Water Wheel - History

History

Further information: Watermill

In water-raising devices rotary motion is typically more efficient than machines based on oscillating motion. In terms of power source, water wheels can be turned either by human or animal force or by the water current itself. Water wheels come in two basic designs, either equipped with a vertical or a horizontal axle. The latter type can be subdivided, depending on where the water hits the wheel paddles, into overshot, breastshot and undershot wheels. The two main functions of water wheels were historically water-lifting for irrigation purposes and milling, particularly of grain.

Read more about this topic:  Water Wheel

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “He wrote in prison, not a History of the World, like Raleigh, but an American book which I think will live longer than that. I do not know of such words, uttered under such circumstances, and so copiously withal, in Roman or English or any history.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember. All other history defeats itself.
    In Beverly Hills ... they don’t throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows.
    Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.”
    —Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)

    “It is true that this man was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by extreme cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance .... Hitler was history in its purest form.”
    —Albert Camus (1913–1960)