Water wheel

“Waterwheel” redirects here. For other uses, see

Waterwheel (disambiguation).
“Headrace” redirects here. For the rowing competition,
see Head race.
A water wheel is a machine for converting the en-

Water wheel powering a mine hoist in De re metallica (1566)

grinding wood into pulp for papermaking, but other uses

include hammering wrought iron, machining, ore crush-
An overshot waterwheel standing 42 ft (13 m) high powers the ing and pounding fiber for use in the manufacture of cloth.
Old Mill at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, USA
Some water wheels are fed by water from a mill pond,
ergy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of which is formed when a flowing stream is dammed. A
power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of channel for the water flowing to or from a water wheel
a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades is called a mill race (also spelled millrace) or simply a
or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driv- “race”, and is customarily divided into sections. The race
ing surface. Most commonly, the wheel is mounted ver- bringing water from the mill pond to the water wheel is
tically on a horizontal axle, but the tub or Norse wheel is a headrace; the one carrying water after it has left the
mounted horizontally on a vertical shaft. Vertical wheels wheel is commonly referred to as a tailrace.[1]
can transmit power either through the axle or via a ring John Smeaton’s scientific investigation of the water wheel
gear and typically drive belts or gears; horizontal wheels led to significant increases in efficiency in the mid to late
usually directly drive their load. 18th century and supplying much needed power for the
[2][3]
Water wheels were still in commercial use well into the Industrial Revolution.
20th century, but they are no longer in common use. Prior Water wheels began being displaced by the smaller, less
uses of water wheels include milling flour in gristmills and expensive and more efficient turbine developed by Benoît

1
2 1 HISTORY

Fourneyron, beginning with his first model in 1827.[3]

Turbines are capable of handling high heads, or eleva-
tions, that exceed the capability of practical sized water-
wheels.
The main difficulty of water wheels is their dependence
on flowing water, which limits where they can be located.
Modern hydroelectric dams can be viewed as the descen-
dants of the water wheel as they too take advantage of the
movement of water downhill.

1 History
Further information: Watermill

The two main functions of water wheels were histori-

cally water-lifting for irrigation purposes and as a power
source. In terms of power source, water wheels can be Sequence of wheels found in Rio Tinto mines
turned either by human or animal force or by the water
current itself. Water wheels come in two basic designs,
either equipped with a vertical or a horizontal axle. The
latter type can be subdivided, depending on where the wa-
ter hits the wheel paddles, into overshot, breastshot and
undershot wheels.

1.1 Greco-Roman world

See also: List of ancient watermills

Hellenistic engineers invented the water wheel and were,

along with the Romans, the first to use it for both irriga-
tion and as a power source.[4] The technological break-
through occurred in the technically advanced and scien-
tifically minded Hellenistic period between the 3rd and
1st century BC.[5]

1.1.1 Drainage wheels

The Romans used water wheels extensively in mining

projects. They were reverse overshot water-wheels de-
signed for dewatering deep underground mines. Several
such devices were described by Vitruvius. The one found
during modern mining at the copper mines at Rio Tinto
Reconstruction of Vitruvius' undershot-wheeled watermill
in Spain involved 16 such wheels stacked above one an-
other so as to lift water about 80 feet (24 m) from the mine
sump. Part of a similar wheel dated to about 90 AD, was of the vertical-axle watermill to the early 3rd century
found in the 1930s, at Dolaucothi, a Roman gold mine in BC, and the horizontal-axle watermill to around 240 BC,
south Wales. with Byzantium and Alexandria as the assigned places of
invention.[6] A watermill is reported by the Greek ge-
1.1.2 Water mills ographer Strabon (ca. 64 BC–AD 24) to have existed
sometime before 71 BC in the palace of the Pontian king
Taking indirect evidence into account from the work of Mithradates VI Eupator, but its exact construction[7]
cannot
the Greek technician Apollonius of Perge, the British his- be gleaned from the text (XII, 3, 30 C 556).
torian of technology M.J.T. Lewis dates the appearance The first clear description of a geared watermill offers
1.2 Early Medieval Europe 3

the late 1st century BC Roman architect Vitruvius who

tells of the sakia gearing system as being applied to a
watermill.[8] Vitruvius’s account is particularly valuable
in that it shows how the watermill came about, namely
by the combination of the separate Greek inventions of
the toothed gear and the water wheel into one effective
mechanical system for harnessing water power.[9] Vitru-
vius’s water wheel is described as being immersed with
its lower end in the watercourse so that its paddles could
be driven by the velocity of the running water (X, 5.2).[10]

Ox-powered Roman paddle wheel boat from a 15th-century copy

of De Rebus Bellicis

odometer, the earliest of its kind. The first mention of

paddle wheels as a means of propulsion comes from the
4th–5th century military treatise De Rebus Bellicis (chap-
ter XVII), where the anonymous Roman author describes
an ox-driven paddle-wheel warship.[17]

Schematic of the Roman Hierapolis sawmill, Asia Minor, pow-

ered by a breastshot wheel 1.2 Early Medieval Europe

About the same time, the overshot wheel appears for the See also: List of early medieval watermills
first time in a poem by Antipater of Thessalonica, which
praises it as a labour-saving device (IX, 418.4–6).[11] The Ancient water-wheel technology continued unabated in
motif is also taken up by Lucretius (ca. 99-55 BC) who the early medieval period where the appearance of
likens the rotation of the water wheel to the motion of the new documentary genres such as legal codes, monastic
stars on the firmament (V 516).[12] The third horizontal- charters, but also hagiography was accompanied with a
axled type, the breastshot water wheel, comes into ar- sharp increase in references to watermills and wheels.[18]
chaeological evidence by the late 2nd century AD con-
The earliest vertical-wheel in a tide mill is from 6th-
text in central Gaul.[13] Most excavated Roman water-
century Killoteran near Waterford, Ireland,[19] while the
mills were equipped with one of these wheels which, al-
first known horizontal-wheel in such a type of mill is from
though more complex to construct, were much more ef-
the Irish Little Island (c. 630).[20] As for the use in a com-
ficient than the vertical-axle water wheel.[14] In the 2nd
mon Norse or Greek mill, the oldest known horizontal-
century AD Barbegal watermill complex a series of six-
wheels were excavated in the Irish Ballykilleen, dating to
teen overshot wheels was fed by an artificial aqueduct,
c. 636.[20]
a proto-industrial grain factory which has been referred
to as “the greatest known concentration of mechanical The earliest excavated water wheel driven by tidal power
power in the ancient world”.[15] was the Nendrum Monastery mill in Northern Ireland
which has been dated at 787A.D. although a possible ear-
In Roman North Africa, several installations from around
lier mill dates to 619A.D. Tide mills became common
300 AD were found where vertical-axle water wheels fit-
in estuaries with a good tidal range in both Europe and
ted with angled blades were installed at the bottom of a
America generally using undershot wheels.
water-filled, circular shaft. The water from the mill-race
which entered the pit tangentially created a swirling water Cistercian monasteries, in particular, made extensive use
column that made the fully submerged wheel act like true of water wheels to power watermills of many kinds. An
water turbines, the earliest known to date.[16] early example of a very large water wheel is the still
extant wheel at the early 13th century Real Monaste-
rio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda, a Cistercian monastery
1.1.3 Navigation in the Aragon region of Spain. Grist mills (for corn)
were undoubtedly the most common, but there were also
Apart from its use in milling and water-raising, an- sawmills, fulling mills and mills to fulfil many other
cient engineers applied the paddled water wheel for labour-intensive tasks. The water wheel remained com-
automatons and in navigation. Vitruvius (X 9.5-7) de- petitive with the steam engine well into the Industrial
scribes multi-geared paddle wheels working as a ship Revolution. At around the 8th to 10th century, a num-
4 1 HISTORY

were abundant the question of efficiency remained irrel-

evant. By the 18th century with increased demand for
power coupled with limited water locales, an emphasis
was made on efficiency scheme.[23]

