mills-mag - 2/8/08
Period water, wind and animal powered mills.
NOTE: See also the files: commerce-msg, buildings-msg, medieval-tech-msg, flour-msg, wood-msg, tools-msg, charcoal-msg, bellows-msg.
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Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Mon, 05 Jul 1999 10:59:46 -0400
From: rmhowe <magnusm at ncsu.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Water Mills
The Norse had a sort of side shot mill that they used.
Think of a top with vanes and the water shooting in diagonally
downward with the stone on top.
In France there is a hill that has two lines of the remains of
numerous watermills the Romans used for grinding grain. The
hill was steep enough that the used water for one powered the
mills beneath. A fantastic engineering feat. I think this
particular one may have been written up in Scientific American
sometime between ten and thirty years ago.
Magnus
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 09:30:43 -0700
From: Tim Bray/Catherine Keegan <keegan at ix.netcom.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Water Mills
>The Norse had a sort of side shot mill that they used.
>Think of a top with vanes and the water shooting in diagonally
>downward with the stone on top.
>
>In France there is a hill that has two lines of the remains of
>numerous watermills the Romans used for grinding grain. The
>hill was steep enough that the used water for one powered the
>mills beneath. A fantastic engineering feat. I think this
>particular one may have been written up in Scientific American
>sometime between ten and thirty years ago.
>
>Magnus
The Norse mill you mentioned is called a "clack" mill; there is a
reconstruction at the Craggaunowen Project in Ireland. I believe the
"clack" mill is more effective where the water flow is higher velocity but
lower quantity. Other types of water-mills include the overshot wheel
(water pours from the mill-race onto the top of the wheel), which is
probably the one most people are familiar with; the undershot wheel (bottom
of the wheel projects into the mill-race or a river), very common on
bridges in the MA; and the turbine-wheel, which I think is actually OOP.
Each type has specific advantages for certain situations and uses the
energy of moving water in slightly different ways.
Of course, there are also various types of windmills; the post-mill was
very common in the MA but almost none have survived. They were built in
flatter country where water power was not feasible, e.g. East Anglia,
Flanders, the Low Countries.
Then there were the animal-powered mills, usually horses (although in
Belgium we saw several dog-powered butter churns - ! - from the 19th c.).
Colin
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 11:12:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: H B <nn3_shay at yahoo.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Water Mills
--- Tim Bray/Catherine Keegan <keegan at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> The Norse mill you mentioned is called a "clack" mill; there is a
> reconstruction at the Craggaunowen Project in Ireland. I believe the
> "clack" mill is more effective where the water flow is higher velocity but
> lower quantity. Other types of water-mills include the overshot wheel
> (water pours from the mill-race onto the top of the wheel), which is
> probably the one most people are familiar with; the undershot wheel (bottom
> of the wheel projects into the mill-race or a river), very common on
> bridges in the MA; and the turbine-wheel, which I think is actually OOP.
>
> Each type has specific advantages for certain situations and uses the
> energy of moving water in slightly different ways.
>
> Colin
David Macaulay (the guy who wrote _Castle_ and _Cathedral_, among
others) wrote a book titled _Mill_, which I think does a very good job
explaining the basic concepts involved in most of these types (though
set in the 19th c., the hydraulic concepts are the same as they've
always been). I always enjoy his books, and as a basic starting point
to understand various building concepts, his books with their very
helpful pictures are hard to beat.
I think the children's and young adults sections in the library are
often a great place to start researching something unfamiliar, as
things aimed at 10-14 yr olds tend to explain all the terminology and
assume no particular background. I still miss the Junior Britannica
that my mother got rid of -- it was much easier to find a little bit
about something that just caught my curiosity than the big Britannica,
which required more than a quick glance.
-- Harriet, who grew up in a house with three (3!) levels of
encyclopedias and had no clue how LUCKY I was till many years later.
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 07:50:47 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Is anyone familiar with this source?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> When I was researching cereal grain for my research paper I came
> across this reference. Is it too early?
>
> Moritz, L.A., Grain-Mills and Flour in Classical Antiquity
> (Oxford, 1958)
>
> Aldyth
This is a classic text on the evolution of milling technology. You should
find the information on rotary mills of particular interest as this was the
standard milling technology from Late Antiquity until the development of
roller mills in the 19th Century. For those interested, Ox-Bow Books
has an edition for around $20.
You might also want to check out Watts, Martin, The Archeology of
Mills and Milling, also available from Ox-Bow.
Bear
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