Misplaced Pages

#294705

88-405: Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills , used for triturating , crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones . Millstones come in pairs: a stationary base with a convex rim known as the bedstone (or nether millstone ) and a concave -rimmed runner stone that rotates. The movement of

176-641: A few quarries. In France, millstones from Cap d'Agde supplied Languedoc and Provence ; further north, quarries from the Massif Central ( Volvic ) supplied a vast territory stretching from Aquitaine to the Helvetic valleys ; finally, from the Saône valley to the German border, millstones came mainly from Eifel quarries ( Mayen ). In Europe as a whole, the hand mill remained the main milling method until

264-462: A fluted drum turns around a vertical mast like the section of a column. This type of mill is more common and can be found on many sites, even in recent times. Gristmill The Greek geographer Strabo reports in his Geography a water-powered grain-mill to have existed near the palace of king Mithradates VI Eupator at Cabira , Asia Minor , before 71 BC. The early mills had horizontal paddle wheels, an arrangement which later became known as

352-514: A given region. Some examples feature flatter wheels, with a much reduced taper, which reduces the stone mass. The speed of rotation became higher, providing a greater gyroscopic effect , but also requiring the installation of a system of claws fixed with molten lead on the upper side of the movable wheel, to hold it in place around the pivot. Romanization led to the widespread use of hand mills, which were perfected in terms of volume by increasing diameter and reducing height and weight. The profile of

440-471: A hard envelope such as a shell or bone is broken open to recover its contents, in this case, the aim is to reduce a much softer material to a powder or paste. Depending on the place and time, millstones were used for "dry" grinding: in the manufacture of flour , sugar , or spices , but also for the preparation of kaolinite , cement , phosphate , lime , enamel , fertilizer , and other minerals . The milling operation can also be carried out "wet", as in

528-478: A horizontal axis rotating around a vertical pivot (1, columella ). This pivot rests on a short stone column ( milliarium ) at the center of a large hemispherical mortar (4). The lying millstone is a stone vat (4, mortarium ) whose walls follow the external profile of the two common millstones. The orbs can move in a circular motion inside the mortarium , and are set in motion by the action of two wooden handles (2, modioli ). Wooden wedges ( orbiculi ) inserted between

616-413: A husk. This foundation isolated the building from vibrations coming from the stones and main gearing and also allowed for the easy re-leveling of the foundation to keep the millstones perfectly horizontal. The lower bedstone was placed in an inset in the husk with the upper runner stone above the level of the husk. American inventor Oliver Evans revolutionized the labor-intensive process of early mills at

704-477: A key role in Mexican cuisine . Dry grinding is possible, but very few recipes are produced in this way: roasted coffee , roasted corn or beans , salt , sugar loaves, and cocoa are ground into powder. But most preparations require grinding with water. Fruits are ground into juices, beans or boiled vegetables, ingredients are added to various spicy sauces and, above all, corn is used to make the tortillas that form

792-412: 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 distance between the stones can be varied to produce the grade of flour required; moving the stones closer together produces finer flour. This process, which may be automatic or controlled by the miller, is called tentering . The grain is lifted in sacks onto

880-524: A new gesture, that of grinding from front to back, with both hands, which implies a new posture for the body, kneeling in front of the millstone. The appearance of large, asymmetrical, shaped millstones ( Mureybet , Sheikh Hassan, circa 10,000 BP) led to the "saddle-shaped" millstones still known today as the metate . At the Tell Abu Hureyra archaeological site, as early as the 8th millennium BC, women's skeletons show traces of osteoarthritis in

968-586: A percentage called the "miller's toll". Early mills in England were almost always built by the local lord of the manor and had the exclusive right (the right of mulcture ) to a proportion on all grain processed in the community. Later, mills were supported by farming communities and the miller received the "miller's toll" in lieu of wages. Most towns and villages had their own mill so that local farmers could easily transport their grain there to be milled. These communities were dependent on their local mill as bread

SECTION 10

#1732775794295

1056-472: A practice that persisted in some villages until the mid-20th century. The use of metal tools, probably inherited from building stonemasons, made it possible to use the hardest basalts, resulting in millstones with a lifespan of over thirty years. While the manufacture of apod millstones from blocks of stone naturally polished in a riverbed was once within the reach of many farmers, the production of tripode metates requires specialized craftsmanship. Grinding plays