1.2.3 Economic influence

By the 11th century there were parts of Europe where

the exploitation of water was commonplace.[22] The wa-
ter wheel is understood to have actively shaped and for-
ever 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. Me-
dievalist Lynn White Jr. contended that the spread of
Water wheel powering a small village mill at the Museum of Folk
Architecture and Life, Uzhhorod, Ukraine
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.[22]
ber of irrigation technologies were brought into Spain and Harnessing water-power enabled gains in agricultural
thus introduced to Europe. One of those technologies is productivity, food surpluses and the large scale urban-
the Noria, which is basically a wheel fitted with buck- ization starting in the 11th century. The usefulness of
ets on the peripherals for lifting water. It is similar to water power motivated European experiments with other
the undershot water wheel mentioned later in this article. power sources, such as wind and tidal mills.[24] Water-
It allowed peasants to power watermills more efficiently. wheels influenced the construction of cities, more specif-
According to Thomas Glick’s book, Irrigation and Soci- ically canals. The techniques that developed during this
ety in Medieval Valencia, the Noria probably originated early period such as stream jamming and the building of
from somewhere in Persia. It has been used for centuries canals, put Europe on a hydraulically focused path, for
before the technology was brought into Spain by Arabs instance water supply and irrigation technology was com-
who had adopted it from the Romans. Thus the distribu- bined to modify supply power of the wheel.[25] Illustrating
tion of the Noria in the Iberian peninsula “conforms to the the extent to which there was a great degree of technolog-
area of stabilized Islamic settlement”.[21] This technology ical innovation that met the growing needs of the feudal
has a profound effect on the life of peasants. The Noria state.
is relatively cheap to build. Thus it allowed peasants to
cultivate land more efficiently in Europe. Together with
the Spaniards, the technology then spread to North Africa 1.2.4 Applications of the water wheel in medieval
and later to the New World in Mexico and South America Europe
following Spanish expansion.

1.2.1 Domesday inventory of English mills ca. 1086

The assembly convened by William of Normandy, com-

monly referred to as the “Domesday” or Doomsday sur-
vey, took an inventory of all potentially taxable property
in England, which included over six thousand mills spread
across three thousand different locations.[22]

1.2.2 Locations

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.[23] For large volumes of wa-
ter with small waterfalls the undershot wheel would have
been used, since it was more adapted to such conditions Ore stamp mill (behind worker taking ore form chute). From:
and cheaper to construct. So long as these water supplies Georg Agricola's De re metallica (1556)
1.3 Industrial European usage 5

The water mill was used for grinding grain, produc-

ing flour for bread, malt for beer, or coarse meal for
porridge.[26] Hammermills used the wheel to operate
hammers. One type was fulling mill, which was used for
cloth making. The trip hammer was also used for making
wrought iron and for working iron into useful shapes, an
activity that was otherwise labour-intensive. The water
wheel was also used in papermaking, beating material to
a pulp. In the 13th century water mills used for hammer-
ing throughout Europe improved the productivity of early
steel manufacturing. Along with the mastery of gunpow-
der, waterpower provided European countries worldwide
military leadership from the 15th century.

1.2.5 Importance to 17th- and 18th-century Europe

(scientific influence)

Millwrights distinguished between the two forces, im-

pulse and weight, at work in water wheels long before
18th-century Europe. Fitzherbert, a 16th-century agri-
cultural writer, wrote “druieth the wheel as well as with Lady Isabella Wheel, Laxey, Isle of Man, used to drive mine
the weight of the water as with strengthe [impulse].”[27] pumps
Leonardo da Vinci also discussed water power, noting
“the blow [of the water] is not weight, but excites a power
of weight, almost equal to its own power.”[28] However,
even realisation of the two forces, weight and impulse,
confusion remained over the advantages and disadvan-
tages of the two, and there was no clear understanding of
the superior efficiency of weight.[29] Prior to 1750 it was
unsure as to which force was dominant and was widely un-
derstood that both forces were operating with equal inspi-
ration amongst one another.[30] The waterwheel, sparked
questions of the laws of nature, specifically the laws of
force. Evangelista Torricelli's work on water wheels used
an analysis of Galileo’s work on falling bodies, that the ve-
locity of a water sprouting from an orifice under its head
was exactly equivalent to the velocity a drop of water ac-
quired in falling freely from the same height.[31]

1.3 Industrial European usage

The most powerful water wheel built in the United King-

dom was the 100 hp Quarry Bank Mill Water wheel near
Manchester. A high breastshot design, it was retired in
1904 and replaced with several turbines. It has now been
restored and is a museum open to the public.
The biggest working water wheel in mainland Britain has
a diameter of 15.4 m and was built by the De Winton A mid-19th century water wheel at Cromford in England used
company of Caernarfon. It is located within the Dinorwic for grinding locally mined barytes.
workshops of the National Slate Museum in Llanberis,
North Wales.
The largest working water wheel in the world is the Laxey Development of water turbines during the Industrial rev-
Wheel (also known as Lady Isabella) in the village of olution led to decreased popularity of water wheels. The
Laxey, Isle of Man. It is 72 feet 6 inches (22.10 m) in main advantage of turbines is that its ability to harness
diameter and 6 feet (1.83 m) wide and is maintained by head is much greater than the diameter of the turbine,
Manx National Heritage. whereas a water wheel cannot effectively harness head
6 1 HISTORY

greater than its diameter. The migration from water forging iron ore into cast iron.
wheels to modern turbines took about one hundred years. In the text known as the Xin Lun written by Huan Tan
about 20 AD (during the usurpation of Wang Mang),
1.4 China it states that the legendary mythological king known as
Fu Xi was the one responsible for the pestle and mortar,
which evolved into the tilt-hammer and then trip hammer
device (see trip hammer). Although the author speaks of
the mythological Fu Xi, a passage of his writing gives
hint that the water wheel was in widespread use by the
1st century AD in China (Wade-Giles spelling):

Fu Hsi invented the pestle and mortar,

which is so useful, and later on it was clev-
erly improved in such a way that the whole
weight of the body could be used for treading
on the tilt-hammer (tui), thus increasing the ef-
ficiency ten times. Afterwards the power of
animals—donkeys, mules, oxen, and horses—
was applied by means of machinery, and water-
power too used for pounding, so that the benefit
was increased a hundredfold.[32]

