Quainton Windmill

 

 

Fifth Floor (Bin Floor)

Watch Video

 

Storage bins are located on the North side of this floor for grain to be fed down shutes or spouts to the pair of stones immediately below.   Under the window is a trapdoor at the same height as the top of the bins.   Sacks of grain are hoisted through this trapdoor and the grain is emptied into the bins.   The trap door is at high level to make handling the sacks easier.

 

The cap above, and the machinery contained within it, including the head frame, are held in place by gravity.   The whole revolves on 16 cast iron tapered rollers running on an iron track mounted on top of the brickwork at the top of the mill.   The recesses in the brickwork on this floor are for the holding down bolts that ensure that the track and supporting wooden curb are held in position.

 

On display on this floor is the original clutch drum from the sack hoist on the floor above.   The clutch drum is driven by the sails and rotates whenever the sails are turning.   When the sack hoist control rope is pulled, a beam on the floor above is raised, tensioning a belt between the clutch drum and a spindle to which the sack hoist chain is attached.   The belt then turns the chain spindle, and the chain raises sacks of grain from the ground floor.   When the control is released, the beam drops, the belt runs free, and the chain spindle no longer being driven is free to run the other way.   The chain falls back under its own weight through the trapdoors to the ground floor to raise more sacks.

Also on display is an original knife, probably used to cut grain sacks open so they could be emptied into the bins.

                

Text Box: Click Thumbnails to see Larger View
 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Return to Main Page