Civilization101Blueprint

Mechanical power

Water, wind and steam turning a shaft: the first power that is not muscle.

Energy Levels 3–4 3 steps written
3
Level 3 · Mill · 1 of 2 in this track

Water power and wind power, by what the site has

t3-waterpower Guide ×4BuildSheet ×21

Water power

Get a source of continuous power that is not a muscle.

Needs first: Woodworking and the first machines (Tools), Blacksmithing (Tools), Wheel, cart and road (Transport)

t3-windpower Guide ×2BuildSheet ×23

Wind power

Get continuous power where there is no falling water — which is most places.

Needs first: Woodworking and the first machines (Tools), Blacksmithing (Tools), Fibre, thread and cloth (Materials)

  • Guide Electricity, Energy sources
  • Build Post mill
  • Sheets 23 reference sheets on the step and its guides
  • Read Windmills, Picturesque and Historic; The Miller in Eighteenth-Century Virginia; Shafting, Pulleys, Belting and Rope Transmission and 3 more on the step page

Choose by what you have. Tick what is on or near the site. The options you can build move to the top; nothing is hidden.

Nothing ticked: every option is shown in the site's order.

  1. Overshot waterwheel Build: Overshot water wheel →
    falling water

    3.2 m of head and about 40 L/s give about 2.5 kW at the shaft, day and night.

  2. Post mill Build: Post mill →
    steady wind

    Starts at 5 m/s and works at 7–12 m/s. Power rises with the cube of wind speed, so measure the wind for a season first.

Unlocks Paper · KnowledgeCoal and coke · Energy
4
Level 4 · Engine · 2 of 2 in this track

The steam engine

Unlocks The factory and interchangeable parts · ToolsRail and bulk transport · TransportSteam, iron hulls and the load line · TransportRefrigeration and the cold chain · Food

Everything in this track

Every guide, build, reference sheet and book reached from the steps above.

Field guides

Level 5
Electricity

Not a source of energy but a way of carrying it: make it, move it, store it — and know exactly how it kills.

 Level 7
Energy sources

Every source of energy in one place: what it gives, what it takes, and how it can hurt you. Key figures, a reference sheet for each, and where to read further.

 Level 3
Physics

Force, energy, heat, light, electricity, relativity and the atom: the laws every engine, wire and lens obeys, each with what it lets you do and who first found it.

 Level 3
Engineering

Turning the sciences into things that work: machines, structures, water in pipes and channels, heat through walls, and feedback control. Each result with what it lets you do and who first found it.

 Level 3
The sciences

Fourteen branches, each with the handful of results a civilization cannot rebuild without, and where to learn the rest.

Builds

An overshot wheel at work, water entering over the top of the wheel rather than under it.
Level 3
Overshot water wheel

A few kilowatts, day and night, without eating — the first energy surplus large enough to support full-time specialists.
The buck of the post mill at Drinkstone, Suffolk, photographed without its sails. The whole body — frame, stones, gearing and miller — turns on the single oak post beneath it.
Level 3
Post mill

A whole building balanced on one oak post so it can be turned to face the wind — the first machine that let a settlement mill grain where there was no falling water.

Reference sheets

Drawn overview sheets, each with its corrections printed under it. They orient; they are never the thing you identify from.