In the year 31 AD, the engineer and Prefect of Nanyang,

Du Shi (d. 38), applied a complex use of the water wheel
and machinery to power the bellows of the blast furnace to
create cast iron. Du Shi is mentioned briefly in the Book
of Later Han (Hou Han Shu) as follows (in Wade-Giles
spelling):

In the seventh year of the Chien-Wu reign

period (31 AD) Tu Shih was posted to be Pre-
fect of Nanyang. He was a generous man and
his policies were peaceful; he destroyed evil-
doers and established the dignity (of his of-
fice). Good at planning, he loved the com-
mon people and wished to save their labor.
He invented a water-power reciprocator (shui
phai) for the casting of (iron) agricultural im-
plements. Those who smelted and cast already
had the push-bellows to blow up their charcoal
fires, and now they were instructed to use the
rushing of the water (chi shui) to operate it ...
Thus the people got great benefit for little la-
bor. They found the 'water(-powered) bellows’
convenient and adopted it widely.[33]

Two types of hydraulic-powered chain pumps from the Tiangong
Kaiwu of 1637, written by the Ming Dynasty encyclopedist, Song
Yingxing (1587–1666).
Chinese water wheels almost certainly have a separate
origin, as early ones there were invariably horizontal wa-
ter wheels. By at least the 1st century AD, the Chinese
of the Eastern Han Dynasty were using water wheels to
crush grain in mills and to power the piston-bellows in
Water wheels in China found practical uses such as this,
as well as extraordinary use. The Chinese inventor Zhang
Heng (78–139) was the first in history to apply mo-
tive power in rotating the astronomical instrument of an
armillary sphere, by use of a water wheel.[34] The me-
chanical engineer Ma Jun (c. 200–265) from Cao Wei
once used a water wheel to power and operate a large me-
chanical puppet theater for the Emperor Ming of Wei (r.
226-239).[35]
1.6 Islamic world 7

1.5 India
The early history of the watermill in India is obscure.
Ancient Indian texts dating back to the 4th century BC
refer to the term cakkavattaka (turning wheel), which
commentaries explain as arahatta-ghati-yanta (machine
with wheel-pots attached). On this basis, Joseph Need-
ham suggested that the machine was a noria. Terry S.
Reynolds, however, argues that the “term used in In-
dian texts is ambiguous and does not clearly indicate a
water-powered device.” Thorkild Schiøler argued that it
is “more likely that these passages refer to some type of
tread- or hand-operated water-lifting device, instead of a
water-powered water-lifting wheel.”[36]
According to Greek historical tradition, India received
water-mills from the Roman Empire in the early 4th cen-
tury AD when a certain Metrodoros introduced “water-
mills and baths, unknown among them [the Brahmans] till
then”.[37] Irrigation water for crops was provided by using
water raising wheels, some driven by the force of the cur-
rent in the river from which the water was being raised.
This kind of water raising device was used in ancient In-
dia, predating, according to Pacey, its use in the later Ro-
man Empire or China,[38] even though the first literary,
archaeological and pictorial evidence of the water wheel The norias of Hama on the Orontes River
appeared in the Hellenistic world.[4]
Around 1150, the astronomer Bhaskara Achārya ob-
served water-raising wheels and imagined such a wheel litres per minute. This is comparable to the output of
lifting enough water to replenish the stream driving it, ef- modern Norias in East Asia which can lift up to 288,000
fectively, a perpetual motion machine.[39] The construc- litres per hour, or 4800 litres per minute.[43]
tion of water works and aspects of water technology in The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world
India is described in Arabic and Persian works. During date back to the 7th century, while horizontal-wheeled
medieval times, the diffusion of Indian and Persian irriga- and vertical-wheeled water mills were both in widespread
tion technologies gave rise to an advanced irrigation sys- use by the 9th century. A variety of industrial water-
tem which bought about economic growth and also helped mills were used in the Islamic world, including gristmills,
in the growth of material culture.[40] hullers, sawmills, shipmills, stamp mills, steel mills, sugar
mills, and tide mills. By the 11th century, every province
throughout the Islamic world had these industrial water-
1.6 Islamic world
mills in operation, from al-Andalus and North Africa to
See also: Muslim Agricultural Revolution the Middle East and Central Asia.[44] Muslim and Chris-
Arab engineers took over the water technology of the hy- tian engineers also used crankshafts and water turbines,
draulic societies of the ancient Near East; they adopted gears in watermills and water-raising machines, and dams
the Greek water wheel as early as the 7th century, ex- as a source of water, used to provide additional power to
cavation of a canal in the Basra region discovered re- watermills and water-raising machines.[45] Fulling mills
mains of a water wheel dating from this period. Hama in and steel mills may have spread from Islamic Spain to
Syria still preserves one of its large wheels, on the river Christian Spain in the 12th century. Industrial water mills
Orontes, although they are no longer in use.[41] One of were also employed in large factory complexes built in al-
the largest had a diameter of about 20 metres and its rim Andalus between the 11th and 13th centuries.[46]
was divided into 120 compartments. Another wheel that The engineers of the Islamic world developed several
is still in operation is found at Murcia in Spain, La Nora, solutions to achieve the maximum output from a wa-
and although the original wheel has been replaced by a ter wheel. One solution was to mount them to piers of
steel one, the Moorish system during al-Andalus is other- bridges to take advantage of the increased flow. Another
wise virtually unchanged. Some medieval Islamic com- solution was the shipmill, a type of water mill powered
partmented water wheels could lift water as high as 30 by water wheels mounted on the sides of ships moored
meters.[42] Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi's Kitab al- in midstream. This technique was employed along the
Hawi in the 10th century described a noria in Iraq that Tigris and Euphrates rivers in 10th-century Iraq, where
could lift as much as 153,000 litres per hour, or 2550 large shipmills made of teak and iron could produce 10
8 2 TYPES

2.1 Horizontal wheel

Commonly called a tub wheel or Norse mill, the hori-

zontal wheel is essentially a very primitive and inefficient
form of the modern turbine. It is usually mounted inside
a mill building below the working floor. A jet of water
is directed on to the paddles of the water wheel, caus-
ing them to turn; water exits beneath the wheel, generally
through the center. This is a simple system, usually used
without gearing so that the vertical axle of the water wheel
becomes the drive spindle of the mill.

2.2 Undershot wheel

An undershot wheel (also called a stream wheel[49] ) is a

vertically mounted water wheel that is rotated by water
striking paddles or blades at the bottom of the wheel. The
name undershot comes from this striking at the bottom of
the wheel. This type of water wheel is the oldest type of
wheel.

Specjal undershot wheel subtypes

Water wheel in Djambi, Sumatra, c. 1918

tons of flour from corn every day for the granary in

Baghdad.[47] The flywheel mechanism, which is used to
smooth out the delivery of power from a driving device
to a driven machine, was invented by Ibn Bassal (fl. 1038- Sagebien wheel
1075) of Al-Andalus; he pioneered the use of the fly-
wheel in the saqiya (chain pump) and noria.[48] The en-
gineers Al-Jazari in the 13th century and Taqi al-Din in
the 16th century described many inventive water-raising
machines in their technological treatises. They also em-
ployed water wheels to power a variety of devices, includ-
ing various water clocks and automata.

