- Position: Debarkestraat De Moeren (Veurne)
Owner: Polder De Moeren, in long lease to the province West-Flanders
- Construction year: 1774, rebuilt in stone approx. 1800
Type: Bricks ground sailor Function: polder mill with jack Characteristics: Bottle shape body, cap with falling coping Interior: Mill body serves only to transferring to the jack Condition: Repaired in 1977-1978, new repair necessary Miller: None Visiting hours: Only for groups after appointment.
Initially the Saint-Karelsmill had a 600 Ha ground to keep dry and moreover do still service as grain-mill. The mill was protected in 1943, as a monument. In 1967 the drainage works with wind strength was stopped and was replaced by a traction with a diesel engine, later by an electric engine. The pump function was taken over by a pumping station The bricks mill replaced its wooden predecessor around 1850 and was equipped with a propeller of Archimedes, which boosts water. The propeller had a length of 8.10 meter at a dia meter of 2 meters. First version was made of oak wood. Such a propeller is still used to move fluids or powders upward or horizontally. The transport of, in our case, water, happens by a twisting movement of a spiral propeller in a tube. By the form of the propeller, the water cannot run back to be as it were pumped up. The propeller was operated by the movement of the wings. Larger polder mills and many pumping stations have a larger adapted alternative of the propeller of Archimedes, a so-called jack. The Saint-Karelsmill will be restored soon.
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