Alde Swarte Molen is a Hollow Post mill in Easterlittens

Easterlittens

Easterlittens is a small village in Littenseradiel in the province Friesland of the Netherlands and has around the 479 citizens ....

, Friesland

Friesland

Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 which has been restored to working order. The mill is listed as a Rijksmonument

Rijksmonument

A rijksmonument is a National Heritage Site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.-History and criteria:...

, number 8531.

History

Alde Swarte Molen probably dates from the C17th. It was built to drain the Frankena Polder. Alde Swarte Molen worked until 1961 when the mill lost a sail in a storm. After this an electric motor

Electric motor

An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...

 took over the work of the mill. On 2 October 1967, the mill was sold to the Gemeente Baarderadeel

Baarderadeel

Baarderadeel is a former municipality in the Dutch province of Friesland, southwest of Leeuwarden. Since 1984, the area has been a part of the municipality of Littenseradiel.Some of the larger villages in Baarderadeel are Winsum, Mantgum, and Easterlittens....

 for ƒ1. In 1969, the mill was restored by millwright

Millwright

A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...

 De Roos of Leeuwarden. In 1981, a further restoration saw the replacement of the windshaft, sails and Archimedes screw. In 1984, the mill passed to the Gemeente Littenseradiel in a reorganisation of local government in Friesland.

Description

Alde Swarte Molen is what the Dutch describe as a "Spinnenkopmolen" . It is a hollow post mill on a single storey roundhouse. The roundhouse is tiled with pantiles and the body is covered in vertical boards. The mill is winded by tailpole and winch. The sails are Common sails. They have a span of 10.4 metre. The sails are carried on a wooden windshaft. The windshaft also carries the brake wheel which has 34 cogs. This drives the wallower (19 cogs) at the top of the upright shaft. At the bottom of the upright shaft, the crown wheel, which has 28 cogs drives a gearwheel with 27 cogs on the axle of the wooden Archimedes screw. The axle of the screw is 250 millimetres (9¾ inches) diameter and the screw is 880 millimetre diameter and 4.12 metre long. The screw is inclined at 25½°. Each revolution of the screw lifts 150 litres (33 imp gal) of water.