The ferro or iron windmill originated from the small metal windmills mounted on a tower
used in the nineteen-twenties by owners of smallholdings outside villages. Tower windmills were
also used to generate electricity, which was stored in batteries as a back up for evenings when
there was no wind to turn the mill.
The technology behind these imported American windmills was appropriated by the Islanders to
produce the ferro or metal windmill in 1934. Operated in exactly the same way as a ramell
mill, it surpassed it in safety and sturdiness in high winds and in ease of handling.
It was often erected on top of the towers of earlier mills, the oldest being cylindrical and built
from stones and the more modern ones being squared and made from bricks.
As for the flour mill, the invention of the steam engine signalled its end. By the eighteen-nineties,
two were already in operation in Manacor. The last of these mills made its final turn in 1964.
Overview
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