2 Types Poncelet wheel

Most water wheels in the United Kingdom and the United

States are (or were) vertical wheels rotating about a hor-
izontal axle, but in the Scottish highlands and parts of
southern Europe mills often had a horizontal wheel (with
a vertical axle). Water wheels are classified by the way
in which water is applied to the wheel, relative to the
wheel’s axle. Overshot and pitchback water wheels are
suitable where there is a small stream with a height dif-
Zuppinger wheel
ference of more than 2 meters, often in association with a
small reservoir. Breastshot and undershot wheels can be
used on rivers or high volume flows with large reservoirs. Sabegien, Poncelet and Zuppinger water wheel
2.4 Overshot wheel 9

It is also regarded as the least efficient type, although

subtypes of this water wheel (e.g. the Poncelet wheel,
Sagebien wheel and Zuppinger wheel) allow somewhat
greater efficiencies than the traditional undershot wheels.
The advantages of undershot wheels are that they are
somewhat cheaper and simpler to build, and have less
of an environmental impact—as they do not constitute
a major change of the river. Their disadvantages are—
as mentioned before—less efficiency, which means that
they generate less power and can only be used where the
flow rate is sufficient to provide torque.
Undershot wheels gain no advantage from head. They are
most suited to shallow streams in flat country.
Undershot wheels are also well suited to installation on The Anderson Mill of Texas is undershot, backshot, and over-
floating platforms. The earliest were probably con- shot using two sources of water. This allows the speed of the
structed by the Byzantine general Belisarius during the wheel to be controlled.
siege of Rome in 537. Later they were sometimes
mounted immediately downstream from bridges where
the flow restriction of arched bridge piers increased the the wheel rotates enough to invert the buckets. The over-
speed of the current. shot design can use all of the water flow for power (unless
there is a leak) and does not require rapid flow.
Unlike undershot wheels, overshot wheels gain a double
2.3 Breastshot wheel
advantage from gravity. Not only is the momentum of
the flowing water partially transferred to the wheel, the
A vertically mounted water wheel that is rotated by falling
weight of the water descending in the wheel’s buckets also
water striking buckets near the center of the wheel’s edge,
imparts additional energy. The mechanical power de-
or just above it, is said to be breastshot. Breastshot wheels
rived from an overshot wheel is determined by the wheel’s
are the most common type in the United States of Amer-
physical size and the available head, so they are ideally
ica and are said to have powered the American industrial
suited to hilly or mountainous country. On average, the
revolution.
undershot wheel uses 22 percent of the energy in the flow
Breastshot wheels are less efficient than overshot wheels of water, while an overshot wheel uses 63 percent, as
(see below), are more efficient than undershot wheels, calculated by English civil engineer John Smeaton in the
and are not backshot (see below). The individual blades 18th century.[50]
of a breastshot wheel are actually buckets, as are those of
Overshot wheels demand exact engineering and signifi-
most overshot wheels, and not simple paddles like those
cant head, which usually means significant investment in
of most undershot wheels. A breastshot wheel requires
constructing a dam, millpond and waterways. Sometimes
a good trash rack and typically has a masonry “apron”
the final approach of the water to the wheel is along a
closely conforming to the wheel face, which helps con-
lengthy flume or penstock.
tain the water in the buckets as they progress downwards.
Breastshot wheels are preferred for steady, high-volume
flows such as are found on the fall line of the North Amer-
ican East Coast. 2.4.1 Reversible wheel

A special type of overshot wheel is the reversible water

2.4 Overshot wheel
A vertically mounted water wheel that is rotated by falling
water striking paddles, blades or buckets near the top of
the wheel is said to be overshot. In true overshot wheels
the water passes over the top of the wheel, but the term is
sometimes applied to backshot or pitchback wheels where
the water goes down behind the water wheel.
A typical overshot wheel has the water channeled to the
wheel at the top and slightly beyond the axle. The water
collects in the buckets on that side of the wheel, making it
heavier than the other “empty” side. The weight turns the
wheel, and the water flows out into the tail-water when
wheel. This has two sets of blades or buckets running in
opposite directions, so that it can turn in either direction
depending on which side the water is directed. Reversible
wheels were used in mining industry in order to power
various means of ore conveyance. By changing the direc-
tion of the wheel, barrels or baskets of ore could be lifted
up or lowered down a shaft. As a rule there was also a ca-
ble drum or a chain basket (German: Kettenkorb) on the
axle of the wheel. It was also essential that the wheel had
braking equipment in order to be able to stop the wheel
(known as a braking wheel). The oldest known drawing
of a reversible water wheel was by Georgius Agricola and
dates to 1556.
10 2 TYPES

Backshot wheel at New Lanark World Heritage Site, Scotland

in overshot wheel) while it also gains power from the wa-

ter’s current past the bottom of the wheel (as in breastshot
wheel).
A backshot wheel continues to function until the water
in the wheel pit rises well above the height of the axle,
when any other overshot wheel will be stopped or even
destroyed. This makes the technique particularly suitable
for streams that experience extreme seasonal variations
Replica of a reversible wheel with a 9.5 m diameter in Clausthal- in flow, and reduces the need for complex sluice and tail
Zellerfeld race configurations.
The direction of rotation of a backshot wheel is the same
2.5 Backshot wheel as that of a breastshot wheel at the same location so it can
easily replace one, without causing the directional gear-
ing in the mill to be changed. This would increase the
Pitchback water wheel
power available while only requiring a change to be made
Water Flow
Flume to the water level in the top pond, which in some cases is
economically viable.
Launder

2.6 Hydraulic wheel

A recent development of the breastshot wheel is a hy-
Wheel
draulic wheel which effectively incorporates automatic
Rotation regulation systems. The Aqualienne is one example. It
generates between 37 kW and 200 kW of electricity from
a 20m³ waterflow with a head of 1 to 3.5m.[51] It is de-
signed to produce electricity at the sites of former water-
mills.

