Here's the wheel being operated by water, and here's the gearing system
turning the horizontal movement vertical,
then horizontal again, and then vertical
again in order to operate
the millstones. Here's another system
operating a trip-hammer
for bashing things like mineral ore or cloth or leather, to soften it up.
Here's a system that operates a similar trip-hammer device but it's to work a suction pump
for a water supply.  Same system again operating two levers
pressing on bellows for a blast furnace
and finally over here, a crank that turns a circular movement
to back-and-forward movement for a saw mill. Beautiful system.
So, put yourself in their position. The war's are all over,
there's loads of productive land everywhere,
you got water coming out your ears
and an amazing machine to use to harness the power. What would you do?
Yes, you'd have yourself a Medieval
Industrial Revolution.
 
The great thing about these wheels was
that they were easy to make,
and they worked almost anywhere. You lived up a mountain,
hollow a few trees out and you had
yourself a wooden aqueduct.
 
Horizontal wheels didn't need the gears
because they spun mill stones directly above.
 
You could turn a vertical wheel with water
falling from above
or flowing past below in a river. And with gears, you could
slow down the effect of a fast stream
or speed up a slow one.
Water power made you a lot of bread, in both senses.
But the star of the show was this: the cam.
With a cam, you can trip hammers to pound things with
harder and faster than any human being.
And build yourself mills to work timber,
oil, grain, leather, cloth, iron, beer,  wire,
sugar, coin - you name it.
