learned something new "watermills", embarrassed to say
 

This seems like something that I should have known, and may have heard in school, but it never stuck.

Watermills aren't just for "milling flour".

Duh!

In the last week or two I've been reading about old industry in the UK, and kept reading about "cotton mills," and forges that were located on a river next to cotton mills, and then finally, it clicked when I saw a video about a saw mill that was located on a river.

The only watermill that I'd ever known about was a flour mill.

But it only makes sense that ANY function that is repetitive and can be mechanized and powered can be powered by a mill that's powered by a water wheel.

A forge can use the wheel to pump the bellows and hammer the steel and whatever other repetitive functions are needed.

A saw mill can process entire trees from timber to lumber.

Etc - like I said, major "you're a dumbarse, masraum" moment for me.

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it's been said, "every day's a school day"....

water drove "factories" in pre-industrial revolution Europe and America. Growing up in CT we had a school trip to a historic watermill in third grade. neat stuff.

Anything that can turn a shaft, and especially if it can turn a shaft with some torque, can do work. Humans are pretty clever. And resourceful.

There is an old grist mill just north of me that's been in operation nearly 250 years .... Still grinding flour and grits like back then :). Cool as can be it is.... The Old Mill of Guilford.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1669512430.jpg

They're probably not very common in the dry flat lands of the plains.
We have one in Clifton, Ohio (birthplace of Woody Hayes!) that was built in the mid-19th century (after the original mill in that location burned down). It has always had a vertical shaft water turbine for power. It was turned into a tourist attraction a few decades ago. So many people asked where the water wheel was that the owner gave up trying to explain what a water turbine was and built an electric motor-powered wooden wheel with a water pump that pumps enough water up to it to make it look authentic.

You can see the phony sluice and the "water wheel" in the upper right of this picture.

https://www.findingohio.com/2021/12/clifton-mill-lights/

The Franklin Cider Mill has used a water mill to crush apples for cider for more than 100 years. Used to go every fall when I lived in MI.

Alexander Hamilton used the Great Falls in my hometown to power Paterson's factories of the time.

https://www.tripsavvy.com/paterson-great-falls-2502804

As the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton took the first steps in securing America's economic independence in founding the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.) in 1791. In 1792, the Town of Paterson was established by the society, which saw the Great Falls as a remarkable power source for America's first planned industrial city.

Hamilton enlisted Pierre L’Enfant, the architect and civil engineer who designed street layout plans for Washington D.C., to design the canals and raceways that would supply power to the watermills in town. Unfortunately, the society thought L'Enfant's specific ideas were too ambitious and replaced him with Peter Colt, who used a simple reservoir system to successfully flow water in a single raceway to the mills. Later, a system similar to L'Enfant's original plan was put into place after Colt's system developed problems.

Due to the power, the Falls provided, Paterson can boast many industrial "firsts": the first water-powered cotton spinning mill in 1793, the first continuous roll paper in 1812, the Colt Revolver in 1836, Rogers Locomotive Works in 1837, the Holland Submarine in 1878, and the birth of Flatbutt in 1952 (though the connection of the birth to water power is undocumented).

Killhope in Cumbria in the northern UK is the site of a lead mine. The water wheel driving the mill processing the ore looked to be about 30 feet in diameter. Shafts and pulling running through the overhead spaces. Impressive as all get out.

Best
Les

Yeah, that clicked for me. "duh, industry existed before ubiquitous electrical power grids and steam power, water ran everything."

Yep. Very cool.

I'd love to really KNOW how they did stuff back then. The pyramids, Stonehenge, etc....

Very cool!

That's just sad, but not that surprising.

Interesting page on water turbines, or, at least, the "John Tyler Water Turbine."
https://www.ledyardsawmill.org/water-turbines/tyler-turbine-at-the-ledyard-sawmill

Clinton (not Clifton NJ) maintains one as a museum attraction.

https://www.nj.com/galleries/BQA3DXRN3FEJVLNB62KRZORKSM/

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Troy NY was the center of industry in the USA as it had great amounts of water power. Canals were built every other street so you had water for power on one side and street access on the other.

It was mostly textile mills, some started in the early 1800s. Troy is home to the oldest school dedicated to Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Troy began to fall apart because of steam power and then electricity. Trains didn't help either, as water transport was supplanted. Troy is at the most northern end of the navigational part of the Hudson river.

cool, more stuff for me to read up on.

You may find this of some interest.

Samuel Colt Gun Mill

Absolutely, thanks!

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

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