2.7 Hydraulic wheel part reaction turbine

Tail race

A parallel development is the hydraulic wheel/part reac-

Pitchback or “backshot” water wheel tion turbine that also incorporates a weir into the centre
of the wheel but uses blades angled to the water flow.
A backshot wheel (also called pitchback) is a variety of The WICON-Stem
[52]
Pressure Machine (SPM) exploits this
overshot wheel where the water is introduced just behind flow. Estimated efficiency 67%.
the summit of the wheel. It combines the advantages from The University of Southampton School of Civil Engineer-
breastshot and overshot systems, since the full amount of ing and the Environment in the UK has investigated both
the potential energy released by the falling water is har- types of Hydraulic wheel machines and has estimated
nessed as the water descends the back of the wheel (as their hydraulic efficiency and suggested improvements,
3.1 Power calculations
i.e. The Rotary Hydraulic Pressure Machine. (Estimated mills, or redevelopment of abandoned mills.
maximum efficiency 85%).[53]
These type of water wheels have high efficiency at part 3.1
loads / variable flows and can operate at very low heads,
< 1 metre. Combined with direct drive Axial Flux Perma-
nent Magnet Alternators and power electronics they offer
a viable alternative for low head hydroelectric power gen-
eration.
2.8 Suspension wheels and rim-gears
The Suspension wheel with rim-gearing at the Portland Basin
Canal Warehouse
Two early improvements were suspension wheels and rim
gearing. Suspension wheels are constructed in the same
manner as a bicycle wheel, the rim being supported un-
der tension from the hub- this led to larger lighter wheels
than the former design where the heavy spokes were un-
der compression. Rim-gearing entailed adding a notched
wheel to the rim or shroud of the wheel. A stub gear
engaged the rim-gear and took the power into the mill
using an independent line shaft. This removed the ro-
tative stress from the axle which could thus be lighter,
and also allowed more flexibility in the location of the
power train. The shaft rotation was geared up from that
of the wheel which led to less power loss. An example of
this design pioneered by Thomas Hewes and refined by
William Fairburn can be seen at the 1849 restored wheel
at the Portland Basin Canal Warehouse.[54]
3 Efficiency
Overshot (and particularly backshot) wheels are the most
efficient type; a backshot steel wheel can be more effi-
cient (about 60%) than all but the most advanced and
well-constructed turbines. In some situations an overshot
wheel is preferable to a turbine.[55]
The development of the hydraulic turbine wheels with
their improved efficiency (>67%) opened up an alterna- The optimal rotational speed of a breast shot or overshot
tive path for the installation of water wheels in existing wheel is approximately:
11
Power calculations
The great water wheel in the Welsh National Slate Museum
In an undershot wheel or a run of the river wheel the
power is dependant to the kinetic energy of the river. Ap-
proximate power can be calculated.
Power in Watts= 100 × A × V3 ×C
A = Area of paddles in the water
(square meters)
V = Velocity of the stream in me-
ters per second
C = Efficiency Constant (assume
1 for a water to wire efficiency of
20%)
Rotational speed of the wheel = 9 × V /D rpm
D = diameter in metres[56]
For a breast shot or over shot wheel both potential energy
and kinetic energy must be considered. This takes the
form of the weight of water in the buckets and the vertical
distance travelled. A rule of thumb formula is
Power in Watts = 4 × Q × H × C
Q = Weight of water (volume per
sec x capacity of the buckets)
V = Velocity of the stream in me-
ters per second
H = Head, or height difference of
water between the lip of the flume
(head race) and the tailrace
C = Efficiency Constant
12 4 WATER-LIFTING

Rotational speed of the wheel= 21/ √D

D = diameter of the wheel in
metres[56]

