Windmills have been used for various purposes throughout history. Here are some of the uses of windmills:

• Grinding grain: Windmills were originally used to mill grain, particularly in parts of England and the Netherlands. The blades of the windmill would turn and power the millstones, which would grind the grain into flour.

• Pumping water: Windmills were also used to pump water, particularly in areas where there was no access to a reliable source of power. 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 East Asia (China) and South Asia (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. In early California and some other states, the windmill was part of a self-contained domestic water system which included a hand-dug well.

• Generating electricity: Modern wind turbines are used to generate electricity. Wind turbines work by turning the kinetic energy of the wind into electrical energy. The blades of the turbine are turned by the wind, which in turn rotates a generator to produce electricity. Wind turbines can be stand-alone, supplying just one or a very small number of homes or businesses, or they can be clustered to form part of a wind farm.

• Other industrial processes: Windmills have been used to power many other industrial processes, including paper mills, threshing mills, and to process oil seeds, wool, paints, and stone products. The machinery used in windmills differs depending on the application. For example, a drainage mill uses another set of gear wheels on the bottom end of the upright shaft to drive a scoop wheel or Archimedes screw. Sawmills use a crankshaft to provide a reciprocating motion to the saws.