Water wheel
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface. Most commonly, the wheel is mounted vertically on a horizontal axle, but the tub or Norse wheel is mounted horizontally on a vertical shaft. Vertical wheels can transmit power either through the axle or via a ring gear and typically drive belts or gears; horizontal wheels usually directly drive their load.
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See also
- Example applications
The following installations use a water wheel as the prime mover:
- Watermills in the United Kingdom
- Claverton Pumping Station – canal water pumping station
- Derby Industrial Museum – former silk mill
- Laxey Wheel – pumping water from a mine
- Snaefell Wheel – pumping water from a mine
- Water turbines
- For devices to lift water for irrigation
- Devices to lift water for land drainage
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Water wheel" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
