windmill plans

The windmill plans are the detailed architectural drawings for a windmill that Snowball develops to generate electricity and mechanize Animal Farm, becoming the central symbol of technological progress and the focus of the power struggle between Snowball and Napoleon. Their creation, destruction, and appropriation by Napoleon trace the arc of the farm's descent from revolutionary idealism to cynical tyranny.

Creation and Vision

Snowball conceived the windmill after surveying the farm's highest point, a small knoll in the long pasture near the farm buildings. He declared that a windmill could operate a dynamo and supply the farm with electrical power, lighting and warming the stalls in winter, and running a circular saw, a chaff-cutter, a mangel-slicer, and an electric milking machine. The animals, who had never heard of such things, listened in astonishment as Snowball conjured pictures of fantastic machines that would do their work while they grazed at ease or improved their minds with reading and conversation. Within a few weeks, Snowball fully worked out the plans, deriving mechanical details from three books that had belonged to Mr. Jones: One Thousand Useful Things to Do About the House, Every Man His Own Bricklayer, and Electricity for Beginners. He used the Incubator Shed as his study, closeted there for hours, with his books held open by a stone and a piece of chalk gripped between the knuckles of his trotter. He moved rapidly to and fro, drawing line after line and uttering little whimpers of excitement. The plans gradually grew into a complicated mass of cranks and cog-wheels covering more than half the floor, completely unintelligible to the other animals but very impressive. All of them came to look at Snowball's drawings at least once a day; even the hens and ducks came, taking pains not to tread on the chalk marks.

The Conflict Over the Plans

Only Napoleon held aloof, declaring himself against the windmill from the start. One day he arrived unexpectedly to examine the plans, walking heavily around the shed, looking closely at every detail, snuffing at them once or twice, then standing for a little while contemplating them out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly he lifted his leg, urinated over the plans, and walked out without uttering a word. The whole farm became deeply divided. Snowball argued that the windmill could be built in a year and would save so much labour that the animals would only need to work three days a week. Napoleon countered that the great need was to increase food production and that wasting time on the windmill would lead to starvation. The animals formed two factions under the slogans "Vote for Snowball and the three-day week" and "Vote for Napoleon and the full manger." At the crucial Sunday meeting, Snowball's eloquence carried the animals away, painting a picture of Animal Farm where electricity would operate threshing machines, ploughs, harrows, rollers, and reapers and binders, besides supplying every stall with its own electric light, hot and cold water, and an electric heater. But just as the vote seemed certain to go Snowball's way, Napoleon stood up, uttered a high-pitched whimper, and nine enormous dogs burst into the barn, chasing Snowball off the farm forever.

Appropriation and Rebuilding

On the third Sunday after Snowball's expulsion, Napoleon announced that the windmill was to be built after all, giving no reason for his change of mind. That evening Squealer explained privately that Napoleon had never really been opposed to the windmill; it was he who had advocated it from the beginning, and the plan Snowball had drawn was actually stolen from among Napoleon's papers. Napoleon had seemed to oppose it only as a tactic to get rid of Snowball, who was a dangerous character. The animals accepted this explanation. The rebuilding proved immensely difficult. The animals lashed ropes around huge boulders and dragged them with desperate slowness up the slope of the quarry, toppling them over the edge to shatter below. Boxer's strength was crucial; when boulders began to slip, he strained against the rope and brought them to a stop. By late autumn, the windmill was almost half built, but a violent November gale destroyed it, leaving it levelled to its foundations. Napoleon immediately blamed Snowball, pronouncing the death sentence upon him and offering a reward. The animals began rebuilding with walls three feet thick instead of eighteen inches. The work was cruel, and they were always cold and usually hungry, but they persisted. By the autumn of the following year, the windmill was finished, and Napoleon named it Napoleon Mill.

Destruction and Legacy

Two days after the mill's completion, Frederick's men attacked. They drilled a hole near the base of the windmill, packed it with blasting powder, and blew it up. The windmill ceased to exist; the force of the explosion flung the stones hundreds of yards away. The animals, enraged, charged the men and drove them off in what was called the Battle of the Windmill, but the mill was gone. They began rebuilding again from the foundations. Years later, the windmill was successfully completed at last, but it was not used for generating electrical power. It was used for milling corn, bringing in a handsome money profit. The luxuries Snowball had once taught the animals to dream of—stalls with electric light and hot and cold water, and the three-day week—were no longer talked about. Napoleon denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism, declaring that the truest happiness lay in working hard and living frugally. The windmill plans, once a vision of liberation, had become an instrument of exploitation.