Tjasker

The tjasker (West Frisian: jasker, German: Fluttermühle) is a small type of windmill used solely for drainage purposes.

It is distinctive for its simple construction, featuring only a single inclined shaft that carries the sails on one end and an Archimedes' screw on the other, in this way avoiding the need for any gearing.

[1] The tjasker is commonly known as a typical Frisian windmill[2] though it is also found in other Dutch provinces and in north Germany.

The mills were used to drain small plots of land but also found their use at peat digging sites as they could be easily moved.

In that year emerging views on nature preservation and cultural history resulted in the installation of a brand new tjasker in De Weerribben.

Besides the structural differences, a typical paaltjasker is designed so it can relatively easily be dismantled to be moved to another location or stored indoors though nowadays this feature is rarely used.

After having built a functional model the reconstruction of a full sized staarttjasker (English: tail tjasker) is now planned.