4 Water-lifting
See also: Noria
In water-raising devices rotary motion is typically more

Drainage wheel from Rio Tinto mines

reign of Ptolemy IV (221−205 BC).[61] Several Greek

papyri of the 3rd to 2nd century BC mention the use
of these wheels, but don't give further details.[61] The
Detail of azud at Aranjuez, Spain non-existence of the device in the Ancient Near East be-
fore Alexander’s conquest can be deduced from its pro-
efficient than machines based on oscillating motion.[57] nounced absence from the otherwise rich oriental iconog-
raphy on irrigation practices.[62][63][64][65] Unlike other
The compartmented water wheel comes in two basic water-lifting devices and pumps of the period though, the
forms, the wheel with compartmented body (Latin tym- invention of the compartmented wheel cannot be traced
panum) and the wheel with compartmented rim or a rim to any particular Hellenistic engineer and may have been
with separate, attached containers.[57] The wheels could made in the late 4th century BC in a rural context away
be either turned by the flow of water, men treading on its from the metropolis of Alexandria.[66]
outside or by animals by means of a sakia gear.[58] While
the tympanum had a large discharge capacity, it could lift The earliest depiction of a compartmented wheel is from
the water only to less than the height of its own radius a tomb painting in Ptolemaic Egypt which dates to the
and required a large torque for rotating.[58] These con- 2nd century BC. It shows a pair of yoked oxen driving
structional deficiencies were overcome by the wheel with the wheel via a sakia gear, which is here for the first
a compartmented rim which was a less heavy design with time attested, too.[67] The Greek sakia gear system is al-
a higher lift.[59] ready shown fully developed to the point that “modern
Egyptian devices are virtually identical”.[67] It is assumed
Ptolemaic Egypt that the scientists of the Museum of Alexandria, at the
time the most active Greek research center, may have
[68]
The earliest literary reference to a water-driven, compart- been involved in its invention. An episode from the
mented wheel appears in the technical treatise Pneumat- Alexandrian War in 48 BC tells of how Caesar’s enemies
ica (chap. 61) of the Greek engineer Philo of Byzantium employed geared water wheels to pour sea water from el-
[60]
(ca. 280–220 BC). In his Parasceuastica (91.43−44), evated places on the position of the trapped Romans.[69]
Philo advises the use of such wheels for submerging siege Around 300 AD, the noria was finally introduced when
mines as a defensive measure against enemy sapping.[61] the wooden compartments were replaced with inexpen-
Compartmented wheels appear to have been the means sive ceramic pots that were tied to the outside of an open-
of choice for draining dry docks in Alexandria under the framed wheel.[66]
6.1 Notes
5 See also
• Watermill
• Watermills in the United Kingdom
• Claverton Pumping Station – canal water pumping
station
• Derby Industrial Museum – former silk mill
• Laxey Wheel – pumping water from a mine
• Snaefell Wheel – pumping water from a mine
For devices to lift water for irrigation
• Noria
• Sakia
• Hydraulic ram
Devices to lift water for land drainage
• Scoop wheel
6 References
6.1 Notes
[1] Dictionary definition of “tailrace”
[2] Musson; Robinson (1969). Science and Technology in the
Industrial Revolution. University of Toronto Press. p. 69.
[3] Thomson, Ross (2009). Structures of Change in the Me-
chanical Age: Technological Invention in the United States
1790-1865. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8018-9141-0.
[4] Oleson 1984, pp. 325ff.; Oleson 2000, pp. 217–
302; Donners, Waelkens & Deckers 2002, pp. 10−15;
Wikander 2000, pp. 371−400
[5] Wikander 2000, pp. 395; Oleson 2000, p. 229
It is no surprise that all the water-lifting
devices that depend on subdivided wheels or
cylinders originate in the sophisticated, sci-
entifically advanced Hellenistic period, ...
[6] Wikander 2000, pp. 396f.; Donners, Waelkens & Deck-
ers 2002, p. 11; Wilson 2002, pp. 7f.
[7] Wikander 1985, p. 160; Wikander 2000, p. 396
[8] Oleson 2000, pp. 234, 269
[9] Oleson 2000, pp. 269−271
[10] Wikander 2000, pp. 373f.; Donners, Waelkens & Deck-
ers 2002, p. 12
13
[11] Wikander 2000, p. 375; Donners, Waelkens & Deckers
2002, p. 13
[12] Donners, Waelkens & Deckers 2002, p. 11; Oleson 2000,
p. 236
[13] Wikander 2000, p. 375
[14] Donners, Waelkens & Deckers 2002, pp. 12f.
[15] Greene 2000, p. 39
[16] Wilson 1995, pp. 507f.; Wikander 2000, p. 377;
Donners, Waelkens & Deckers 2002, p. 13
[17] De Rebus Bellicis (anon.), chapter XVII, text edited by
Robert Ireland, in: BAR International Series 63, part 2, p.
34
[18] Wikander 2000, pp. 372f.; Wilson 2002, p. 3
[19] Murphy 2005
[20] Wikander 1985, pp. 155–157
[21] Glick, p. 178
[22] Robert, Friedel, A Culture of Improvement. MIT Press.
Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, England. (2007).
pp. 31-2b.
[23] Robert, A. Howard, Primer on Water Wheels, Vol 15, No.
3 (1983) pp26-33. Published by: Association for Preser-
vation Technology International. p26.
[24] Terry S, Reynolds, Stronger than a Hundred Men; A His-
tory of the Vertical Water Wheel. Baltimore; Johns Hop-
kins University Press, 1983. Robert, Friedel, A Culture
of Improvement. MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
London, England. (2007). p. 33.
[25] Robert, Friedel, A Culture of Improvement. MIT Press.
Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, England. (2007). p.
34
[26] Robert, Friedel, A Culture of Improvement. MIT Press.
Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, England. (2007)
[27] Anthony Fitzherbert, Surveying (London, 1539, reprinted
in [Robert Vansitarrt, ed] Certain Ancient Tracts Concern-
ing the Management of Landed Property Reprinted [Lon-
don, 1767.] pg. 92.
[28] Leonardo da Vinci, MS F, 44r, in Les manuscrits de
Leonardo da Vinci, ed Charles Ravaisson-Moilien (Paris,
1889), vol.4; cf, Codex Madrid, vol. 1, 69r [The Madrid
Codices], trans. And transcribed by Ladislao Reti (New
York, 1974), vol. 4.
[29] Smeaton, “An Experiemental Inquiry Concerning the
Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills, and
Other Machines, depending on Circular Motion,” Royal
Society, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
of London 51 (1759); 124-125
[30] Torricelli, Evangelista, Opere, ed. Gino Loria and
Guiseppe Vassura (Rome, 1919.)
[31] Torricella, Evangelica, Opere, ed. Gino Loria and
Guiseppe Vassura (Rome, 1919.)
14
[32] Needham, p. 392
[33] Needham, p. 370
[34] Morton, p. 70
[35] Needham, p. 158
[36] Reynolds, p. 14
[37] Wikander 2000, p. 400:
This is also the period when water-mills
started to spread outside the former Empire.
According to Cedrenus (Historiarum com-
pendium), a certain Metrodoros who went to
India in c. A.D. 325 “constructed water-mills
and baths, unknown among them [the Brah-
mans] till then”.
[38] Pacey, p. 10
[39] Pacey, p. 36
[40] Siddiqui
[41] al-Hassani et al., p.115
[42] Lucas, Adam (2006), Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and
Medieval Milling Technology, Brill Publishers, p. 26,
ISBN 90-04-14649-0
[43] Donald Routledge Hill (1996), A history of engineering in
classical and medieval times, Routledge, pp. 145–6, ISBN
0-415-15291-7
[44] Lucas, p. 10
[45] Ahmad Y Hassan, Transfer Of Islamic Technology To
The West, Part II: Transmission Of Islamic Engineering
[46] Lucas, p.11
[47] Hill; see also Mechanical Engineering)
[48] Ahmad Y Hassan, Flywheel Effect for a Saqiya.
[49] Stream wheel term and specifics
[50] The History of Science and Technology by Bryan Bunch
with Alexander Hellmans pp.114
[51] http://www.h3eindustries.com/
How-does-an-Aqualienne%C2%AE-work? Aqualienne
breastshot wheel
[52] Oewatec
[53] Low Head Hydro
[54] • Nevell, Mike; Walker (2001). Portland Basin and
the archaeology of the Canal Warehouse. Tameside
Metropolitan Borough with University of Manch-
ester Archaeological Unit. ISBN 1-871324-25-4.
[55] For a discussion of the different types of water wheels, see
Syson, p. 76-91
[56] British Hydro Water wheel information.
[57] Oleson 2000, p. 229
6 REFERENCES
[58] Oleson 2000, p. 230
[59] Oleson 2000, pp. 231f.
[60] Oleson 2000, p. 233
[61] Oleson 2000, pp. 234
[62] Oleson 2000, pp. 235:
The sudden appearance of literary and
archaeological evidence for the compart-
mented wheel in the third century B.C. stand
in marked contrast to the complete absence
of earlier testimony, suggesting that the de-
vice was invented not long before.
[63] An isolated passage in the Hebrew Deuteronomy
(11.10−11) about Egypt as a country where you sowed
your seed and watered it with your feet is interpreted as
a metaphor referring to the digging of irrigation chan-
nels rather than treading a water wheel (Oleson 2000, pp.
234).
[64] As for a Mesopotamian connection: Schioler 1973, p.
165−167:
References to water-wheels in ancient
Mesopotamia, found in handbooks and pop-
ular accounts, are for the most part based on
the false assumption that the Akkadian equiv-
alent of the logogram GIS.APIN was nartabu
and denotes an instrument for watering (“in-
strument for making moist”).
As a result of his investigations, Laes-
soe writes as follows on the question of
the saqiya: “I consider it unlikely that any
reference to the saqiya will appear in an-
cient Mesopotamian sources.” In his opinion,
we should turn our attention to Alexandria,
“where it seems plausible to assume that the
saqiya was invented.”
[65] Adriana de Miranda (2007), Water architecture in the
lands of Syria: the water-wheels, L'Erma di Bretschnei-
der, pp. 48f., ISBN 88-8265-433-8 concludes that the
Akkadian passages “are couched in terms too general too
allow any conclusion as to the exact structure” of the
irrigation apparatus, and states that “the latest official
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary reports meanings not related
to types of irrigation system”.
[66] Oleson 2000, pp. 235
[67] Oleson 2000, pp. 234, 270
[68] Oleson 2000, pp. 271f.
[69] Oleson 2000, p. 271
6.2 Bibliography
6.2 Bibliography
• Soto Gary, Water Wheel. vol. 163. No. 4. (Jan.,
1994), p. 197
• al-Hassani, S.T.S., Woodcock, E. and Saoud, R.
(2006) 1001 inventions : Muslim heritage in our
world, Manchester : Foundation for Science Tech-
nology and Civilisation, ISBN 0-9552426-0-6
• Allan. April 18, 2008. Undershot Water
Wheel. Retrieved from http://www.builditsolar.
com/Projects/Hydro/UnderShot/WaterWheel.htm
• Donners, K.; Waelkens, M.; Deckers, J. (2002),
“Water Mills in the Area of Sagalassos: A Dis-
appearing Ancient Technology”, Anatolian Stud-
ies (Anatolian Studies, Vol. 52) 52: 1–17,
doi:10.2307/3643076, JSTOR 3643076
• Glick, T.F. (1970) Irrigation and society in medieval
Valencia, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Har-
vard University Press, ISBN 0-674-46675-6
• Greene, Kevin (2000), “Technological Innovation
and Economic Progress in the Ancient World: M.I.
Finley Re-Considered”, The Economic History Re-
view 53 (1): 29–59, doi:10.1111/1468-0289.00151
• Hill, D.R. (1991) “Mechanical Engineering in the
Medieval Near East”, Scientific American, 264
(5:May), p. 100-105
• Lucas, A.R. (2005). “Industrial Milling in the An-
cient and Medieval Worlds: A Survey of the Ev-
idence for an Industrial Revolution in Medieval
Europe”. Technology and Culture 46 (1): 1–30.
doi:10.1353/tech.2005.0026.
• Lewis, M.J.T. (1997) Millstone and Hammer: the
origins of water power, University of Hull Press,
ISBN 0-85958-657-X
• Morton, W.S. and Lewis, C.M. (2005) China: Its
History and Culture, 4th Ed., New York : McGraw-
Hill, ISBN 0-07-141279-4
• Murphy, Donald (2005), Excavations of a Mill at
Killoteran, Co. Waterford as Part of the N-25 Wa-
terford By-Pass Project, Estuarine/ Alluvial Archae-
ology in Ireland. Towards Best Practice, University
College Dublin and National Roads Authority
• Needham, J. (1965) Science and Civilization in
China - Vol. 4: Physics and physical technology -
Part 2: Mechanical engineering, Cambridge Univer-
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• Nuernbergk, D.M. (2005) Wasserräder mit
Kropfgerinne: Berechnungsgrundlagen und neue
Erkenntnisse, Detmold : Schäfer, ISBN 3-87696-
121-1
15
• Nuernbergk, D.M. (2007) Wasserräder mit Frei-
hang: Entwurfs- und Berechnungsgrundlagen, Det-
mold : Schäfer, ISBN 3-87696-122-X
• Pacey, A. (1991) Technology in World Civilization:
A Thousand-year History, 1st MIT Press ed., Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts : MIT, ISBN 0-262-66072-5
• Oleson, John Peter (1984), Greek and Roman Me-
chanical Water-Lifting Devices: The History of a
Technology, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 90-
277-1693-5
• Oleson, John Peter (2000), “Water-Lifting”, in
Wikander, Örjan, Handbook of Ancient Water Tech-
nology, Technology and Change in History 2, Lei-
den: Brill, pp. 217–302, ISBN 90-04-11123-9
• Reynolds, T.S. (1983) Stronger Than a Hundred
Men: A History of the Vertical Water Wheel, Johns
Hopkins studies in the history of technology: New
Series 7, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, ISBN 0-8018-2554-7
• Schioler, Thorkild (1973), Roman and Islamic
Water-Lifting Wheels, Odense University Press,
ISBN 87-7492-090-1
• Shannon, R. 1997. Water Wheel Engineering. Re-
trieved from http://permaculturewest.org.au/ipc6/
ch08/shannon/index.html.
• Siddiqui, Iqtidar Husain (1986). “Water Works
and Irrigation System in India during Pre-
Mughal Times”. Journal of the Economic and
Social History of the Orient 29 (1): 52–77.
doi:10.1163/156852086X00036.
• Syson, l. (1965) British Water-mills, London : Bats-
ford, 176 p.
• Wikander, Örjan (1985), “Archaeological Evidence
for Early Water-Mills. An Interim Report”, History
of Technology 10: 151–179
• Wikander, Örjan (2000), “The Water-Mill”, in
Wikander, Örjan, Handbook of Ancient Water Tech-
nology, Technology and Change in History 2, Lei-
den: Brill, pp. 371–400, ISBN 90-04-11123-9
• Wilson, Andrew (1995), “Water-Power in North
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Water-Wheel”, Journal of Roman Archaeology 8:
499–510
• Wilson, Andrew (2002), “Machines, Power and the
Ancient Economy”, The Journal of Roman Studies
92: 1–32, doi:10.2307/3184857, JSTOR 3184857
16 7 EXTERNAL LINKS

