The old turbine that we excavated from a side hill in Maine was lowered
into place after much straining, blocking, and running around. George’s
careful measurements and minute calculations paid off, because it
fitted perfectly in the large hole cut in the bottom of the wheel pit.
We had to call upon the machinist to fashion a coupling in order to fit
the old coupling still left on the shaft coming down through the first
floor into the wheel pit from the gears above.
[Illustration]
While this was being done, George, Dick McElroy, and I managed to make
a decent pen gate with the necessary worm gear attached to it so that
we could block off the water in the flume and raise the gate when
necessary.
At this point I happened to mention to one of my friends that I would
like to find, somewhere, a metal wheel similar to a freight car brake
wheel that we could use on the shaft to raise and lower the pen gate.
A few days later, my friend left at the mill a real old timer. It was
a wheel which was about two and one-half feet in diameter, and which
was nicely adapted to the top of the rod of the pen gate. This wheel
suspiciously looked similar to a wheel that would toll a bell on a
church steeple, and when I suggested the possibility of this to my
friend, he merely smiled and walked away.
[Illustration]
X
We have used to a great extent Oliver Evans’ “_The Young Mill-Wright
and Miller’s Guide_.” This book was printed about 1800, and I think
I have referred to it before, but it has proved invaluable to us in
the course of our work. The words and references in the book may have
meant something to the millers one hundred years ago, but not us
poor amateurs of 1961, the words millseat, flutterwheels, cockheads,
cubocks, to say nothing of “tailflour,” confused us no end, but on
closer reading and more attention to the details of the book, we did
finally make some sense from it.
Under Article 108 in this ancient volume is found the following:
“Of Regulating the Feed and Water in Grinding.”
“The stone being well hung, proceed to grind, and when all things
are ready, draw as much water as is judged to be sufficient; then
_observe the motion of the stone, by the noise of the damsel_, and
feel the meal; if it be too coarse, and the motion too slow, give
less feed and it will grind finer, and the motion will be quicker;
if it yet grind too coarse, lower the stones; then, if the motion
be too slow, draw a little more water; but if the meal feel to be
ground, and the motion right, raise the stones a little, and give
the motion right, raise the stones a little, and give a little more
feed. If the motion and feed be too great, and the meal be ground
too low, shut off part of the water. But if the motion be too slow,
and the feed too small, draw more water.”
I doubt very much that the venerable Mr. Evans would have relished “the
noise of the damsel” if he had observed George one sunny afternoon pick
up a luscious creature of the female sex, heave her over his shoulder
and transport her into the depths of the mill, all in plain sight of
the general public. It seems that it was a little too muddy for this
fair lady to walk to the mill, but the following week, however, the
same damsel was there and took the same ride on George’s shoulders into
the mill.
We could not and did not observe either the motion or the noise of the
damsel, which probably is just as well.
The damsel referred to by Evans, however, is nothing more or less
than a square wooden shaft which turns against a shoe suspended under
the spout of the hopper to regulate the flow of grain into the stones
themselves.
There is, of course, a definite rhythm to the clatter created by the
damsel, and this is what Evans was speaking about in “noise of damsel.”
Farther on in Evans’ book, it states that we must “pick up the stones”
and sharpen them, but as I said before, we found that we were too
ignorant of the art of sharpening the stones, and that is why we
obtained the services of Mr. Mattson, who did an excellent job in
“picking up” the stones.
It is interesting to read Evans’ book, and I have taken the time to
copy directly from the book the chapter on the “Duties of the Miller.”
“CHAPTER XVIII
Directions for keeping the mill and the business of it in good
order.