill River in Holland was originally built in the 1600s, two times being destroyed by fire. The windmill in one of it's rebuilds was built over a paper mill.
	We located a photo of a paper mill that was supposedly associated with a windmill. It could not b e establish if this was the paper machine associated with the Paper Mill River windmill.
	This windmill powers a paper machine. The paper mill is housed in the building adjacent to the windmill.
	Most of these early paper mills transmit power by wooden gear trains. the "Peg type gearing shown in this model was in common use on both the pinion and the "bull" gear. This type of gear train was used in The Mount Vernon grist mill.
	This is another wood type gear set. It can not be seen clearly in the photo, the gear teeth are separate pieces commonly mortised into position in the gear body. We located several gear bodies that looked like both stone and wood.
	This mill was originally built in the Netherlands in 1933.
	A closer look at the waterwheel.
	A sketch of an early paper machine that appears to be driven by an overhead peg gear drive train. The engraver is unknown
	In this paper machine photo a peg type transmission gear set is clearly in view in the enlarged view.
	A mortise wood gear set. It can be clearly seen in the enlarged view that the teeth are replaceable and wedged into position. A tether is shown at each tooth position. The function can be assumed but is not explained.
	This is the pinion and clutch that matches the mortise bull gear above. The gear set was used at the Broadheadsheadville grist mill.