7 External links
• Glossary of water wheel terms

• Essay/audio clip
• WaterHistory.org - Several articles concerning water
wheels

• Computer simulation of an undershot water wheel

• Persian Wheel in India, 1814-1815 painting with ex-
planatory text, at British Library website.
• Computer simulation of an overshot water wheel
 17

8 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1 Text
• Water wheel Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water%20wheel?oldid=650781421 Contributors: SimonP, Maury Markowitz, Mintguy,
RTC, SGBailey, Paul A, Shimmin, Ahoerstemeier, Charles Matthews, Dcoetzee, Wik, Baffclan, Phil Boswell, Chris 73, ClemRutter, HaeB,
Senor fjord, Alf Boggis, DocWatson42, Christopher Parham, Tom harrison, Timpo, Michael Devore, Bobblewik, Gadfium, Mu, Andy-
cjp, Karlward, Sonett72, Noisy, Rich Farmbrough, Mani1, Paul August, Night Gyr, Neko-chan, Aude, Wareh, Bobo192, Nigelj, Mdhowe,
Smalljim, Duk, TheProject, Davidgothberg, SPUI, Knucmo2, Alansohn, Free Bear, Wtmitchell, TaintedMustard, Wtshymanski, SteinbDJ,
Postrach, Woohookitty, RHaworth, Tabletop, Kelisi, Doric Loon, Taivo, Rjwilmsi, Yuber, SchuminWeb, Gnostic804, Margosbot, Nivix,
RexNL, Ewlyahoocom, Sonitus, Chobot, Wavelength, RobotE, NorCalHistory, Peterkingiron, DanMS, Jtbandes, Ikar.us, Hellbus, Manop,
Gaius Cornelius, NawlinWiki, Wiki alf, Dialectric, Chevin, Yoninah, JFD, Emdx, TigerPaw2154, Tuckerresearch, Closedmouth, A bit
iffy, SmackBot, Jagged 85, Davewild, KVDP, HalfShadow, Hmains, PetrochemicalPete, Chris the speller, Full Shunyata, Grimhelm, Free-
dom skies, Addshore, Lisasmall, Harryboyles, Anlace, TheFinalFraek, Khazar, SilkTork, Disavian, Montecarlocars, Breno, Accurizer,
Peterlewis, Ocatecir, CredoFromStart, Martinp23, Mr Stephen, Neddyseagoon, Peter Horn, Prewitt81, Ricketts1, KsprayDad, Courcelles,
IanOfNorwich, Billy Hathorn, Tawkerbot2, Chris55, Jaeger5432, JohnCD, Gogo Dodo, Hebrides, Dougweller, PamD, Rosser1954, Oxon-
hutch, Epbr123, Gralo, MichaelXXLF, Bob the Wikipedian, EdJogg, Ad.minster, AntiVandalBot, Seaphoto, JAnDbot, Fetchcomms, Ccr-
rccrr, PhilKnight, Bongwarrior, VoABot II, Soulbot, Nyttend, Rich257, Ródi, User A1, Xeolyte, Vssun, FrederikVds, AllenDowney, Gun
Powder Ma, Black Stripe, PJ Rey, MartinBot, Anaxial, R'n'B, J.delanoy, HelgeRieder, Siryendor, Salih, BrokenSphere, Katalaveno, Hel-
mut Spencer Tag, M-le-mot-dit, Belovedfreak, Juliancolton, DennisBuller, Bonadea, Angus, CardinalDan, Funandtrvl, Tetris L, Egghead06,
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PericlesofAthens, Steven Weston, Moerou toukon, Al Ameer son, Fanatix, SieBot, Smsarmad, The way, the truth, and the light, Brunnian,
Esmeisworth..., Smaug123, Steven Zhang, Lightmouse, EcoFuzion, Moletrouser, Maelgwnbot, StaticGull, JL-Bot, TheCatalyst31, ClueBot,
Dave T Hobbit, Abardhan, Piledhigheranddeeper, Neverquick, Historychecker, SamuelTheGhost, Aua, Jusdafax, SchreiberBike, Thingg,
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pearc, Almabot, Bitentili, Random486, Amaury, 78.26, Doulos Christos, Chongkian, FoolAmI, Ryryrules100, Recognizance, Andrew The
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• File:Agricola1.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/Agricola1.jpg License: PD-US Contributors: ? Original artist:
?
• File:AndersonMill.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/AndersonMill.jpg License: Public domain Con-
tributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:NuclearWarfare using CommonsHelper. Original artist: Origi-
nal uploader was TigerPaw2154 at en.wikipedia
• File:Archscrew2.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Archscrew2.jpg License: Public domain Contribu-
tors: Own scan of old journal, transferred from en.wikipedia Original artist: Original uploader was Peterlewis at en.wikipedia
• File:Berry_Schools’{}_Old_Mill,_Floyd_County,_Georgia.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/
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• Breastshot_water_wheel_schematic.png Original artist: Breastshot_water_wheel_schematic.png: KVDP
• File:COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Kintjir_of_waterschepwiel_in_Djambi_Sumatra_TMnr_10007886.jpg Source:
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Sumatra_TMnr_10007886.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Tropenmuseum <a href='//commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/Institution:Tropenmuseum' title='Link back to Institution infobox template'><img alt='Link back to Institution infobox
template' src='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Blue_pencil.svg/15px-Blue_pencil.svg.png' width='15'
height='15' srcset='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Blue_pencil.svg/23px-Blue_pencil.svg.png 1.5x,
//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Blue_pencil.svg/30px-Blue_pencil.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='600' data-
file-height='600' /></a> <a href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1131589' title='wikidata:Q1131589'><img alt='wikidata:Q1131589'
src='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20'
height='11' srcset='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x,
//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='1050'
data-file-height='590' /></a> Original artist: unknown
• File:Commons-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Original
artist: ?
• File:Cromford_waterwheel.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Cromford_waterwheel.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: chevin
• File:De_Rebus_Bellicis,_XVth_Century_Miniature.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/De_Rebus_
Bellicis%2C_XVth_Century_Miniature.JPG License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
18 8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

