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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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.

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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>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	mills-msg	Page 5 of 5