Q 01/05

In which country did the first known windmills, with sails turning horizontally on an upright shaft, appear over 1,000 years ago?

A) China

B) Egypt

C) Persia

D) England

Answer · why

C) Persia

Persia's mills, recorded in its windy eastern region of Sistan, stood inside walled buildings with openings that let the wind through to push sails mo...

Q 02/05

Morgan Lewis Mill is the last intact windmill of the many that once processed which crop on Barbados?

A) Sugar

B) Coffee

C) Cotton

D) Tobacco

Answer · why

A) Sugar

Sugar cane was last ground here for trade in 1947; after a late-1990s restoration the sails turned again and crushed cane for visitors.

Q 03/05

Which Babylonian king is said to have planned wind-powered irrigation nearly 4,000 years ago?

A) Hammurabi

B) Sargon

C) Gilgamesh

D) Nebuchadnezzar

Answer · why

A) Hammurabi

Hammurabi's plan is often repeated but unproven; the earliest firm written records of windmills come more than 2,000 years after his reign.

Q 04/05

In which triangle of regions did the vertical windmill first appear in the 12th century?

A) Castile, Aragon and northern Portugal

B) Bavaria, Bohemia and Lower Saxony

C) Tuscany, Lombardy and Provence

D) Northern France, eastern England and Flanders

Answer · why

D) Northern France, eastern England and Flanders

Northern France, eastern England and Flanders all have records from the 1180s and 1190s; unlike the older eastern mills, these turned upright sails on...

Q 05/05

Which great Dutch painter, born in Leiden in 1606, was a miller's son?

A) Rembrandt

B) Johannes Vermeer

C) Frans Hals

D) Jan Steen

Answer · why

A) Rembrandt

Rembrandt grew up opposite the windmill where his father milled malt; the family was comfortable enough to send him to Latin School and, at 14, to Lei...