Editing Windmill (section)

=== Post mill ===
{{main|Post mill}}

The evidence at present is that the earliest type of European windmill was the post mill, so named because of the large upright post on which the mill's main structure (the "body" or "buck") is balanced. By mounting the body this way, the mill can rotate to face the wind direction; an essential requirement for windmills to operate economically in north-western Europe, where wind directions are variable. The body contains all the milling machinery. The first post mills were of the sunken type, where the post was buried in an earth mound to support it. Later, a wooden support was developed called the [[trestle (mill)|trestle]]. This was often covered over or surrounded by a roundhouse to protect the trestle from the weather and to provide storage space. This type of windmill was the most common in Europe until the 19th century when more powerful [[tower mill|tower]] and [[smock mill]]s replaced them.<ref>Hills, Power from wind: a history of windmill technology, (1996), 65</ref>

==== Hollow-post mill ====

In a hollow-post mill, the post on which the body is mounted is hollowed out, to accommodate the drive shaft.<ref>{{cite book
 | title = Windmills
 | author = Martin Watts
 | publisher = Osprey Publishing
 | year = 2006
 | isbn = 978-0-7478-0653-0
 | page = 55
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PJ7-M8lFo_UC&pg=PA55
 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
This makes it possible to drive machinery below or outside the body while still being able to rotate the body into the wind. Hollow-post mills driving scoop wheels were used in the Netherlands to drain wetlands since the early 15th century onwards.<ref name="hollow-postMills">{{Britannica URL | url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/energy-conversion/Windmills | title=Windmills | author= Rex Wailes, Fred Landis }}</ref>