Mills in the Netherlands _{Typically Dutch}

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Introduction

The Mill is in the eyes of the foreign countries the symbol of Holland. On the horizon of the Dutch landscape people saw in every direction they looked a mill for centuries.

On very old paintings and pictures there are already mills represented. Painters from the seventeenth untill the twentieth century - from Ruisdael to Mondriaan - strengthen the image from Holland as a land of mills by filling up their paintings with as much mills as possible.

In the beginning there were still nine-thousand mills left in Holland. Seventy years ago there disappeared seven thousand by the rise of steam and electrical energy. Now there are in the whole country less then two-thousand mills.

This part of 'Typically Dutch' is about windmills. The following subjects take a closer look:

Why do people use a mill?

For what do people use a mill?

How does a mill work?

Different types of Mills.

These subjects also will be the chapters of what is being written. We hope this way to get our account as clear as possible.