1144-615: A single seed, that remain on the tree for a long period. The doum palm is native to the northern half of Africa. It is widespread in the Sahel and grows from Mauritania and Senegal in the west, through Central Africa , and east to Egypt , Kenya , Somalia and Tanzania . It tends to grow in areas where groundwater is present and is found along the Nile River in Egypt and Sudan , in riverine areas of northwestern Kenya , and along

1232-436: A slight gap is maintained between the two millstones. The running wheel pivots around a wooden axle embedded in the standing wheel, and it is thanks to its suspension on this axle that the gap between the two wheels is ensured. This type of millstone could be powered either by two or four men, or by animal rides, hence its name mola asinaria , literally "donkey mill". An example of this type of millstone can be found as early as

1320-434: A system that allows the sequential milling of these grists, noting that "a mill, thus constructed, might grind grists in the day time, and do merchant-work at night." Over time, any small, older style flour mill became generally known as a gristmill (as a distinction from large factory flour mills). Modern mills typically use electricity or fossil fuels to spin heavy steel, or cast iron, serrated and flat rollers to separate

1408-461: A three-lobed feed opening. The more sharply tapered inner surfaces of the millstones ensured that the grains flowed more quickly under the effect of gravity, but the quality of the flour obtained remained mediocre. On the other hand, the effort required to operate the current millstone is considerable. The profile of the millstones makes them more difficult to cut, imposes a standardization of the millstones, and explains their diffusion and maintenance in

1496-439: A two-handed wheel, called a " mano ", whose size generally exceeds the width of the millstone and which is driven in an alternating rectilinear motion. On tripod wheels, one of the legs is slightly higher than the other two, giving the whole unit an inclination, with the user standing in front of the highest part. The manufacture of millstones was essentially a male occupation. In pre-Hispanic times, millers used only stone tools,

1584-473: Is a native to the Arabian Peninsula and also to the northern half and western part of Africa where it is widely distributed and tends to grow in places where groundwater is present. The doum palm is a dioecious palm and grows up to 17 m (56 ft) high. The trunk, which can have a girth of up to 90 cm (35 in), branches dichotomously and has tufts of large leaves at the ends of

1672-614: Is found in northern Australia, at the Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land , dating back around 60,000 years. Grinding stones or grindstones, as they were called, were used by the Aboriginal peoples across the continent and islands, and they were traded in areas where suitable sandstone was not available in abundance. Different stones were adapted for grinding different things and varied according to location. One important use

1760-615: Is probably the Barbegal aqueduct and mill where water with a 19-metre fall drove sixteen water wheels , giving a grinding capacity estimated at 28 tons per day. Water mills seem to have remained in use during the post-Roman period. Manually operated mills utilizing a crank-and-connecting rod were used in the Western Han dynasty . There was an expansion of grist-milling in the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Persia from

1848-493: Is usually rectangular, sometimes oval, with a central hopper parallel to the long sides, designed to receive the grain to be ground. The mill is capped by a horizontal axle attached to a pivot (1) on one side of the table, the other end being operated by a worker who moves the lever (2) back and forth horizontally. The Olynthus mill thus shows the beginnings of mechanization, with millers now standing on their feet, making work easier. This type of mill certainly appeared as early as

SECTION 20

#1732775794295

1936-963: The Classical era , used to grind ore in the Laurion mines , although it did not overtake the less efficient reciprocating millstone. Despite its qualities, it didn't really spread throughout the Roman world until later. They were found throughout the Mediterranean basin , but never in very large numbers, except in Italy. Their very high cost - 1,250 denarii in the Late Roman period, compared with 250 denarii for hand millstones - meant that they were only used by millers and bakers. In Gaul , millstones are known from Lyon , Saint-Raphaël , Paris , Amiens and Clermont-Ferrand , all fashioned from basalt from

2024-755: The Ebro River in Spain is associated with the Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda , built by the Cistercian monks in 1202. The Cistercians were known for their use of this technology in Western Europe in the period 1100 to 1350. Although the terms "gristmill" or "corn mill" can refer to any mill that grinds grain, the terms were used historically for a local mill where farmers brought their own grain and received ground meal or flour, minus

2112-608: The Gravettian period onwards (circa 29,000 years), this equipment became more diversified, with the appearance of new types of tools such as millstones and pestle grinders. At the end of the Palaeolithic , millstones from Wadi Kubbaniya (Middle East, 19,000 B.C.) were involved in dietary processes and associated with residues of tuberous plants, which were known to require grinding before consumption, either to extract their toxins ( Cyperus rotundus , nutsedge), or to remove

