learned something new "watermills", embarrassed to say

[masraum]

Originally Posted by red-beard

I'm trying to find information on it....

The town I lived in, West Stockbridge MA, had a water operated saw mill around 1800. The boards in our 1824 farmhouse were cut in that mill. The cool part, the mill used an up/down motion, not a spinning blade. That type of machine was not developed until later.

This is the type:

https://www.ledyardsawmill.org/exhibits/the-up-down-sawmill

Yeah, I saw a couple of videos like that. Crazy.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rattlsnak

Interesting… I never knew any of them were used for milling flour…. I thought they were all saw mills!

Pretty much any time I hear about or see images of mills for "stone ground flour" it's almost always a reference to a water driven mill.

[KFC911]

^^^^ The one near me has been for grinding corn & flower into meal & grits... that pic I posted earlier in b&w is older. Though still a working mill, it's on the historic registrar and is quite picturesque ... gets painted a lot . Very close to my house is an area that was known for producing long rifles prior to the Revolutionary War .... It's location is also on a small river ... I'm sure they used the H2O flow but don't really know the details....

Of course Tabby knows all about the rifles

[masraum]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

You may find this of some interest.

Samuel Colt Gun Mill

Originally Posted by KC911

^^^^ The one near me has been for grinding corn & flower into meal & grits... that pic I posted earlier in b&w is older. Though still a working mill, it's on the historic registrar and is quite picturesque ... gets painted a lot . Very close to my house is an area that was known for producing long rifles prior to the Revolutionary War .... It's location is also on a small river ... I'm sure they used the H2O flow but don't really know the details....

Of course Tabby knows all about the rifles

I haven't had a chance to peruse it yet, but maybe FB's link above has more info about a water powered gun mill.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by masraum

I haven't had a chance to peruse it yet, but maybe FB's link above has more info about a water powered gun mill.

It's a start at least. The Great Falls in Paterson powered a lot of mills and factories during the industrial emergence of the US. Hence Paterson's old nickname "Silk City". It hasn't deserved such an elegant sobriquet in ...well a very long time.

[herr_oberst]

Tangentially, (pretty sure this is common knowledge, but it bears repeating), the idea for the IBM punchcard came from textile and rug mills that were more often than not powered by a shaft running off a waterwheel.

[gregpark]

This is the Bale Grist mill in the Napa Valley built 1846 still grinding flour to this day. They can't sell flour legally though. Non USDA approved equipment ya know and this is California ya know. I guess the mill stones that have been grinding away for 176 years could be contaminated? Really cool to walk through and see in action. If you give them a $10. donation they'll "gift" you a bag of flour as a thank you

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Tangentially, (pretty sure this is common knowledge, but it bears repeating), the idea for the IBM punchcard came from textile and rug mills that were more often than not powered by a shaft running off a waterwheel.

Just saying after reading Wiki. It definitely mentions the loom control cards from the early 1800's.

The idea of control and data storage via punched holes was developed independently on several occasions in the modern period. In most cases there is no evidence that each of the inventors was aware of the earlier work.

Interesting read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

[masraum]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Tangentially, (pretty sure this is common knowledge, but it bears repeating), the idea for the IBM punchcard came from textile and rug mills that were more often than not powered by a shaft running off a waterwheel.

Nope, not common knowledge, and I'm pretty deep in IT. I'm familiar with the idea of punchcards and "patching" and have seen pictures, but that's it. I'll have to look that up!

Originally Posted by gregpark

This is the Bale Grist mill in the Napa Valley built 1846 still grinding flour to this day. They can't sell flour legally though. Non USDA approved equipment ya know and this is California ya know. I guess the mill stones that have been grinding away for 176 years could be contaminated? Really cool to walk through and see in action. If you give them a $10. donation they'll "gift" you a bag of flour as a thank you

At least it's available. That's great, and very cool.

[KFC911]

My first few Computer Science classes were on IBM punch cards in the late 70s... You did NOT want to drop a box (mebbe 15" of cards) of 370 Assembler instructions and let them get out of order . Then CRTs appeared and it was all down hill from there !

[Shaun @ Tru6]

what a great thread!

[KFC911]

I just came out of a "rabbit hole" ....

Within just a few miles (a couple were VERY close by) there were about 60-80 gunsmiths making Jamestown Long Rifles starting in the late 1700s for around 100 yrs here. It seems that most (if not all) were using water powered mills .... live & learn.

I know Tabs is familiar with these rifles from a thread some years ago .... interesting stuff !

[Aerkuld]

Mrs Aerkuld and I were in Wales a few weeks ago and visited a 12th century watermill - really interesting! It was a 14'6" diameter wheel, and the gears were wooden, with individually formed wooden teeth wedged into holes in the wheel. There was one main shaft on which the wheel was mounted, but different drives could be taken off that shaft, either by a belt, or by engaging / disengaging the gears. The power of the wheel could be regulated by an adjustable flap called a launder which works just like a throttle butterfly.
As other have said, the power from the mill was used for everything. There was a flour mill, a sawmill, wood turning, and woolen mill, all on the one site, all powered by the one water wheel. There was a blacksmith shop in the same complex too. Apparently, the farmers would bring their grain to this mill and, for a small fee, it would be ground for flour. That little mill must have been the center of local industry, if not everything. Pretty much anything you'd need you could go there for.

[Cajundaddy]

Some of my ancestors ran a mill in Georgia back in the 1800s and the restored remains are in a private museum near the original site. I need to get down there and see it some day. As I recall the mill would process wheat and corn, cut lumber, and power other mechanical tasks depending on need.

From the site:

"The old Peeler mill was rather a pretentious establishment in its day and generation. It turned the wheat and corn of the community into flour and meal, it sawed its timber, it served as a home where raw material was turned into clothing, it served as a community center of the first class, a clearing house for neighborhood news and political and religious discussion."

[Shaun @ Tru6]

A little off topic, I grew up a mile away from this house, the Thankful Arnold house in Haddam, CT that was built in 1794. Even 40+ years ago it was a historic building and we took a field trip there in 3rd grade too (did a lot in 3rd grade now that I am thinking about... went to a local castle, made candles, spun yarn... all kinds of 1700s stuff, as part of class. What's funny is my best friend lived right next door to this house which was built the same time. Not a historic building, just a house. Homes built back them were quite different than today. Great memories.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by KC911

My first few Computer Science classes were on IBM punch cards in the late 70s... You did NOT want to drop a box (mebbe 15" of cards) of 370 Assembler instructions and let them get out of order . Then CRTs appeared and it was all down hill from there !

I learned that lesson the hard way when learning Fortran.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Aerkuld

Mrs Aerkuld and I were in Wales a few weeks ago and visited a 12th century watermill - really interesting! It was a 14'6" diameter wheel, and the gears were wooden, with individually formed wooden teeth wedged into holes in the wheel. There was one main shaft on which the wheel was mounted, but different drives could be taken off that shaft, either by a belt, or by engaging / disengaging the gears. The power of the wheel could be regulated by an adjustable flap called a launder which works just like a throttle butterfly.
As other have said, the power from the mill was used for everything. There was a flour mill, a sawmill, wood turning, and woolen mill, all on the one site, all powered by the one water wheel. There was a blacksmith shop in the same complex too. Apparently, the farmers would bring their grain to this mill and, for a small fee, it would be ground for flour. That little mill must have been the center of local industry, if not everything. Pretty much anything you'd need you could go there for.

Sometimes even the miller's daughter.