Editing Water wheel (section)

==== Medieval Europe ====
{{See also|List of early medieval watermills}}

Ancient water-wheel technology continued unabated in the early medieval period where the appearance of new documentary genres such as [[legal code]]s, [[Monastery|monastic]] [[charter]]s, but also [[hagiography]] was accompanied with a sharp increase in references to watermills and wheels.<ref>{{harvnb|Wikander|2000|p=372f.}}; {{harvnb|Wilson|2002|p=3}}</ref>

The earliest vertical-wheel in a [[tide mill]] is from 6th-century Killoteran near [[Waterford]], [[Ireland]],<ref name="Murphy 2005">{{harvnb|Murphy|2005}}</ref> while the first known horizontal-wheel in such a type of mill is from the Irish [[Little Island, Cork|Little Island]] (c. 630).<ref name="Wikander 1985, 155–157">{{harvnb|Wikander|1985|pp=155–157}}</ref> As for the use in a common Norse or Greek mill, the oldest known horizontal-wheels were excavated in the Irish Ballykilleen, dating to c. 636.<!-- Ballykilleen, Co. Offaly --><ref name="Wikander 1985, 155–157"/>

[[File:Waterwheel-Uzhhorod.jpg|thumb|upright|Water wheel powering a small village mill at the [[Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, Uzhhorod]], [[Ukraine]]]]

[[Cistercian]] [[Monastery|monasteries]], in particular, made extensive use of water wheels to power watermills of many kinds.<ref name=Hansen>{{cite web |last1=Hansen |first1=Roger D. |title=Water Wheels |url=http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/waterwheels/waterwheels.pdf |website=waterhistory.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414221333/http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/waterwheels/waterwheels.pdf |archive-date=14 April 2022 |date=2005 |url-status=live}}</ref> An early example of a very large water wheel is the still extant wheel at the early 13th century [[Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda]], a Cistercian monastery in the [[Aragon]] region of [[Spain]]. Grist mills (for grain) were undoubtedly the most common, but there were also sawmills, fulling mills and mills to fulfil many other labour-intensive tasks. The water wheel remained competitive with the [[steam engine]] well into the [[Industrial Revolution]]. At around the 8th to 10th century, a number of irrigation technologies were brought into Spain and thus introduced to Europe. One of those technologies is the Noria, which is basically a wheel fitted with buckets on the peripherals for lifting water. It is similar to the undershot water wheel mentioned later in this article. It allowed peasants to power watermills more efficiently. According to Thomas Glick's book, ''Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia'', the Noria probably originated from somewhere in [[Persia]]. It has been used for centuries before the technology was brought into Spain by Arabs who had adopted it from the Romans. Thus the distribution of the Noria in the Iberian peninsula "conforms to the area of stabilized Islamic settlement".<ref>Glick, p. 178</ref>

The assembly convened by [[William of Normandy]], commonly referred to as the "[[Domesday]]" or Doomsday survey, took an inventory of all potentially taxable property in England, which included over six thousand mills spread across three thousand different locations,<ref name="Friedel31">Robert, Friedel, ''A Culture of Improvement''. MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, England. (2007). pp. 31–2b.</ref> up from less than a hundred in the previous century.<ref name=Hansen/>

The type of water wheel selected  was dependent upon the location. Generally if only small volumes of water and high waterfalls were available a millwright would choose to use an [[overshot wheel]]. The decision was influenced by the fact that the buckets could catch and use even a small volume of water.<ref name ="Howard">{{Cite journal |last=Howard |first=Robert A. |title=Primer on Water Wheels |journal=[[Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology]] |volume=15 |issue=3 |date=1983 |pages=26–33 |doi=10.2307/1493973 |jstor=1493973}}</ref> For large volumes of water with small waterfalls the undershot wheel would have been used, since it was more adapted to such conditions and cheaper to construct. So long as these water supplies were abundant the question of efficiency remained irrelevant. By the 18th century, with increased demand for power coupled with limited water locales, an emphasis was made on efficiency scheme.<ref name ="Howard"/>

By the 11th century there were parts of Europe where the exploitation of water was commonplace.<ref name="Friedel31"/> The water wheel is understood to have actively shaped and forever changed the outlook of Westerners. Europe began to transit from human and animal muscle labor towards mechanical labor with the advent of the water wheel. Medievalist Lynn White Jr. contended that the spread of inanimate power sources was eloquent testimony to the emergence of the West of a new attitude toward, power, work, nature, and above all else technology.<ref name="Friedel31"/>

Harnessing water-power enabled gains in agricultural productivity, food surpluses and the large scale urbanization starting in the 11th century. The usefulness of water power motivated European experiments with other power sources, such as wind and tidal mills.<ref>Terry S, Reynolds, ''Stronger than a Hundred Men; A History of the Vertical Water Wheel''. Baltimore; Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. Robert, Friedel, ''A Culture of Improvement''. MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, England. (2007). p. 33.</ref> Waterwheels influenced the construction of cities, more specifically canals. The techniques that developed during this early period such as stream jamming and the building of [[canals]], put Europe on a [[hydraulically]] focused path, for instance water supply and irrigation technology was combined to modify supply power of the wheel.<ref>Robert, Friedel, ''A Culture of Improvement''. MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, England. (2007). p. 34</ref>

[[File:Gal gromadzenie urobku.jpg|thumb|Ore stamp mill (behind worker taking ore from chute). From [[Georg Agricola]]'s ''[[De re metallica]]'' (1556)]]

The water mill was used for grinding grain, producing flour for bread, malt for beer, or coarse meal for porridge.<ref>Robert, Friedel, A'' Culture of Improvement''. MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, England. (2007)</ref>