A tower mill in cutaway — sails, hub, shafts, gearing, brake and stones — with the drive from sail to sack, what the power is used for, the four common kinds of windmill, and the build sequence in outline.
Windmill: parts, working and uses On: Wind power
A multi-blade fan wheel on a timber tower: its parts, one blade cut from a board, the gear drive to the output shaft, the tower, the tail vane, and the machines it can drive.
Windmill for mechanical power On: Wind power
A water wheel, a windmill, pedals, wood-fired steam and a hand crank each turning a generator; a magnet-and-coil generator; and a 12 V battery running lights, a phone, a radio and a fan.
Generating electricity from local resources On: Energy without the carbon bill · Electricity: Where electricity comes from
Four ways to turn a generator, the stator and rotor inside it, how moving magnets drive current through the coils, and a complete small system — generator, charge controller, 12 V battery, DC loads, and an inverter for AC.
Generating electricity: the parts and a simple system On: The generator · Electricity: Generating it: how a generator works, and small-scale power · Electricity: A small off-grid system, from load list to fuse
Materials, a six-step build, the finished machine in cutaway, how a moving magnet induces a voltage, and what the output can run.
A simple generator from a magnet and a coil On: The generator · Electricity: Generating it: how a generator works, and small-scale power
The alternator inside a small turbine — where it sits, the parts, the magnet rotor and coil stator built step by step, the winding, the magnet gap, and the output to a battery through a rectifier.
Wind turbine generator: the permanent-magnet alternator On: The generator · Energy without the carbon bill · Electricity: Generating it: how a generator works, and small-scale power
A 3 m, six-blade turbine on a 6 m timber tower: the parts list, cutting a blade, hub and generator layout, the foundations, and the wiring to a 12 V battery.
Small wind turbine for electricity On: Energy without the carbon bill · Electricity: Generating it: how a generator works, and small-scale power
Eleven panels: batteries, pumped hydro, heat storage, hydrogen, compressed air, flywheels, supercapacitors and chemical storage, each with its uses; a chart of how long each can store; benefits and challenges.
Energy storage On: Energy without the carbon bill · Electricity: Storing it: batteries and the alternatives · Energy sources: Storing energy
Fifteen panels, one picture each: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass, biogas, nuclear, coal, natural gas, oil, tidal, wave, hydrogen, energy storage, and other renewables such as concentrated solar and the waterwheel.
Energy types On: Energy sources: The sources at a glance
Six columns from left to right: primary energy, conversion, energy forms, storage, transmission and distribution, and useful work. Below them, a solar example from sunlight to homes, and the parts of a balanced system.
The energy system: from natural sources to useful work On: Energy sources: From source to useful work
Eleven panels: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass, each with a picture, its chain from source to grid and its key points, then tidal, wave, hydrogen, energy storage, the smart grid, and why renewables matter.
Renewable energy: clean power from nature On: Energy without the carbon bill · Energy sources: Renewable sources side by side
Six panels, one per source: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass, and tidal and wave. Each has a numbered picture of how it works and small pictures of its main kinds.
Renewable energy: how each source works On: Energy sources: Renewable sources side by side
Seven panels: the fire triangle and a wood fire, charcoal made in an earth clamp, a charcoal forge with bellows, how coal forms and how coke is made from it, crude oil and its fractions, the fuel pathway from biomass to petroleum, and a table comparing wood, charcoal, coal, coke and petroleum.
Energy: fire and fuel On: Charcoal · Coal and coke · Charcoal: What charcoal is for · Energy sources: Fire and fuel: wood, charcoal, coal, oil and gas
Eight panels: how coal, oil and gas formed, how each is mined or drilled, the chain from extraction to use, a coal-fired power station, refining crude oil, the uses of natural gas, advantages and limits, and a comparison of the three.
Fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas On: Coal and coke · Petroleum and refining · Energy sources: Coal, oil and natural gas
Eight panels: the kinds of biomass, how it becomes heat, electricity and fuel, the main routes (burning, pellets, gasification, biogas and liquid biofuels), a biomass power plant, a biogas digester, transport biofuels, advantages and limits, and everyday uses.
Biomass and bioenergy On: Energy sources: Biomass and biogas
Eight panels: how falling water becomes electricity, a dam and powerhouse in section, storage, run-of-river and pumped-storage plants, the main components, the Pelton, Francis and Kaplan turbines, uses, advantages and limits, and the chain from river to consumer.
Hydro energy: from water to useful energy On: Energy without the carbon bill · Energy sources: Falling water
Nine panels: how wind turns a rotor, the parts of a turbine, onshore and offshore machines, the drive train inside the nacelle, a wind farm feeding the grid, windmills and wind pumps, what affects output, advantages and limits, and a table of output against wind speed.
Wind energy: from wind to useful energy On: Energy sources: Wind
Nine panels: sunlight, the photovoltaic chain from panel to load, solar water and space heating, the parts of a home system, a module and a thermal collector in section, what affects output, photovoltaic against solar thermal, and maintenance and safety.
Solar energy: from sunlight to useful energy On: Energy sources: Sunlight
Eight panels: where the Earth's heat comes from, hydrothermal, enhanced and shallow resources, a geothermal power plant, dry-steam, flash and binary plants, direct uses of the heat, ground-source heat pumps, advantages and limits, and the chain from reservoir to use.
Geothermal energy: heat from within the Earth On: Energy sources: Heat from the Earth
Two halves. Tides: how they drive turbines, a tidal barrage, tidal-stream turbines and a tidal lagoon, with advantages and challenges. Waves: point absorbers, attenuators, oscillating water columns and overtopping devices, with advantages and challenges.
Tidal and wave energy On: Energy sources: Tides and waves
Nine panels: fission of uranium-235, a pressurised water reactor plant in cutaway, the fuel cycle from mine to spent-fuel storage, common reactor types, how the heat becomes electricity, safety systems, advantages and limits, a comparison with other sources, and a named example plant.
Nuclear energy: power from atoms On: Energy sources: Nuclear fission
Eight panels: what hydrogen is, grey, blue, green and other hydrogen, steam methane reforming and electrolysis, storage and transport, its uses, how a fuel cell works, advantages and limits, and key facts.
Hydrogen energy: clean fuel for a low-carbon future On: Energy sources: Hydrogen
Six panels: green, blue and grey hydrogen, storage as compressed gas, as a liquid or in chemicals, transport by pipeline, tanker and ship, its uses, advantages, and challenges.
Hydrogen energy: production, storage, transport and use On: Energy sources: Hydrogen

Books and archives

Other tracks in Energy

Fire and fuelElectricity