Part 6 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 10.--SHOWING THE INTERIOR OF POMPEIAN MILL.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 11.--THE FIRST WATER-MILL, 50 B. C.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 12.--SHOWING THE INTERIOR OF THE FIRST WATER-MILL.]
The Pompeian mill shows that as early as the first century the Romans ground their grain by animal power. Indeed about this time a still greater change was made in the method of grinding grain. When Julius Caesar flourished (50 B. C.) men began to harness the power of running water and make it turn their mills (Fig. 11). From Figure 12 we may easily learn how this was done. The running water turns the wheel and in doing so turns the upper millstone. A hopper is suspended from the roof by ropes. Through this the grain pa.s.ses into the mill. Here was a great saving in human labor and a great advancement in mill making. A Roman writer of Caesar's time appreciating how great a blessing was the invention of the water-mill exclaimed:
Ye maids who toiled so faithful at the mill Now cease from work and from these toils be still; Sleep now till dawn and let the birds with glee Sing to the ruddy morn, on bush and tree; For what your hands performed so long, so true, Ceres[15] has charged the water-nymphs to do; They come, the limpid sisters, to her call, And on the wheel with das.h.i.+ng fury fall; Impel the axle with a whirling sound And make the ma.s.sive millstone reel around And bring the floury heap luxuriant to the ground.
Nothing can be simpler than the water-mill described above; it was the old mill of the upper and nether millstones, the old hand mill turned by water. That was all. Yet, as simple as it was, many centuries pa.s.sed after its invention before a new principle in flour making was discovered. There were inventions for lowering and raising the stone so as to grind finer or coa.r.s.er as might be desired, and there were improvements in the kind of water wheels employed, and better methods of sifting the flour from the bran were discovered from time to time, but the water-mill invented in the time of Julius Caesar remained practically unchanged until the early part of the nineteenth century, when the last step in the development of the mill was taken.[16]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13.--AN EARLY FLOUR ROLLER-MILL.]
About 1810 millers in Austria, more particularly those in Vienna, began to grind their grain by pa.s.sing it between two horizontal rollers (Fig.
13). The rollers were spirally grooved and turned toward each other.
There was a wide difference between this process and the one to which the world was accustomed, yet the new method was found to be better than the old one. Austrian flour and Austrian bread became famous. The delicious Vienna bread on our tables of course has never seen Vienna. It is called ”Vienna bread” because it is made out of a kind of flour which was first ground in the Austrian capital. The Austrian way of grinding grew rapidly into favor among millers everywhere. In the United States where there was so much wheat to be ground the roller process was taken up eagerly and improved upon as only Americans know how to improve upon an idea. In the flour mills of the West the grain was soon pa.s.sing through a series of rollers. By the first pair of rollers the grain was simply cracked into pieces somewhat coa.r.s.e. Then after being bolted (sifted) it was pa.s.sed between a second pair of rollers and reduced to a greater fineness. Then it was bolted again and pa.s.sed between a third pair of rollers. The rolling and sifting continued until a practically pure flour was obtained. A pure flour is the modern miller's ideal. He wants a branless flour and a flourless bran. The old stone mill could not grind this kind of flour. Before the roller mill appeared there was always bran in the flour and flour in the bran.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14.--A MODERN FLOUR ROLLER-MILL.]
The invention of the flour roller-mill (Fig. 14) is the last step in the development of the mill. The roller process has almost entirely driven out all other processes. Now and then we see by the roadside an old fas.h.i.+oned mill with the upper and nether stone, but we seldom see one that is prosperous and thriving. Millers, like everybody else in these days, do business on a large scale and to make flour on a large scale they must use the roller-mill. Thus the hole in the rock in which a handful of grain was laboriously crushed has, through long ages of growth, become the great factory in which thousands of barrels of flour are made in a day.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Matthew xxiv, 41. In ancient times nearly all the grinding was done by women.
[15] Ceres was the G.o.ddess of grain.
[16] In the thirteenth century wind-power began to be used for turning mills, and in some countries windmills were as common as water-mills.
THE LOOM
Have you ever seen a loom? It would not be a wonder if you have not. In these days the average person seldom sees one. Everyone knows in a vague sort of way that clothes and carpets are made of wool or silk or cotton, as the case may be, and that they are woven upon an instrument called a loom. This is about as much as we usually know about the clothes we wear or the carpets we walk upon. We buy these things from the store and that is all there is to it. In the olden times, and not so very long ago either, everybody knew something about weaving, at least every girl and woman knew something of the art, and a loom was as familiar an object in the household then as a sewing machine is now.
Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles Scarlet and blue and green, with distaff spinning the golden Flax for the gossiping loom, whose noisy shuttle within doors Mingled their sounds with the whir of the wheels and the songs of the maidens.
This picture of home life in Acadia two hundred years ago would have served as a picture of home life almost everywhere in the civilized world. From the beginning of history until modern times most of the weaving was done by the women in the home.
The earliest practical weaver on record is the spider and it may be that man learned his first lesson in weaving from this skilled little workman (Fig. 1); or the beautiful nest of the weaver-bird may have given to human beings the first hints in the weaving art. Whoever may have been his teacher, it is certain that man learned how to weave in the earliest stages of existence. It is thought that his first effort in this direction consisted in making cages for animals and wiers (traps) for catching fish (Fig. 2) by interlacing vines or canes or slender boughs.
The next step was taken when women began to make baskets and cradles and mats by interlacing long slender strips of wood (Fig. 3).
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1.--THE FIRST LESSON IN WEAVING.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.--A WIER TRAP OF THE VIRGINIA INDIANS.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3.--PRIMITIVE BASKET MAKING.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4.--THE PRIMITIVE LOOM.]