Ugears "Tower Windmill" Self-Assembly Mechanical Kits For Teens and Adults

The Tower windmill is one of the oldest inventions of mankind. A tower mill is a type of vertical windmill consisting of a brick or stone tower, on which sits a wooden 'cap' or roof, which can rotate to bring the sails into the wind. The earliest known instance of using a wind-driven wheel to power a machine goes back to the 1st century Greeks. Windmills in general had been known to civilization for centuries, but the tower mill represented an improvement on traditional western-style windmills.

Ugears Tower Windmill history

The Tower Windmill from Ugears takes you to post-medieval England. The model is inspired by the Chesterton Windmill, a 17th-century cylindrical stone tower windmill that was built outside the village of Chesterton, Warwickshire county. 

Built around 1632-33, the Windmill was restored between 1965 and 1974 and today it is the earliest tower mill in England to retain any of its working parts. This unique construction with an arched base was presumably built by a prominent figure of the period, Sir Edward Peyto that owned Chesterton Manor at that time. 

Sir Edward was an enthusiastic mathematician and astrologer, which brought up the presumption that the tower mill was initially designed to become an observatory. Although there is no evidence to support this theory and we can only guess what had driven the post-medieval nobleman to create this beautiful and unique windmill.

The mechanical magic inside

The Tower Windmill from Ugears is more than a mechanical puzzle. It is powered by a removable rubber band motor. It drives the sails by means of a screw conveyor (worm feeder) and gear transmission. The design of the gear transmission includes a flexure link, the type of chain drive assembled out of many small links. The full-fledged chain drive made out of plywood has never been used in Ugears models before.

This Ugears model designed in “Victorian steam-punk skeleton” style is based on a prototype from Chesterton. When spinning rapidly the aerodynamic twist sails create fairly strong wind. It also can work the other way around: blowing air directed at the sails will make them spin. Use fan to demonstrate to your kids how real windmills operate. The rotation of the windmill sails is mesmerising. You can’t stop watching them turning over and over.

A double planetary gear reducer with differently shaped gears provides the necessary speed. Resembling a spiral staircase, the rotating base of the arched tower is a part of the screw conveyor mechanism that is a chief part of the model’s mechanism. Fascinating mechanics of the moving gears will captivate your attention for a long time.

The figures in the kit

While taking origin from the English prototype, the UGEARS model also addresses the Spanish classic: the Tower Windmill can be completed with the figures of the Ingenious Nobleman Don Quixote and his quirky companion Sancho Panza.

About Ugears models

The Ugears Tower Windmill model kit is made of high grade wood and has everything you might need for assembly. The quality of the parts is top-notch: a laser method is used for cutting items from a plywood board that provides precise hairline cuts. The details have to be pulled out of the boards and assembled to create a complete model.

Like all other Ugears models, the Tower Windmill comes with step-by-step, full-color, truly easy to follow instructions in 11 languages (English, German, Ukrainian, French, Polish, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Italian, Chinese and Korean) and requires neither glue nor special tools to be fully assembled into functional working Windmill.