Arkens is a Hollow Post mill in Franeker

Franeker

Franeker is one of the eleven historical cities of Friesland and capital of the municipality of Franekeradeel. It is located about 20 km west of Leeuwarden on the Van Harinxma Canal. As of 1 January 2006, it had 12,996 inhabitants. The city is famous for the Eisinga Planetarium from around...

, Friesland

Friesland

Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 which has been restored to working order. The mill is listed as a Rijksmonument

Rijksmonument

A rijksmonument is a National Heritage Site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.-History and criteria:...

, number 15710.

History

Arkens was originally built in 1835 at a site to the north of its current position. It was built to drain the Arkens polder

Polder

A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices...

. Prior to 1910, it was fitted with four Patent sails. Photographs show that one pair of the Patent sails were wider at the tip than they were at the heel, the other pair were of standard construction. These were replaced by millwright

Millwright

A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...

 Westra of Franeker with common sails which are wider at the tip than they are at the heel (Vlinderwieken Butterfly sails). Arkens is the only windmill in the Netherlands with this style of sails. A restoration of the mill was undertaken in 1955. The mill was moved to its current position in 1972, restoration taking until 1975. In 1994, a further restoration was carried out. Although restored to working order, Arkens is only rarely seen turning.

Description

Arkens is what the Dutch describe as a spinnenkop (Spider mill). It is a hollow post mill on a single storey octagonal roundhouse. The mill is winded by tailpole and winch. The roundhouse and mill body are covered in vertical boards, while the roof of the mill is boarded and covered in dakleer. The sails are Common sails. They have a span of 11.25 metre. The sails are carried on a wooden windshaft constructed from four separate pieces of timber. The windshaft also carries the brake wheel which has 34 cogs. This drives the wallower (18 cogs) at the top of the upright shaft. At the bottom of the upright shaft, the crown wheel, which has 28 cogs drives a gearwheel with 27 cogs on the axle of the Archimedes screw. The diameter of the axle of the Archimedes screw measures 235 millimetres (9¼ inches) in diameter; the screw has a 855 millimetre diameter and a length of 2.43 metre. The screw is inclined at 23°. Each revolution of the screw lifts 160 litres (35.2 imp gal) of water.