Meeting Minutes
Torch Club of the Fox Valley
10 March 2016
Atlas Coffee Mill & Café
Notes taken by: Jude Kuenn, secretary
Attendees: Karen Bachhuber, Jim Baumbach, Nancy Bodway, David Debbink, Marcia Debbink, Mary Flanagan, Paul Freiberg, Walt Hedges, Jean Jepson, Barbara Kelly, Bill Kelly, Jude Kuenn, Cam Maurice, Amy Oberg, Mary Poulson, Richard Schoenbohm, Jan Smith, Bob Swain, Peter Thiel, Scott Valitchka, Sofia Wilson
Guests: Cynthy Anderson, Dick Schoenbohm
BUSINESS MEETING
Meeting called to order at 6:35pm.
- Guest Introductions: Richard introduced guests Cynthy Anderson and his father, Dick.
- Minutes from 2/11/16 meeting were accepted, motioned and approved.
- Treasurer’s report: balance at 3/07/16 was $2,082.81. There were two payments and one receipt since February’s meeting. Report was accepted, motioned and approved.
- Old Business:
A. March’s meeting was the fourth month of ordering meals online prior to the meeting. Ordering still cannot be done via iPhone. Paying online would be expensive for Atlas to implement; the evening’s line to pay seems to move promptly enough. Earlier in the week, a request was made for a simplified night-of menu. As there were only three options, Richard will ask for a few more night-of choices.
B. Amy Oberg asked how everyone enjoyed February’s Book Exchange and suggested it be done twice a year: October and April. The idea was well-received. - New Business:
A. 2016 IATC Convention ‘Come Discover Columbus’ will be June-23-26, in Columbus, OH. We’d like to send at least one delegate to represent the Club. If five meetings are attended, IATC will reimburse attendee $250. (Fees per person payable at time of registration are: $340 before 4/01/16; $360 through 4/30/16; $375 after 5/01/16.) Barbara and Bill Kelly, as well as Jean and Walt Hedges, are contemplating going to the conference.
B. Other new business:
1. April’s presentation will be Jan Smith. Cam Maurice will talk at the May meeting.
2. Paul Freiberg passed around a sign-up sheet for next year’s talks. Contact Paul if you’d like to present a topic and missed adding your name to the paper. - Announcements:
A. David Debbink mentioned ‘puchakucha’ a Japanese tradition where people give a short presentation, 6 minutes 40 seconds, talking with support of 20 slides. Event will be 5/05/16 at the Jim Perry Hall, UW-Fox Valley. Event’s theme is ‘Life-long Learning’. Contact David if interested in participating. Organizers are looking for another 15 speakers by the end of March. (This idea could also be done as a Torch evening.)
B. Mary Poulson shared 3/16/16 Noonhour Philosopher’s speaker will be Rob Zimmer. Topic: TBA. Rob is a freelance reporter for the Appleton Post-Crescent.
Business segment adjourned at 6:55pm for dinner.
Richard Schoenbohm presented “Windmills – Pre-industrial Age Power Houses”
Less than 300 years ago, if you wanted to operate any labor-saving machinery without animal power, choices would have been kinetic energy from blowing wind or falling water. Of the two, windmills reached their apogee in the 17th and 18th centuries. They pumped water, ground grain and spices, ran sawmills and aided many other industries.
Richard’s great great grandfather, Friedrich Ernst Schonbohm, lived from 1837-1928 and was a miller from age 15 until retirement at 73, in 1910. He then sat down and wrote his life story.
Friedrich was born in Friederiken Vorwerk, where his father worked on a windmill overlooking the North Sea. Friedrich’s career as a miller was in the final heyday of windmills.
Windmill types:
- Horizontal-axis, had engineering issues such as orienting sails to the wind, being able to stop sails when necessary, capturing enough wind energy, and how to transmit power from a turning horizontal axis.
- Post-mill, addressed some of above challenges with cog-and-ring gears to resolve shaft axis, modified sails, a body pivoting on a post allowing sails to face in to the wind and a friction brake connected to the axis.
- Tower-mill had a fixed base which contained the milling machinery. Its segregated sails and wind shaft assembly were part of a moveable cap. This mill could be larger, stronger and taller, and still able to point its sails into the wind.
- “Smock mills” had lower stories in stone, upper stories of wood, and were octagonal shaped. These became the classic windmill of Holland. The Wittmund Mill, built in 1741 and still standing today, claims to be the oldest, operating windmill in Friesland.
These later mills were commodious, often contained two sets of milling stones and four or more levels. The cap was the staging area for grain, the next level down contained the stones, below which there was a room for collecting and bagging ground grain. The ground floor was for wagon access, storage and living quarters for the miller and his family.
- Holland Gallery windmills added a deck around the tower, just clearing the wings, up to 27 meters from tip to tip to better catch wind. The deck allowed access when needing to change wing sails.
No reliable records of the earliest forms of sails on NW European windmills, when reliable, records noted the design was two spars crossing at right angles. Attached to spars were wooden lattices forming ‘ladders’ over which cloth was laced. Sail cloth was used to control power and rotor speed of turning sails. Such sail design eventually allowed a threefold increase of sail and tenfold increase of power. There were also spring sails, though they were not as efficient as cloth sails.
Of these, Friedrich rented a post mill, Aussen Mill, in 1876 in Aurich. Westeraccum Mill, a tower mill, was also rented in 1884. He bought the Bahnhofs Mill in Jever in 1889 and added the ‘fan tail’ ~1904, using the wind to wind the mill cap. Friedrich worked at the Wittmund smock mill as a mill helper, when just 15 years old. As a helper at the Hilgenstein Mill, he wrote of early mornings and long days with very little to eat or drink.
Not just a miller, Richard’s great great grandfather bought, ground and sold grain, went into baking and selling bread commercially, and cut and sold peat from surrounding moors as a third business.
The end of wind power came to the family in October 1939. Ground flour dust being very flammable, could have been sparked by a cigarette, started a blaze. The upper wooden structure could not be saved. The windmill was never rebuilt. The tower stump was roofed and turned into a home for Friedrich’s grandson Volkmar and his wife Herta. They ran a bakery, taken over by their son Garrelt, until his own retirement ~10 years ago. The mill property was sold, all structures demolished. There is no trace of the Bahnhofs Mill except for the family photos and Friedrich’s written history.