Windmill 3D Puzzle

This Windpump 3D Puzzle is recommended for children of 5 years and older.

Build Size :110x110x325mm (Length X With X Height)

Pieces : 10

No Glue is Required for assembly

The Basics

All the pieces of the puzzles slot into each other so the puzzle can be rebuilt as many times as you wish without glue. However, if you would like to display it on a shelf or in a cabinet we would recommend a bit of wood glue to keep it secure over a long period of time. The puzzles are made from wood so they can be painted with normal acrylic paint or spray paint.

The puzzles do not come with instructions. The reason behind this is because it is a puzzle… and the fun part is trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together as you would with a normal picture puzzle; so hours of fun can be had with the entire family joining in. But please do not fear as help is only an email away. Contact Xplore Designs via an email and we will gladly send you instructions to help you and assist in any way we can.

Some Interesting Information

A windpump is a type of windmill which is used for pumping water.

Windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The use of wind pumps became widespread across the Muslim world and later spread to China and India. Windmills were later used extensively in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and the East Anglia area of Great Britain, from the late Middle Ages onwards, to drain land for agricultural or building purposes.

Simon Stevin's work in the waterstaet involved improvements to the sluices and spillways to control flooding. Windmills were already in use to pump the water out, but in Van de Molens (On mills), he suggested improvements, including the idea that the wheels should move slowly, and a better system for meshing of the gear teeth. These improvements increased the efficiency of the windmills used to pump water out of the polders by three times. He received a patent on his innovation in 1586.

Eight- to ten-bladed windmills were used in the Region of Murcia, Spain, to raise water for irrigation purposes. The drive from the windmill's rotor was led down through the tower and back out through the wall to turn a large wheel known as a noria. The noria supported a bucket chain which dangled down into the well. The buckets were traditionally made of wood or clay. These windmills remained in use until the 1950s, and many of the towers are still standing.

Early immigrants to the New World brought with them the technology of windmills from Europe. On US farms, particularly on the Great Plains, wind pumps were used to pump water from farm wells for cattle. In California and some other states, the windmill was part of a self-contained domestic water system, including a hand-dug well and a redwood water tower supporting a redwood tank and enclosed by redwood siding (tankhouse). The self-regulating farm wind pump was invented by Daniel Halladay in 1854. Eventually, steel blades and steel towers replaced wooden construction, and at their peak in 1930, an estimated 600,000 units were in use, with capacity equivalent to 150 megawatts. Early wind pumps directly operated the pump shaft from a crank attached to the rotor of the windmill; the installation of back gearing between wind rotor and pump crank allowed the pump to function at lower wind speeds.

The multi-bladed wind pump or wind turbine atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel hence became, for many years, a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America. These mills, made by a variety of manufacturers, featured a large number of blades so that they would turn slowly with considerable torque in low winds and be self-regulating in high winds. A tower-top gearbox and crankshaft converted the rotary motion into reciprocating strokes carried downward through a rod to the pump cylinder below. Today, rising energy costs and improved pumping technology are increasing interest in the use of this once declining technology.