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:

    “We said that the history of mankind depicts man; in the same way one can maintain that the history of science is science itself.”
    —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)

    “Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)