Sarichioi windmill, Tulcea, early 19th century
The windmills represent popular technique installations for grinding cereals, endless from the Dobrogean landscape since the sixteenth century.
In the patrimony of the Village Museum there are three such units: Moara from Sarichioi, Moara from Valea Nucarilor and the one in Enisala. Although different in size, force, grinding and structure capacity, all these mills belong to the same type characterized by the existence of a central pivot around which the "house" can be fully revolved after the wind direction. They work on the principle of direct movement transmission. Thus, the energy of the wind captured by the wings determines the rotation of the axis ("grinde") on which they are fixed. Through a gear wheel ("with measures") and a device called "lantern", the rotation movement in the horizontal plane is transmitted to the vertical axis caught in the moving (or running) stone. The grains flow from the basket suspended above the stones in a bucket automatically shaken by rotating the spindle and, from here, between the stones. Subsequently, the flour flows in the crate.
The mill from Sarichioi, Tulcea County, dating from the first half of the 19th century, was transferred and re-entered in the museum in 1953. It is built on a stone socket, with the oak skeleton, and the walls and the coating of the fir board. In the upper area, the 6 wings and a balcony ("bellows") are highlighted with a system of pulleys for lifting the bags with grains, which is why it was also called "breast mill". The installation has the quadrilateral plan with two overlapping rooms: down, the warehouse for bags and tools; Upstairs, the mechanism and the two pairs of stones for grinding corn and wheat. They could work simultaneously or separately, as needed and the intensity of the wind.
