French    German    Spain    Italian    Arabic    Chinese Simplified    Russian

Western Civilisation

Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was  superior to anything Islam had developed.  Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam.  Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions.  Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'.  Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.   

Back     Printer Friendly Version  

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Technological genius; the Medieval invention of the Wind Mill

A corollary to the development of the Water Mill

by Ferdinand III





Cult such as National Socialism, Communism, or Islam don't create. Faiths do. Faiths use reason to assess, promote and investigate science creating a platform for metaphysics. Science will never explain the 'whys' of the physical world. Why is there gravity ? Why does the earth rotate at 1000 miles hour ? Why not at 100.000 miles per hour ?


Islam created very little. This is obvious from any objective, sentient reading of history. Only in astronomy is there any evidence of originality from Moslems or Islamic philosophers. Within the Moslem world from the irruption of the Meccan cult's Jihad in 632 AD until today; precious little that was created by Moslems. Persians, Christians, Jews, Berbers and others within the Moslem empires and occupied areas certainly did create some tangible additions to human knowledge, but that is in spite of, not because of, Islam.


Why didn't the Moslems for example invent the Wind Mill ? Hiero's 1rst century AD wind power engine was known to the ancients. Instead of destroying the extant minor libraries available; and allowing goats and pigs to lay waste to the soil; why didn't the Moslems improve on the science which was founded in Alexandria, after they conquered the area in 640 AD ? Why didn't some Moslem 'scientist' use Hiero's wind-mill model as a basis for further innovation ?


Why indeed didn't the Moslems invent anything that was innovative, scientifically, or mathematically premised ? Outside of some minor astronomical improvements the Moslems were simply squatters on richer civilizations, transmitting ancient knowledge to Europe, some of it novel, some of it known, some of it already rejected. It is a catastrophe that for 1000 years Moslems denuded, degraded, slaved, warred and destroyed much of the North African-Eastern and North-Eastern Mediterranean world; and extended that devastation into Eastern Europe, Russia and Central-Western Africa.


Islam's world-view, parametrized by the Koran, is negative, Jihadic, irrational and denies free-will. It is the exact opposite of Christianity.



Freed from Rome circa 500 AD many European regions began a long process of rebuilding. The Church was at the center of this re-civilization. In England in 500 AD there were no water mills, by 1000 AD there were more than 8.000. The same is true of windmills. Windmills were developed in areas bereft of fast flowing water. By 1200 they were common across Europe, since extant texts lament the loss of timber to build these towering structures. European wind-mill design was unique, specialized and particularly intelligent to harness both wind, and later water-power.  In fact, some 30.000 windmills were built in Medieval Europe - a rather staggering testimony to its wealth and creativity.  


Terry Reynolds in 'Stronger than a Hundred Men' gives an impressive overview of both water and wind mill technology [here]. It is hard to imagine the brains, the energy and the perseverance to establish thousands of such devices across a variegated topography.


On the plains and the coasts varieties of mills were deployed, employing different blades, angles, gears, levers, and varying in intent and objective. Most were used to grind and crush grains and corn. Many of huge stature were utilized in the 'Low Countries' to drain sea water and reclaim land. Only in Christian-medieval Europe were windmills of many varieties developed and deployed for the benefit of the average person. A marked increase in food production and arable land suitable for human settlements proceeded apace.


The Dutch were particularly skilled in wind-mill development. A wind mill to pump out water was invented in Holland circa 1282 AD. By 1550 the Dutch had reclaimed hundreds of miles of land from the sea, building dykes as the windmills helped drain and reclaim the land. Dykes themselves are a formidable medieval invention [see here]. In fact almost half of the present-day Netherlands is from land reclaimed during the medieval period. If you ever have a chance to visit a working model of a Dutch windmill you should take the opportunity and wonder at the internal technology of ropes, gears, balances, weights and measured mathematics – not to mention building skill – that makes up such an impressive piece of technology.


Nothing like the above can be found in the Moslem world.



Article Comments:

Related Articles:

Medieval/Early Modern Christianity


11/17/2024:  Christian scientists and thinkers in the Middle Ages

9/24/2023:  Christian Byzantium and Greek Civilisation

5/3/2023:  Byzantium and 'The Franks'. A complex tragedy.

