An Holland icon : the windmill.

Windmills were practical multi-purpose machines that made the 17th century Dutch industrial revolution possible.
About ten thousand were built in this country. A large part as water pump to drain the lowlands.
Thousands more were industrial windmills, for any process you need an engine for : grinding wheat and other grains, oilmills, sawing timber, making paper, mustard, paint, textile fullingmills, etc, etc. Gun powdermills were always built in a remote location, for obvious reasons.
About a thousand windmills still stand in the Netherlands. A few different types in the Amsterdam region. (click on thumbs to play) De Vriendschap (Friendship).
A smockmill. Still in full production for flour. Contains four pairs of milling stones.
With a smockmill the entire top can rotate 360 degrees in order to place the wings into the wind. Website windmill : https://www.weesper.nl/weesperwieken (in Dutch)

De Onrust (Unrest).
A polder drainage windmill. Polder means an area surrounded by dikes where the water has to be removed artificially.
This windmill is the only one in the Netherlands that has no modern pumping backup. It's because he drains a wetlands nature reserve, the "Naardermeer".

Het Haantje (The Cockerel).
A hollow postmill. With a postmill the entire upper part (here yellow) can rotate. The machinery is then located in the building under the wings.
Built as an oilmill in 1820, converted a cornmill in 1828. Windmills could indeed change career. If you want to learn more, a walk or bicycle tour is possible along the above windmills. See windmill tour.

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