Jan Leeghwater
Encyclopedia
Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater (1575, De Rijp
De Rijp
De Rijp is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Graft-De Rijp, and lies about 10 km northwest of Purmerend.De Rijp was a separate municipality until 1970, when it merged with Graft....

, 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...

 - 1650) was a Dutch architect, mill builder and hydraulic engineer.

Biography

Leeghwater was born as Jan Adriaanszoon. Only later did he adopt the name Leeghwater, from laag water or low water. It is not clear exactly how the prevalent spelling of Leeghwater's name came about. Leeghwater himself spelt his name alternatively as Leegwater, Leegh-water, Leeghwater and Leechwater. Official documents of the time also mention Laechwater and Laachwater. Leeghwater, as a hydraulic engineer, was pivotal to land reclamation programs along the flooded coast of the Netherlands. He was involved in the reclamation of the Beemster
Beemster
Beemster is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Also, the Beemster is the first so-called polder in the Netherlands that was reclaimed from a lake, the water being extracted out of the lake by windmills. The Beemster Polder was dried during the period 1609 through...

 polder
Polder
A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices...

, the first polder in the world created from a lake by draining the water using wind mills. The reclamation of the Beemster was started in 1607 and Leeghwater supervised the milling. Between 1607 and 1635, the polders Purmer
Purmer
Purmer is a polder and reclaimed lake in the Netherlands province of North Holland, located between the towns of Purmerend and Edam-Volendam. Windmill reclamation activity began in 1618. Hydraulic engineer Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater also had stakes in the reclamation, although he was not directly...

, Schermer
Schermer
Schermer is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The name came from "skir mere", which means "bright lake" Schermer (West Frisian: Skirmare) is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The name came from "skir mere", which means "bright...

 and Heerhugowaard
Heerhugowaard
Heerhugowaard is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia.-History:...

 were also created under his supervision.

Steam pump named after him

Leeghwater was among the first to advocate reclamation of the Haarlemmermeer
Haarlemmermeer
Haarlemmermeer is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is a polder, consisting of land reclaimed from water, and the name Haarlemmermeer means Haarlem's Lake, still referring to the body of water from which the region was reclaimed in the 19th century.Its main...

, a lake whose growth presented a danger to the surrounding towns (several villages were swallowed and even Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 and Leiden were eventually threatened). When this was finally accomplished in 1852, it was with three large steam-driven pumping installations; one at Lijnden
Lijnden
Lijnden is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Haarlemmermeer, and lies about 10 km west of Amsterdam....

, Kaag
Kaag
De Kaag is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Kaag en Braassem, and lies about 8 km northeast of Leiden.De Kaag lies on an island, Kagereiland, in a lake system called the Kaag Lakes...

, and Cruquius
Museum De Cruquius
The Museum De Cruquius occupies the old Cruquius steam pumping station in Cruquius, The Netherlands. It derives its name from Nicolaas Kruik , a Dutch land-surveyor and one of many promotors of a plan to pump the Haarlemmermeer dry. Like many well-educated men of his time, he latinized his name...

. The installation at Kaag, the :nl:Gemaal De Leeghwater, built with a steam engine in 1845 to pump water into the Kaag
Kaag
De Kaag is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Kaag en Braassem, and lies about 8 km northeast of Leiden.De Kaag lies on an island, Kagereiland, in a lake system called the Kaag Lakes...

 lake, was named after him. The other two men honored in this way were Frans Godard baron van Lynden van Hemmen, who wrote the 1821 book 'Verhandeling over de droogmaking van het Haarlemmermeer' with the 3-way steam pump reclamation plan, and Nicolaas Kruik
Nicolaas Kruik
Nicolaas Kruik , also known as Nicolaes Krukius or most commonly by the Latinized Nicolaus Samuelis Cruquius, was a Dutch land surveyor, cartographer, astronomer and weatherman...

, who wrote an early "water defence" plan in 1737 using windmills.

External links

  • Leeghwater's eye witness account of the 1634 Nordstrand
    Nordstrand, Germany
    Nordstrand is a peninsula and former island in North Frisia on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Its area is 50 km², and its population is 2,300...

     Burchardi flood
    Burchardi flood
    The Burchardi Flood was a storm tide that struck the North Sea coast of North Frisia and Dithmarschen on the night between 11 and 12 October 1634. Overrunning dikes, it shattered the coastline and caused thousands of deaths and catastrophic material damage...

    .
  • Haarlemmermeer-boeck in the DBNL
    DBNL
    DBNL can refer to*Drebrin-like, a human gene.*Digital library for Dutch literature , abbreviated as dbnl, a website with the complete texts of a large number of Dutch books and other literature in Dutch language....

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK