Leonardo da Vinci designed a windmill to grind grain using wind power.
His notebooks contain studies of wind-driven machines and mechanisms for transferring rotary motion. A windmill uses blades or sails turned by moving air; gears can then transmit that rotation to machinery such as millstones. Leonardo’s designs show his interest in adapting natural forces for useful mechanical work.
Leonardo was not the inventor of windmills. Wind-powered mills had existed in Europe and the Middle East before his lifetime. His contribution was to analyze and improve mechanisms, including the arrangement of gears and moving parts, rather than to introduce wind power for the first time.
The term windmill can refer to the whole machine, while wind turbine usually refers to a device that generates electricity. Leonardo’s Renaissance designs were mechanical mills intended to perform work, especially milling, not electrical generators.