3/27/2023:  Byzantium and the end of glory

11/20/2022:  Christian Monks saving and building Civilisation

11/14/2022:  Saving Civilisation. The Catholic Church in the non-existent 'dark ages'

11/3/2022:  Cathophobia. A real and dangerous mental illness.

8/15/2022:  Matteo Rici and the Catholic Mission to China

4/13/2022:  Slandering Medieval Christianity while applauding Muslim Paganism.

10/27/2021:  The Fall of Rome and the Invasions of the Musulmans

8/30/2021:  Henry More and Richard the Lionheart. Two opposite ends of the Christian spectrum.

8/3/2021:  The Unenlightened Enlightenment: an age of Unreason

5/27/2021:  The myth of the 'Dark Ages'

4/11/2021:  The Age of the Ineffably Uncivilised. The Enlightenment as ‘EnDarkenment’.

3/9/2021:  ‘Reformation Myths’, #3 by Rodney Stark. More science in Medieval Universities than in the modern.

3/5/2021:  ‘Reformation Myths’, #2 by Rodney Stark

3/4/2021:  ‘Reformation Myths’, by Rodney Stark

11/14/2020:  Medieval Medicine and science. No, Moslems did not invent medicine. Christians did.

8/15/2020:  Belloc and the eternal threat of the Muhammandan death cult

6/1/2016:  Constantine, Clovis and Christianity

5/3/2016:  Middle Ages: Wonders in art, architecture, technology and yes science and math

5/3/2016:  From steel manufacturing to stained glass, the ages of the Middle Ages were full of energy.

4/20/2016:  Morris Bishop and Medieval Europe; remove Islam and society begins to flourish

3/8/2016:  'The Reformation' is more accurately called 'The Deformation'

2/13/2016:  The Incorrupted bodies of Saints - a long list of miracles that 'science' cannot explain

1/7/2016:  The modern cult of science versus reason and faith

1/3/2016:  Aquinas, Aristotle and Mad Muhammad

12/25/2015:  The birth of Christ is NOT based on the pagan festival of the Invincible Sun

12/3/2015:  Faith and science are handmaidens not opponents

10/31/2015:  In praise of the Monks, the creators of modern Europe

10/24/2015:  From Augustine to Anselm, logic and faith working together

10/17/2015:  Medieval Ontology, logic and Anselm

9/26/2015:  Medieval Faith married to reason created the modern world.

9/19/2015:  Machiavelli, another product of the insane, the illiterate, the savage

9/19/2015:  The Greatest Queen in European history - Queen Isabella.

8/30/2015:  Feudalism, pilloried and slandered without context

8/22/2015:  Frederick II, the Atheist monster of the 13th century

7/29/2015:  Parthia and the destruction of Byzantium

6/29/2015:  Pierre Duhem, the Galileo myth, and historical revisionism.

6/25/2015:  Pope Sylvester II, another Great Pope, unlike the current version.

6/23/2015:  Pope Gregory the Great and saving civilisation

6/22/2015:  Pope Gregory the Great - an inspiration to civilization.

5/22/2015:  Godefroid and Medieval astronomy. Quite modern indeed.

5/11/2015:  Saving Civilization - the 'Faith'.

5/6/2015:  Belloc and the civilizational influence of the Catholic Church

4/10/2015:  Another Moslem-Enlightenment lie; 'Christians never bathed'.....

4/6/2015:  Pierre Duham and the importance of Middle Age Science.

4/2/2015:  Modern science arose only in Christian Europe.

3/9/2015:  Philoponus, the Astrolabe and Galileo

2/6/2015:  Only in Christian Europe were schools and the university system created.

2/4/2015:  Christian genius in Mathematics. Moslems invented precious little, Christianity a treasure trove.

2/2/2015:  Christians discovered and confirmed Heliocentricity. No other culture came close to that.

1/31/2015:  The myth and nonsense of the 'Enlightenment'. Pure Atheist and Marxist propaganda.

1/24/2015:  Pointed Arches, Ribbed Vaults, Flying Buttresses and Christian Genius

11/23/2014:  Aristotle and the Church – a complex relationship.

11/21/2014:  From Epicurus to Galileo, atomism and materialism.

11/16/2014:  St. Thomas Aquinas, reason, faith and Aristotle.

