Molen De Held Jozua (The Hero Joshua Mill), Zaandam

The Hero Joshua Mill is a paltrok mill, which has been fully restored to working order. Like all Dutch paltrok mills, it’s a wind-powered sawmill. This mill is a designated Rijksmonument, listed as number 40094. The Hero Joshua Mill is specifically designed for sawing wood, featuring a wooden structure supported by a short central post and a ring of wooden rollers on a low brick base.

The mill’s body is boarded, but the sawing floor is open on three sides, with only the windward side and side roofs providing weather protection. The entire mill is turned by a tailpole and winch. The front of the mill has a stage 3 meters above ground level for setting the sails. These sails are common sails with a span of 20.5 meters and are mounted on a cast-iron windshaft, which was cast by Koninklijke Nederlandse Grofsmederij in 1904. The brake wheel, with its 72 cogs on the wind shaft, drives the crank wheel with 27 cast iron radial cogs on the horizontal crankshaft. There is no upright shaft.