Wind-driven sawmill

In 1630, around 50 years before this mill was built, there were already 130 small windmills in use in the Zaan area. Saw milling was one of the industries that developed here. Amongst other things, the wood was used for ship building and house construction. The tree trunks to be sawn were brought in over water from Germany, Norway and the Baltic countries. They were tied together to create a raft  - sometimes measuring as much as 15,000 m². The rafts were navigated by a number of men, who also slept on them. The working day for the miller was long. When there was wind, it was not at all unusual for him to work 16 hour days. Rather less wood was sawn in the summer, however, as the wind blew less strongly at this time of year – this gave the miller time to carry out any maintenance work.