Jan Leeghwater

Leeghwater, as a hydraulic engineer, was pivotal to land reclamation programs along the flooded coast of the Netherlands.

Leeghwater was among the first to advocate reclamation of the Haarlemmermeer, a lake whose growth presented a danger to the surrounding towns (several villages were swallowed and even Amsterdam and Leiden were eventually threatened).

When this was finally accomplished in 1852, it was with three large steam-driven pumping installations; one at Lijnden, Kaag, and Cruquius.

The historiography of the reclaimed land and mill construction was proposed in the 19th century rather romanticized where men apparently was in need of that time.

The clocks and bells that he supplied according to the archives for these towers will not have been of good quality, for less than thirty years later they were replaced by Jurriaan Spraeckel who worked together with François and Pieter Hemony in many places.