• File:Diagram_of_waterwheel_or_azud_function.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Diagram_of_

waterwheel_or_azud_function.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Timpo
• File:Gal_gromadzenie_urobku.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Gal_gromadzenie_urobku.jpg Li-
cense: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
• File:Hama-3_norias.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Hama-3_norias.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0
Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
• File:Kehrrad.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Kehrrad.png License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ?
Original artist: ?
• File:Laxey_Wheel_(1715237934).jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Laxey_Wheel_
%281715237934%29.jpg License: CC BY 2.0 Contributors: Laxey Wheel Original artist: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK
• File:NSlateMuseumWaterWheel.ogg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/NSlateMuseumWaterWheel.ogg
License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Helge Klaus Reider
• File:New_Lanark_Waterwheel_2.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/New_Lanark_Waterwheel_2.
JPG License: Public domain Contributors: self-made - Roger Griffith Original artist: Rosser1954
• File:Overshot_water_wheel_schematic.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Overshot_water_wheel_
schematic.svg License: CC BY-SA 2.5 Contributors: Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here.
Original artist: Original uploader was DanMS at en.wikipedia

• File:Pitchback_water_wheel_schematic_(2).svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Pitchback_

water_wheel_schematic_%282%29.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Pitchback water wheel schematic.svg: <a
href='//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pitchback_water_wheel_schematic.svg' class='image'><img alt='Pitchback water wheel
schematic.svg' src='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Pitchback_water_wheel_schematic.svg/50px-Pitchback_
water_wheel_schematic.svg.png' width='50' height='52' srcset='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Pitchback_
water_wheel_schematic.svg/75px-Pitchback_water_wheel_schematic.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
thumb/0/0c/Pitchback_water_wheel_schematic.svg/100px-Pitchback_water_wheel_schematic.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='600'
data-file-height='620' /></a> Original artist: Pitchback_water_wheel_schematic.svg: *Pitchback_water_wheel_schematic.png: KVDP
• File:Portland_Basin_waterwheel-_5185.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Portland_Basin_
waterwheel-_5185.JPG License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors:
Original artist: Clem Rutter, Rochester, Kent.
• File:Roda_de_Vitruvi.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Roda_de_Vitruvi.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: Own work Original artist: Xvazquez
• File:Römische_Sägemühle.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/R%C3%B6mische_S%C3%A4gem%
C3%BChle.svg License: CC BY 3.0 Contributors: Tullia Ritti, Klaus Grewe, Paul Kessener: “A Relief of a Water-powered Stone Saw
Mill on a Sarcophagus at Hierapolis and its Implications”, Journal of Roman Archaeology, Vol. 20 (2007), pp. 138–163 (148, fig. 10)
Original artist: chris
• File:Special_undershot_waterwheels.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Special_undershot_
waterwheels.svg License: Public domain Contributors:
• Special_undershot_waterwheels.JPG Original artist: Special_undershot_waterwheels.JPG: KVDP
• File:ThreeGorgesDam-China2009.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/ThreeGorgesDam-China2009.
jpg License: CC BY 2.0 Contributors: File:Three_Gorges_Dam,_Yangtze_River,_China.jpg Original artist: Source file: Le Grand Portage
• File:Tiangong_Kaiwu_Chain_Pumps.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Tiangong_Kaiwu_Chain_
Pumps.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Teratornis using
CommonsHelper. Original artist: Original uploader was PericlesofAthens at en.wikipedia
• File:Undershot_water_wheel_schematic.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Undershot_water_wheel_
schematic.svg License: CC BY-SA 2.5 Contributors: Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here.
Original artist: Original uploader was DanMS at en.wikipedia

• File:Waterwheel-Uzhhorod.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Waterwheel-Uzhhorod.jpg License:

Public domain Contributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Teratornis using CommonsHelper. Orig-
inal artist: Original uploader was Taivo at en.wikipedia
• File:WaterwheelsSp.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/WaterwheelsSp.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: Scan of own print from 1928, transferred from en.wikipedia Original artist: Original uploader was Peterlewis at en.wikipedia
• File:Wiktionary-logo-en.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Wiktionary-logo-en.svg License: Public do-
main Contributors: Vector version of Image:Wiktionary-logo-en.png. Original artist: Vectorized by Fvasconcellos (talk · contribs), based
on original logo tossed together by Brion Vibber

8.3 Content license

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