Gristmill 1769885 223368323 2008-07-03T19:43:57Z 208.87.234.190 /* Notable functioning gristmills */ [[Image:Skyline Drive Gristmill 1938.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Gristmill with water wheel, Skyline Drive, Virginia, 1938]] A '''gristmill''' or '''grist mill''' is a building where [[grain]] is ground into [[flour]], or the grinding mechanism itself. In many countries these are referred to as '''corn mills''' or '''flour mills'''. == History == === Early history === The first [[hydropower|water powered]] gristmills in [[Europe]] were built toward the end of the first century BC. The first written account is that of [[Strabo]], describing the mill at [[Cabira]], in operation in 63 BC. These mills had horizontal wheels. Vertical wheels were in use in the [[Roman Empire]] by the end of the first century BC, and these were described by [[Vitruvius]]. The peak of Roman technology is probably the [[Barbegal aqueduct and mill]] where water with a 19-meter fall drove sixteen water wheels, giving a grinding capacity estimated at 2.4 to 3.2 tonnes per hour. Water mills seem to have remained in use during the post-Roman period, and by 1000 AD, mills in Europe were rarely more than a few miles apart. In [[England]], the [[Domesday Book|Domesday survey]] of 1086 gives a precise count of England's water-powered flour mills: There were 5,624, or about one for every 300 inhabitants, and this was probably typical throughout western and southern Europe. From this time onward, water wheels began to be used for purposes other than grist milling. In England, the number of mills in operation followed population growth, and peaked around 17,000 by 1300<ref>Gimpel, J., ''The Medieval Machine'', Gollanz, 1976, Chapter 1.</ref>. Limited examples of gristmills can be found in [[Europe]] from the [[High Middle Ages]]. An extant well-preserved [[waterwheel]] and gristmill on the [[Ebro River]] in [[Spain]] is associated with the [[Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda]], built by the [[Cistercian]] [[monk]]s in 1202. The Cistercians were known for their use of this technology in Western Europe in the period 1100 to 1350. {{Expand-section|date=June 2008}} === Classical British and American mills === Classical mill designs are usually [[water mill|water powered]], though some are [[windmill|wind mills]], or powered by [[livestock]]. A [[sluice]] gate is used to open a channel and so start the water flowing and a [[water wheel]] turning. In most such mills the water wheel was mounted vertically, i.e., edge-on, in the water, but in some cases horizontally (the [[tub wheel]] and so-called [[Norse Mills|Norse wheel]]). Later designs incorporated horizontal [[steel]] or [[cast iron]] [[turbines]] and these were also sometimes refitted into the old wheel mills. [[Image:Glade Creek Grist Mill.jpg|thumb|left|Glade Creek Grist Mill in Babcock State Park, West Virginia, USA, 2006]] In most wheel-driven mills, a large [[gear|gear-wheel]] called the ''pit wheel'' is mounted on the same axle as the water wheel and this drives a smaller gear-wheel, the ''wallower'', on a main [[driveshaft]] running vertically from the bottom to the top of the building. This system of gearing ensures that the main shaft turns faster than the water wheel, which typically rotates at 10 [[revolutions per minute|rpm]], or so. The millstones themselves turn at around 120 rpm. They are laid one on top of the other. The bottom stone, called the ''bed'', is fixed to the floor, while the top stone, the ''runner'', is mounted on a separate spindle, driven by the main shaft. A wheel called the ''stone nut'' connects the runner's spindle to the main shaft, and this can be moved out of the way to disconnect the stone and stop it turning, leaving the main shaft going to drive other machinery. This might include driving a mechanical [[sieve]] to refine the flour, or turning a wooden drum to wind up a chain used to hoist sacks of grain to the top of the mill house. The grain is lifted in [[bag|sack]]s onto the ''sack floor'' at the top of the mill. The sacks are emptied into bins, where the grain falls down through a hopper to the stones on the ''stone floor'' below. The flow of grain is regulated by shaking it along a gently sloping trough (the ''slipper'') from which it falls into a hole in the center of the runner stone. The milled grain (flour) is collected as it emerges through the grooves in the runner stone from the outer rim of the stones and it gets fed down a chute to be collected in sacks on the ground or ''meal'' floor. A very similar process is used for grains such as [[wheat]], [[kamut]], etc to make flour as well as for [[maize]] to make [[corn meal]]. In order to prevent the vibrations of the mill machinery from shaking the building apart, a gristmill will often have at least two separate foundations. American inventor [[Oliver Evans]] revolutionized this labor-intensive process. At the end of the eighteenth century he patented and promoted a fully automated mill design. The [[Boykin Mill]], in [[Boykin, South Carolina]], has an operating grist mill where meal and [[grits]] have been ground by [[water power]] the same way for over 150 years. <gallery> Image:Flour mill 20050723 001.jpg|Old fashioned flour mill Image:Gristmill Hopper 1938.gif|Gristmill hopper, [[Skyline Drive]], [[Virginia|VA]], 1938. Grain was funneled through the hopper to a grinding stone below. Image:Grinding Corn Usquepaugh RI 1940.jpg|Corn over the grinding stone in Kenyon's johnnycake flour mill in Usquepaugh, RI, (near [[Kingston, Rhode Island|Kingston]]) 1940 Image:Thomas Mill Basement Chester Co PA.jpg|Gristmill drive machinery, Thomas Mill, [[Chester County, Pennsylvania|Chester County]], PA Image:Pedal-wheat-mill.jpg|Pedal powered wheat mill, [[Shediac, New Brunswick|Shediac Cape, New Brunswick]] Image:foundations.jpg|Remnants of some of the scores of flour mills built in [[Minneapolis]] between 1850 and 1900. Note the underground [[Mill race]] that powered mills on the west side of the [[Mississippi River]] at [[St. Anthony Falls]]. Image:Phelpsmill ottertailcounty.jpg|Phelps Mill in [[Otter Tail County]], [[Minnesota]] Image:Sturbridgemill.jpg|Wheel of the 1840s-era Grist Mill at [[Old Sturbridge Village]] in Sturbridge, MA. Image:Mt_Vernon_Gristmill_Slipper.jpg|"Slipper" feeding corn into the grindstones of [[George Washington]]'s Grist Mill. </gallery> == Modern mills == [[Image:Grain mill at Dordrecht, Eastern Cape.