2200-543: The Kebarian ( Ohalo II , 19,000 BC). As tools improved, the material was increasingly finely ground, but only when it became a real powder could we speak of grinding. Thus, the men of the European Upper Paleolithic were already dissociating grinding and milling , as attested by the appearance at this time of the first grinding slabs used with grinders or millstones. While there is no evidence of

2288-583: The Kebarian and Natufian periods. It gradually evolved into the heavy, generally wooden, thrown pestle. This type of equipment is still used today in many regions, such as in Ethiopia for milling millet. The appearance of flat, elongated millstones in the Natoufian period ( Abu Hureïra on the Euphrates ) dates back to the 9th millennium BC. They feature larger active surfaces and mark the emergence of

2376-580: The Mesolithic and Neolithic eras, with the domestication of plants, much larger, fully formed grinding, pounding, and milling equipment appeared. From the Natufian onwards, several types of millstones can be found side by side, such as the deep "trough-shaped" millstone or the flat millstone, indicating a specialization of their function. In the Near East , the pestle-grinder began to be developed in

2464-483: The Roman Empire by the end of the first century BC, and these were described by Vitruvius . The rotating mill is considered "one of the greatest discoveries of the human race". It was a very physically demanding job for workers, where the slave workers were considered little different from animals, the miseries of which were depicted in iconography and Apuleius ' The Golden Ass . The peak of Roman technology

2552-438: The bran and germ from the endosperm . The endosperm is ground to create white flour, which may be recombined with the bran and germ to create whole grain or graham flour . The different milling techniques produce visibly different results, but can be made to produce nutritionally and functionally equivalent output. Stone-ground flour is preferred by many bakers and natural food advocates because of its texture, nutty flavour, and

2640-453: The catillus (runner millstone), the Romans were able to overcome this constraint with the animal-drawn Pompeian mill , also known as the "blood" mill . In this mill, the nether millstone is conical at the top and the runner millstone looks like an hourglass , with its lower half covering the conical top of the nether millstone. The upper part of the runner millstone acts as a funnel , and

2728-426: The milliarium and the columella are used to adjust the height of the orbs above the bottom of the vat. In this system, the olives are not crushed under the millstone, but between the millstone and the sides of the vat. As in the previous model, a gap was maintained between the two millstones. The resistance offered by the fruit forces the stone half-spheres to turn slightly on their axis; the two movements combine and

Millstone - Misplaced Pages Continue

2816-413: The sack floor at the top of the mill on the hoist . The sacks are then emptied into bins, where the grain falls down through a hopper to the millstones on the stone floor below. The flow of grain is regulated by shaking it in 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

2904-488: The " Norse wheel ", as many were found in Scandinavia. The paddle wheel was attached to a shaft which was, in turn, attached to the centre of the millstone called the "runner stone". The turning force produced by the water on the paddles was transferred directly to the runner stone, causing it to grind against a stationary " bed ", a stone of a similar size and shape. This simple arrangement required no gears , but had

2992-543: The 3rd century AD onwards, and then the widespread expansion of large-scale factory milling installations across the Islamic world from the 8th century onwards. Geared gristmills were built in the medieval Near East and North Africa , which were used for grinding grain and other seeds to produce meals . Gristmills in the Islamic world were powered by both water and wind. The first wind-powered gristmills were built in

3080-592: The 9th and 10th centuries in what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. The Egyptian town of Bilbays had a grain-processing factory that produced an estimated 300 tons of flour and grain per day. From the late 10th century onwards, there was an expansion of grist-milling in Northern Europe. In England, the 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

3168-570: The Eifel, Volvic or Cap d'Agde. During the Late Antiquity, the donkey mill retreated, probably disappearing after the 5th century as a result of the expansion of the watermill, then the windmill , except in Sardinia , where it remained until the 20th century. The Hellenistic period also saw the appearance of the olive crusher, which the Romans called the trapetum . Legend has it that it

3256-548: The Greek Konstantinos Kourouniotis elucidated the workings of the hopper millstone, which played an important role in ancient Greece . In the Olynthus mill, the nether millstone(4) is rectangular, resting on a table (5); it measures between 0.42 m and 0.65 m in length, 0.36 m to 0.54 m in width and 0.08 to 0.25 m in thickness. The grinder, which forms the upper millstone (common millstone (3)),

3344-588: The Greek world was confirmed by the discovery, in 1967, of 22 hopper mills in the cargo of a ship wrecked off Kyrenia , dated to the end of the 4th century BC. Increasing demand undoubtedly led to standardization in manufacturing and specialization of production centers. For example, flat Argolidian millstones, made of andesite and rhyolite , were produced from local quarries ( Isthmus of Corinth , Saronic Gulf ), while grinders came from more distant quarries (islands of Nysiros , Milos ). The use of this type of mill

