An 18th century working mill project: not every designer will take on such an order!

What do we mean by the term "complex order?" Probably, the implementation of some non-standard architectural elements and structures, the manufacturing experience of which is simply not available. Any builder will sooner or later face such work. But in this case, no one limits the use of modern technologies and tools. But what if the customer asks to recreate a fully functioning mill of the 18th century using long-forgotten and partially lost technologies? This is a real problem even for experienced designers!

Dmitry Kasyan, the executor of FORUMHOUSE Exchange, faced exactly such an order. The customers were looking for a specialist who would be able to implement the project of a windmill for the ethnographic complex "Park of Living History". Dmitry got down to work and completed the task. What difficulties he faced in the process - read on.

About order

The customer presented a number of requirements that made it even more difficult, and thus not an easy task.

1. Observation tower. The mill will be the highest point in the ethnographic complex under construction, so it needs to be turned into a version of an observation tower.
2. Museum. The facility will also be a living exhibit with guided tours of the mills and internal mechanisms. Sufficient floor space and space is required to demonstrate the engineering of the mill for groups of up to 25 people.
3. Business card. The building will be the hallmark of the entire project, the most spectacular and significant object, so it is important to make it aesthetically attractive and effective.
4. Functionality. The engineering stuffing of the mill should be both interesting and functional. It is desirable to reproduce a complex design, like the one presented in Holland.
5. Practicality. The winds in the park location are very strong, so special attention must be paid to wind loads on the tower and blades. The mechanism must be resistant to wear and tear.

Remote work. The budget is 50,000-100,000 rubles.

Well, how do you like the introductory ones?

Briefly about the artist

Dmitry, of course, is no stranger to this business. He is a professional construction designer specializing in wooden structures. Works with frame technology, sip panels, beams. He studied with foreign specialists, is familiar with the primary sources of these technologies. In addition to design, he participates in project expertise.

But even with such a track record and minimal competition for this order, Dmitry did not immediately agree to work. It was necessary to find sources of information from which to push off.

Difficulties

In this case, the name "mill" is far from what it is. The object, in fact, is a building, under the roof of which there is a museum and an operating mill that produces real flour!

If the object were just a mill, it could be recreated using one of the few old drawings. But when they also make a museum out of it, the task becomes three times more complicated, since there are no analogues and there is nowhere to peep. And also in the project it was necessary to think over the safety of visitors to the facility as much as possible - to distance them from the mechanisms.

Tasks that had to be solved

• Firstly, it is impossible to allow anyone to reach the rotating shafts and gears - in case of contact with these parts, the visitor can get injured, and quite serious.
• Secondly, you need to provide an excursion route so that tourists can simultaneously see everything mill levels, visit the observation deck and do not interfere with the production process. And also the weight of a group of at least fifteen people wandering around the floors had to be taken into account as well. The fact is that the main shaft runs from the ceiling to the floor of the mill, which must not be skewed.
• Thirdly, the designer had to urgently acquire the skills of a mechanical engineer. Classical construction involves the construction of static objects. The mill is not exactly a building, in the classical sense, but a huge mechanism. It's like a cuckoo clock - it looks like a birdhouse, but it's far from a birdhouse.
• Fourthly, the designer had to take into account possible difficulties during construction. It is necessary to provide that all materials for construction can be purchased on the territory of our country. That is, to avoid the creation of a separate infrastructure in order to simply build and maintain one mill in the future. For example, we restrict ourselves to lumber, the maximum length of which is 6 meters. It is necessary to build on these standards - no need to resort to special orders or purchase equipment capable of producing a beam of 9 meters or more.
• Fifthly, it was necessary to master the forgotten technologies, namely, to reproduce the old bearings and gears, consisting mainly of wood. What is only the swivel mechanism on which the superstructure with blades rotates! It is based on a giant wooden bearing, over two meters in diameter.

• Sixth, a good designer must optimize the idea. It is not trivial to copy the mechanism and technical solutions, but adapt it to modern realities. The fact is that in the old days people did not have a complete knowledge of materials and their properties. In most of the projects of the past, redundant solutions were laid: if the shaft, then a meter thick; the wall is such a solid log. The modern designer knows how to count and needs to avoid unnecessary waste of material. In this case, the technologies are old, but subjected to accurate calculations and computer processing.

My head is spinning from this!

What had to be mastered additionally to complete one order

The work on the project took two months and the lion's share was spent on finding information. Dmitry plunged into the Internet and started looking for everything that somehow relates to this topic. First, I came across a Russian book published in 1852, which described the operation of the mill mechanism. That is: how a windmill works in general; how the blades work (slope, material); with what speed the shafts rotate; how rotation is transmitted through pairs of gears (gear ratio); how the mechanisms are adjusted depending on the strength of the wind. This book served as a base, but not a solution.

Next came a painstaking study of all kinds of archives, where you can find the necessary information. But there are few Russian-language sources, so we had to translate old documents from the archives of Denmark, Holland, Germany. From there came the basic knowledge of the construction of wooden gears and bearings. And this is a very unusual task. Imagine: you need to build a wooden wheel; calculate and make the required number of holes; make teeth from hard wood and plant them securely there. This can be called a full-fledged historical reconstruction.

But that's not all: wood is a living material, which means it can change in size from excessive moisture or dry air. And this must also be foreseen. The teeth of the gears must not be allowed to dry out and fly out - there are no electronic tracking systems in this mechanism, and in the event of an emergency, the entire system can “fly” at once.

As a separate discipline, Dmitry studied the maintenance of such devices. This is the most important design point! For example, in Europe there are functioning mills (not museums) that were built 200-250 years ago. So the secret of their safety lies in the types of wood used in the moving parts and methods of caring for them. Leaving means lubrication, which, by the way, was produced with tar 200 years ago. The service life of individual parts depends on a combination of these factors.

I also had to study aerodynamics, namely, to calculate the area of ​​the windmill blade and its slope. Here, the limitation in the length of available lumber (6 meters), as well as the climatic conditions of the area - the frequency and strength of the winds, their direction left their mark. All these factors formed the basis of the idea.

Gradually, a picture of the future object was formed and the implementation of the project began. The first sketches and the main idea appeared within a few days. Further, all this migrated into a complex but familiar design program. Only the technical work remained, which was successfully completed. The customers approved the project and next year the construction will start on it.

Conclusion

The work seems difficult only because of the lack of information and inability to work with it. The saying goes well - "Fear has big eyes." Dmitry is not afraid of difficulties, since he knows that if it was built 300 years ago, it can be done without difficulty now. The main thing is to find a source, generate an idea, and computerization and modern knowledge will help to implement any project. The price of professionalism is a mountain of shoveled information. If you are not afraid of this, success is guaranteed!

Did you take on a difficult and unfamiliar job? Write in the comments!

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