History
No one knows when people first built windmills to do work. The first instance may have been in China more than 2,000 years ago, but archaeologists have found no definite record of their use there before 1219 AD. The earliest recorded windmill design found was Persian in origin, and was invented around 500–900 AD. This design was the panemone, with vertical lightweight wooden sails attached by horizontal struts to a central vertical shaft. It was first built to pump water, and subsequently modified to grind grain as well.
Read more about this topic: Panemone Windmill
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