【雅思小伦哥-外刊精读】神奇的磨坊

作者: 雅思小伦哥在这里 | 来源:发表于2019-08-11 23:47 被阅读0次

The craft of the miller operating windmills and watermills involves the knowledge and skills necessary to operate a mill and maintain it in a good state of repair. With a declining number of people earning their livelihood from the craft, millers today also play a key role in transmitting the cultural history of the practice. There are currently approximately forty professional millers; together with volunteers, they keep the miller’s craft alive. The Guild of Volunteer Millers has around 105 instructors in the field, and 11 Master Millers are now active in the Netherlands. Mills, and therefore the miller’s craft, play a significant social and cultural role in Dutch society and have an iconic value, contributing to a sense of identity and continuity. Various safeguarding activities are undertaken, including training, support and capacity building, educational activities in schools and traineeships. Traditionally, the miller’s craft was transmitted from master to apprentice but since the establishment of the Guild of Volunteer Millers in 1972, almost 2000 volunteers have obtained a miller’s qualification; anyone interested in the craft can apply for training. The Guild offers millers support in keeping their knowledge up-to-date, for example through excursions to mills, evening theory classes, conferences and meetings.

磨坊工运转风车和水车的工艺包括了运营磨坊并维持其良好状态的必要知识和技能。如今，依靠这项工艺谋生的人越来越少，磨坊工在传播这种工艺的文化与历史中发挥了关键作用。目前大约有四十名专业的磨坊工；他们与志愿者一起，让磨坊工艺存活下来。磨坊工志愿者协会在该领域拥有约105名指导师，目前在荷兰有11名特别活跃的专业磨坊工。磨坊与碾磨技艺，在荷兰社会中发挥着重要的社会和文化作用，并具有象征性价值，为增强社会认同感和继承性做出了杰出的贡献。因此，荷兰开展了各种保护磨坊工艺的活动，包括培训、支持和能力建设，学校教育性活动和实习培训。传统上讲，碾磨工艺是由师傅传授给学徒，但自1972年磨坊工志愿者协会成立以来，已有近2000名志愿者获得了磨坊工的资质。任何对该工艺感兴趣的人都可以申请培训。该协会为培养磨坊工提供了支持，他们可以更新技艺，例如，通过参观磨坊、参加夜校理论课、研讨会和其他会议。

Because of the simple principles of windmills operation, over the last one thousand years, windmills became commonly made all around the world. However, even after their popularity was dramatically reduced in the 19th and 20th century with the arrival of steam and electricity-powered machines, today windmills are still actively used all around the world. Their two most popular usage scenarios are electricity turbines which are becoming more and more able to provide serious potential of generation of power, and windpump windmills that are often placed in remote locations where self-sustaining machines are needed to provide regular movement of water either for agriculture or for accessing water from deep underground wells.

由于风车运作原则简单，在过去一千年中，风车在全世界范围内广泛流行。尽管19和20世纪蒸汽和电器时代的到来，大大降低了它们受人们欢迎的程度，但今天世界各地仍广泛使用着风车。最常见的两种风车，一种是风力发电机，它们拥有强大的发电潜力；另一种风力涡轮机，则常用于偏远地区，那些地区通常需要类似永动机的装置，以此来维持水的流动，用于农业灌溉，或是从较深的地下井中获取水源。

History of windmills reaches back 3700 years, all way to the 2nd millennia BC when Babylonian ruler Hammurabi supposedly unveiled his plans to convert the power of the wind using automated network of irrigation windmills that would provide water to his land. But his plan was never realized, and historians never found concrete proof that he made any significant headway. More than 1,500 years later Greek engineer Heron of Alexandria captured the power of the wind using windmill that was part of one of the earliest examples of the musical instrument called organ. Half a world away in Tibet and China, windmills were used in a much smaller form – form of prayer wheels.

风车的历史可以追溯到3700年前，也就是公元前2000年，据说当时巴比伦统治者汉谟拉比宣布了一项计划，也就是用自动灌溉风车装置，将风力转换，这样可以用于灌溉农田。但他的计划从未实现，历史学家也未找到具体的证据证明此项计划取得了重大进展。1500多年后，希腊工程师海伦利用风车，获得了风能，而实际上风车最早是乐器—风琴—里的一部分。在遥远的西藏和中国，人们使用更小型的风车 —转经筒。

Modern windmills as we know them today started first appearing around 8th and 9th century in middle east and Western Asia. Initially popularized by Muslims, windmills soon arrived in India, China and Europe, where they went through several cycles of incredible innovation. First examples of Post Mills started being made around 11th century, with more advanced models of Tower and Smock mills being made in the following centuries. Two countries that were home of the most wind mills were England and Netherlands, but many other European countries also adopted windmills and their usefulness. Netherlands had so many of them that they dedicated significant landmass area to the foundation of windmill-based industry, which remained in use for several centuries. Immigrants who settled in North America brought with them knowledge of making windmills, which were mostly used for creation of windpumps. In the height of the popularity of windpump mills in 1930, US hosted over 600 thousand of them. Many of them are still active today being used mostly in remote locations that lack water distribution infrastructure.

我们今天熟知的现代风车首先出现在8世纪和9世纪的中东和西亚。最初由穆斯林推广，这项技术很快传播到了印度、中国和欧洲，在这些国家中，风车经历了几个漫长的革新阶段。风车工艺始于11世纪左右，在接下来的几个世纪里，出现了愈发先进的高塔型风车和罩式风车模型。英国和荷兰是拥有最多风力发电厂的两个国家，但其他许多欧洲国家也使用风车并利用其功能。荷兰有许多风车，因此他们许多国土面积都用来发展风车行业，几个世纪以来这个行业并未衰落。在北美定居的荷兰移民带来了制造风车的工艺，这些风车主要用于制造风力泵。1930年是风力发电厂最受欢迎的时期，那一年，美国建立了60多万个风力厂。其中许多发电厂如今仍在使用，尤其是在缺乏水资源分配基础设施的偏远地区。

荷兰风车最早从德国引进。开始时仅用于磨粉之类。到了十六七世纪，风车对荷兰的经济有着特别重大的意义。当时，荷兰在世界的商业中，占首要地位,各种原料从各路水道运往风车加工，其中包括：北欧各国和波罗的海沿岸各国的木材，德国的亚麻，印度和东南亚的肉桂和胡椒。在荷兰的大港--鹿特丹和阿姆斯特丹的近郊，有很多风车的磨坊、锯木厂和造纸厂。随着荷兰人民围海造陆工程的大规模开展，风车在这项艰巨的工程中发挥了巨大的作用。首先是给风车配上活动的顶篷，他们又把风车的顶篷安装在滚轮上。这种风车，被称为荷兰式风车。