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Grain mill]] with [[bevel gear]]s outside local [[museum]] at [[Dordrecht, Eastern Cape|Dordrecht]].]] Historically, gristmills contained rotating [[millstone|stones]] powered by [[watermill|water]] or by [[windmill|wind]]; later mills used [[steam engine]]s for power, and modern mills typically use [[electric motor|electricity]] or [[internal combustion engine|fossil fuels]] to spin heavy [[steel]] rollers. These techniques produce visibly different results, but can be made to produce nutritionally and functionally equivalent output. Gristmills only '''grind''' clean grains, that is, grain from which stalks and [[chaff]] have previously been removed, but some mills also housed equipment for [[threshing]], sorting, and cleaning prior to grinding. Gristmills also grind corn into meal. Modern mills are almost certainly "merchant mills", that is, they are privately owned and accept money or trade for milling grains, or the corporations that own the mills buy unmilled grain and then own the flour produced. Early mills were almost always built and supported by farming communities and typically a percentage of each farmer's grain called a "miller's toll" was set aside for the miller in lieu of wages. Although '''gristmill''' can refer to any mill that grinds grain, the term historically was used to refer to a local mill where farmers brought their own grain and received the flour from it, minus the "miller's toll." <ref name="webster">{{cite web|title=ARTFL Project: Webster Dictionary, 1913|publisher=The University of Chicago - Department of Romance Languages and Literature|url=http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=gristmill|accessdate=2006-09-28}}</ref> Modern mills use serrated and flat [[cast iron]] rollers to separate the [[whole grain|bran and germ]] from the [[whole grain|endosperm]]. The endosperm is ground to create white flour which may be recombined with the bran and germ to create whole wheat or [[graham flour]]. == List of historic gristmills == {{globalize}} ===United States=== ==== Notable functioning gristmills ==== *[[Glade Creek Grist Mill]] in [[Babcock State Park]], [[West Virginia]] *[[Jenney Grist Mill]], [[Plymouth, Massachusetts]] *[[Kymulga Mill & Covered Bridge|Kymulga Mill]], [[Childersburg, Alabama]] *Grist Mill at [[Old Sturbridge Village]], [[Sturbridge, Massachusetts]] *[[West Point Mill]], Durham, North Carolina *[[Oconaluftee (Great Smoky Mountains)#Mingus Mill|Mingus Mill]], [[Sevier County, Tennessee]] *Cooper Mill, [[Chester, New Jersey]] *Newlin Grist Mill, [[Glen Mills, Pennsylvania]] *War Eagle Mill, [[Rogers, Arkansas]] *[[Stony Brook Grist Mill]], [[Stony Brook, New York]] *Carpenter's Grist Mill, Perryville, RI *Old Mill at [[Berry College]], [[Rome, GA]] *Dexter Grist Mill, [[Sandwich, Massachusetts]] *Kings Landing Historical Settlement, [[New Brunswick, Canada]] *[[Morningstar Mill]], [[St. Catharines]], [[Canada]] ==== Ruins, remnants, partially preserved) ==== *[[Audra State Park]], West Virginia *[[Causey's Mill]], Virginia *[[Valley Falls State Park]], West Virginia ===United Kingdom=== {{main|Watermills in the United Kingdom}} === Sweden === * [[Eldkvarn]], [[Stockholm]] == References == {{reflist}} == See also == * [[grist]] * [[water mill]] * [[wind mill]] * [[tide mill]] * [[water wheel]] * [[textile mill]] == External links == *[http://www.millpictures.com Historic Mill Information and Images] *[http://www.spoom.org The Society for Preservation of Old Mills] *[http://www.deltamill.org Old Stone Mill National Historic Site of Canada] *[http://www.stockdalemill.org Stockdale Mill] *[http://www.greenbankmill.org Greenbank Mill] *[http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/waterpower/grist.html Gristmill diagram and description] *[http://www.namamillers.org/ci_products_wheat_mill.html North American Millers' Association&nbsp;&mdash; How Wheat Flour is Milled] *[http://www.worldgritsfestival.com Worlds Grits Festival St. George, SC] *[http://ns1763.ca/annapco/lequille.html Site of first grist mill in North America, 1607] *[http://www.hiddenhorsham.co.uk/23/prewettsmill.htm Prewetts Mill] A British mill built in 1861 driven by steam until the 1970s *[http://www.pickwickmill.org Working Mill in Pickwick, Minnesota, 1854] *[http://www.morrisparks.net/aspparks/coopermillmain.asp Cooper Mill - Working Grist Mill in Chester, New Jersey 1826] *[http://www.newlingristmill.org/ Newlin Grist Mill - Only Working Grist Mill in Pennsylvania] *[http://www.wareaglemill.com/ War Eagle Mill - A Working Water Powered Grist Mill in Rogers, Arkansas] [[Category:Grinding mills]] [[Category:Agricultural buildings]] [[de:Getreidemühle]] [[eo:Grenmuelejo]] [[fr:Minoterie]] [[he:טחנת קמח]] [[io:Muelerio]] [[nl:Korenmolen]] [[pl:Młyn zbożowy]] [[ru:Мукомольная мельница]] [[fi:Valssimylly]]