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mills-mag - 10/27/15

 

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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NOTICE -

 

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

 

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

 

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

 

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

 

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

 

Thank you,

   Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous

                                         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: April 20, 2007 4:59:02 AM CDT

To:   EKMetalsmiths at yahoogroups.com

Re: tilt hammers.

Posted by: "Mr MAGGIE ALLEN" yvanwolvesbane at verizon.net   yvanwolvesbane

Date: Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:33 pm (PST)

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Shane Stainton

<<< wondering if anyone here has ever built a treadle or water-powered

tilt hammer before? I guess they date back firmly to 13th century and

possibly earlier and would love to build one myself for my forge. >>>

 

Hey there, Shane-

Water power for such hammers in the west goes back to Roman times or earlier. I have a book or two about them with diagrams, etc.. They were often the property of kings or cheiftains at various times and locales, because the amount of resources involved were often prohibitive. Later in the period they were owned by monestaries by royal grant, both the property & the income they generated, just like water-powered grain mills. Royal armouries used them to outfit royal armies for war. You don't make the breast-plates for a couple hundred leavies by hand if you can help it.

What kind of water source do you have to use for them? Can you dam it up to provide year-round power or are you dependent on the flow at different times of year? Have you looked into the state requirement re; environmental impact, building plans, etc.? Here in NY some of these are under the state's rules, some under the county you live in, some local. Look into it thoroughly, cause the fines are not to be sneered at. Which county are you in anyway?

I had hoped to build one at my mom's place where we hold Thyng Assembly, but it turns out the soil there is entirely loams of several sorts, not suited to building such dams upon. The water backed up behind even a concrete dam would leach through the surrounding soil and make it give way, or circumvent it with time. The things you learn in 'Soils & Constuction' & 'Hydrology' classes. I was very much disappointed, having stared for years at the lay of the land & the creek running through it.

Are you going to be at Capital District Blacksmiths forge-building get together this weekend in Victory Mills? Go to www.cdblacksmiths.org for details.

 

Yvan Wolvesbane

Pacifist....with occasional lapses.

Bent ....but not entirely broken.

 

 

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

 

 

Date: Mon, 07 May 2012 07:58:26 -0400

From: Garth Groff <ggg9y at virginia.edu>

To: isenfir at virginia.edu, atlantia at atlantia.sca.org

Subject: [MR] BBC: Welsh Castles

 

Today the BBC is featuring a brief slide show with ten views of Welsh

castles. Or more properly, views of mostly English castles build in

Wales during Edward I's conquest. Very nice slides:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17861853 .

 

The photo for Carew Castle mentions a tide mill. Though intact, this

mill is no longer working. The current structure and machinery date from

the late 18th/early 19th century. A tide mill has been on this site

since since at least the 1500s. And what is a tide mill, you ask? Simply

a water mill which is powered by tidal water flowing back and forth,

supplemented by water stored in ponds at high tide that can be released

at low tide. Tide mills used to be common in the low-lying coastal areas

of England (and there were some in the US too). Only four such mills

remain in Great Britain, and only two still work. You can read about the

Carew mill in the Wikipedia entry for Carew Castle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carew_Castle . The Eling Mill in Hampshire

can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eling_Tide_Mill . The

apparently recently restored Woodbridge Mill in Suffolk has its own web

site: http://www.woodbridgetidemill.org.uk/ . These mills are really out

of our period, but the technology was common enough in the SCA times to

make them a legitimate item for study.

 

Lord Mungo Napier, Avid Mill Enthusiast

 

 

From: Garth Groff <ggg9y at virginia.edu>

Date: February 28, 2012 6:54:21 AM CST

To: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>

Subject: New Book on Mills & Milling

 

New at the UVA Fine Arts Library: BREAD FOR THE PEOPLE, THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF MILLS AND MILLING . . . (BAR International Series 2274) edited by David Williams and David Peacock (ISBN 9781407308487; our call number TS2130 .B74 2011). This book is collection of articles on the history of mills and milling in Europe from pre-Roman times to the near-present. Of particular interest to us are three articles on the medieval period in English: "Querns as markers for the determination of medieval northern European trade spheres" by M. Pohl, "Of cakes and kings: bread-making in early medieval England" by C. Coulter, and "Rotary hand-querns in volcanic stone in the medieval Mediterranean" by P. Arthur. There is an additional article on medieval ore grinding in English, and one article each in Italian and French. Other articles are more general, but have historical interest, including those on quarrying and production of mill stones. I found Coulter's article, which is mainly about the Saxon period, to be very interesting. I was intrigued to learn that the term "lord" comes from old Saxon for "loaf guardian"--hlafweard, and "lady" is derived from "loaf kneader"--hlaefdige. The book is well illustrated with period illuminations of mills and milling machinery, many contemporary photographs, plus charts and maps. Each article has its own bibliography. This is a scholarly work, but the articles are well written and easily comprehensible to a lay person. If you are a lover of historical cookery, this book will be useful background reading. If you just love old mills (as I do!), it is a fascinating look at some great early-period subjects not often explored in print.

 

Now if only someone would write something about the history of milling in Scotland, I would be in hog heaven.

 

Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot

 

<the end>



Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
All other copyrights are property of the original article and message authors.

Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org