8/26/2014:  Brunelleschi's amazing Dome of the early 15th century

8/24/2014:  Byzantium: A Christian and cultural Colossus

8/21/2014:  Byzantium and its legacy of legal processes

8/21/2014:  Byzantium: The forgotten influence on Western Civilization

8/19/2014:  Anglo Saxon art the lie of a 'dark age'

8/18/2014:  The Lindisfarne Gospels and civilized art

7/29/2014:  Anselm of Canterbury and the Scholastic method

7/21/2014:  Lies about Medieval Medicine

7/15/2014:  Post modern ignorance of the Medieval World 900-1300

7/9/2014:  Only a complex and wealthy society can build a Trebuchet

7/8/2014:  Medieval bathing - a legacy from Rome - and quite common

7/7/2014:  Medieval literature puts a lie to myth of a dark age

6/29/2014:  Flat earthers are more likely to be Evolutionists and Cult of Warm devotees than Christian...

6/27/2014:  Atheists are so desperate, that quacks such as Bruno are now 'scientists'

6/26/2014:  The myth of Bruno, the 'scientist' fighting against superstition and darkness.....

6/12/2014:  Medieval Christianity and the genesis of plurality and debate

6/9/2014:  Melisende and the importance of Queen's and women in Medieval history

6/5/2014:  A supposed Dark Age gave us the Magna Carta and the Provisions of Oxford

6/3/2014:  Medieval Chess reflects much about Medieval society

6/2/2014:  Skis and skates - another Medieval Christian creation

5/31/2014:  Could you create an illuminated manuscript ?

5/30/2014:  Overview of Medieval Manuscripts - where are the Moslem manuscripts and works of art ?

5/30/2014:  The labour and brilliance of Medieval Manuscripts

5/28/2014:  Book printing and binding - another Medieval innovation of the first order

5/23/2014:  Moerbeeke, translations and the medieval genius to adapt and learn

5/21/2014:  Guns, canons, explosives - another Medieval Christian invention

5/14/2014:  The most important Medieval invention – modern capitalism

5/13/2014:  51 out of the 52 most important 16th and 17th century scientists were Christian

5/13/2014:  A list of scientists in the 16th and 17th centuries

5/11/2014:  The bicycle, the engineering and science of the Middle Ages developed this mode of transport

5/9/2014:  Carracks, another Medieval European-only invention

5/3/2014:  Accounting, another Medieval Invention, generated by Capitalism

5/3/2014:  Buttons and Medieval Capitalism

5/1/2014:  Blast Furnaces were developed independently in Medieval Europe

4/26/2014:  Chiara Frugoni and Medieval Inventions

4/25/2014:  Partial list of Medieval inventions

4/21/2014:  Medieval inventions around modern grooming and shaving

4/21/2014:  Medieval invention: Artesian wells and understanding water hydrology

4/19/2014:  Technological genius; the Medieval invention of the Wind Mill

4/16/2014:  Eye-Glasses, another Medieval invention based on math and science

4/16/2014:  The chimney - another important Medieval European invention

4/14/2014:  Horses and Iron industrialization

4/12/2014:  The mighty Wheelbarrow - another Medieval invention

4/12/2014:  The modern clock - another Medieval Invention

4/8/2014:  The High Middles and the beginnings of modern science

4/7/2014:  The Middle Ages and Public Schools, funded by the Church

4/4/2014:  A very brief summary of Medieval Christian genius 1100 – 1300

3/29/2014:  The real flat earthers - modern Atheists and Secularists

3/27/2014:  The Galileo myth and the Humanist invention of conflict

3/19/2014:  Why does the earth rotate ? Science has made precious little progress since 1350

3/19/2014:  A brief list of some Medieval inventions

3/10/2014:  God's Philosophers by James Hannam - the true record of Medieval Science

3/6/2014:  St. Thomas Aquinas on the Meccan Moon Cult

2/25/2014:  The Inquisition and its myths

2/14/2014:  The magnificence of the Middle Ages - nothing like it in Islamic history

2/3/2014:  Without Christianity there is no modern world

10/20/2012:  Medieval innovations in transport and war - some examples.

9/23/2010:  Anti-Semiticism is a Muslim import.

7/10/2010:  Medieval Civilization: Venetian rise and decline.

6/10/2010:  Imperial Spain – lessons in despotism, poverty and ignorance.

4/26/2010:  Slandering Christian Europe: 'The Dark Ages'

3/23/2010:  Creating the modern world. The blessings of medieval Europe.