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A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blades or buckets attached to the outer rim forming the drive mechanism. Water wheels were still in commercial ...
In the late 1870s, he invented the Pelton water wheel, at that time the most efficient design of the impulse water turbine. Recognized as one of the fathers of hydroelectric power, he was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal during his lifetime and is an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. [1]
Watermill of Braine-le-Château, Belgium (12th century) Interior of the Lyme Regis watermill, UK (14th century). A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower.It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering.
These include all three variants of the vertical water wheel as well as the horizontal water wheel. [6] Apart from its main use in grinding flour, water-power was also applied to pounding grain, [7] crushing ore, [8] sawing stones [9] and possibly fulling and bellows for iron furnaces. [10]
Al-Jazari invented five machines for raising water, [1] as well as watermills and water wheels with cams on their axle used to operate automata, [34] in the 12th and 13th centuries, and described them in 1206. It was in these water-raising machines that he introduced his most important ideas and components.
The Sagebien wheel is a type of water wheel invented by Alphonse Sagebien of France, a hydrological engineer and a graduate of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures. It was one of the most efficient breastshot water wheel designs of its era; when working on a low head of water, the Sagebien wheel could reach efficiencies of up to 90% ...
The Poncelet wheel is a type of waterwheel invented by Jean-Victor Poncelet while working at the École d'Application in Metz. It roughly doubled the efficiency of existing undershot waterwheels through a series of detail improvements.
A tide mill is a water mill driven by tidal rise and fall. A dam with a sluice is created across a suitable tidal inlet, or a section of river estuary is made into a reservoir . As the tide comes in, it enters the mill pond through a one-way gate, and this gate closes automatically when the tide begins to fall.