Tilting at windmills Cervantes wrote and published "Don Quixote" during the Eighty Years' War, or Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648), a revolt by the Habsburg Netherlands to end Spanish rule. In "Don Quixote", the eponymous protagonist consistently misinterprets the motives and actions of his adversaries and allies, and struggles to even understand his own at times — a conundrum regularly resulting in apparently unjustified violent actions and consequences. One way of interpreting Don Quixote's tilting at windmills could be allegorically, thereby promoting critical, skeptical, or satirical evaluation of either a hero's motives, rationales and actions, or the ultimate aims of a nation's foreign
Joseph Windmills spring. Thomas Tompion's sprung balance transformed the pocket watch from ornamental item into an accurate timepiece. Joseph's last recorded attendance at the Court of the Clockmakers' Company was on 24 October 1723, ending a membership of more than thirty-two years. He died in 1724, having spent fifty-two years at his trade. Thomas then ran the company until his death in 1737. Thomas died childless and thus was the last of the Windmills' male line. The name "J & T Windmills" is currently used by a watchmaker with no links to the original father-and-son team. Joseph Windmills Joseph Windmills (c1640-1724), was