3432-775: The Niger River in West Africa. It is also native to the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula ( Israel , Sinai , Yemen and Saudi Arabia ) and is reportedly naturalized in the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean . It grows in wadis and at oases , but sometimes occurs away from water and on rocky hillsides. It dislikes waterlogged soils and is very resistant to destruction by bushfires. The doum palm flourishes in hot dry regions where little else grows and

3520-407: The Roman period (1st century-2nd century). These mills consist of a truncated cone-shaped standing millstone and a convex grinding ring to which the wooden machinery is connected, apparently operated without the aid of animal power. In this arrangement, the grinding ring is fitted onto the lying millstone. The Volubilitan olive millstone differs from the grain millstone by having oblique striations on

3608-524: The Syrian-Egyptian region ", " simultaneously in Spain and England " for others, and even though it was found in China in the 1st century BC. According to L.A. Moritz, the rotating grain mill only appeared in the first century BC. He bases his demonstration on Latin texts, in particular those of Plautus and Cato , and fixes the introduction of this type between the time of Plautus' death in 184BC and

Millstone - Misplaced Pages Continue

3696-587: The activity in which it participated. Neanderthal people were already using rudimentary tools to crush various substances, as attested by the presence of rudimentary grinders at the end of the Mousterian and millstones in the Châtelperronian . From the Aurignacian period onwards (around 38,000 years ago), Cro-Magnon man regularly used millstones, elongated grinders, and circular wheels. From

3784-484: The basis of every meal. The latter are made from nixtamal , i.e. dry corn kernels cooked with lime, then rinsed with water, which softens the kernels and produces a paste. Maize or nixtamal can be ground for preparations other than patties: tamales , pozole , atole , pinole , and masa , with variations in the fineness of the grind depending on the use. The metate was used exclusively by women, and in Mixtec lands ,

3872-570: The beginning of the 5th century BC. Its use was widespread throughout the Greek civilization in the 4th century B.C., from Macedonia to the Peloponnese , and was adopted as far afield as the islands of Anatolia , Egypt , and modern-day Syria . It continued into the 1st century B.C., and sometimes even later, as the excavations at the Agora in Athens suggest. The importance of this mill type for

3960-901: The belief that it is nutritionally superior and has a better baking quality than steel-roller-milled flour. It is claimed that, as the stones grind relatively slowly, the wheat germ is not exposed to the sort of excessive temperatures that could cause the fat from the germ portion to oxidize and become rancid, which would destroy some of the vitamin content. Stone-milled flour has been found to be relatively high in thiamin, compared to roller-milled flour, especially when milled from hard wheat. Gristmills only grind "clean" grains from which stalks and chaff have previously been removed, but historically some mills also housed equipment for threshing , sorting, and cleaning prior to grinding. Modern mills are usually "merchant mills" that are either privately owned and accept money or trade for milling grains or are owned by corporations that buy unmilled grain and then own

4048-601: The branches. The bark is fairly smooth, dark grey and bears the scars of fallen leaves. The petioles (leaf stalks) are about a metre long, sheathing the branch at the base and armed with stout upward-curving claws. The leaves are fan shaped and measure about 120 by 180 cm (47 by 71 in). Male and female flowers are produced on separate trees. The inflorescences are similar in general appearance, up to about 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) long, branching irregularly and with two or three spikes arising from each branchlet. Female trees produce large woody fruits, each containing

4136-449: The case of durum wheat semolina , nixtamal , or the grinding of mustard seeds . During preparation, some raw materials produce a naturally fluid paste, as in olive crushing or cocoa grinding. In his typology of percussion, André Leroi-Gourhan defines several families of gestures, three of which are essential for the preparation of raw materials: Until the invention of the watermill , mills operated using "strength-powered", i.e.

4224-612: The composition of De agri cultura , around 160 BC. Several types of mills can be identified in Europe, depending on the morphology of the millstones used in these manually operated rotary mills. The Celtic mill is made up of massive millstones, with a conical external profile and virtually flat active stone surfaces. In Dacia , between the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D., the Celtic mill evolved into an intermediate type with two millstones superimposed and integrated, featuring

4312-422: The countryside, owned by municipalities, cooperatives or private individuals. However, still in use today, nether millstones are still part of Mexico's rural heritage. The town of Olynthus was destroyed in 348 BC by Philip II of Macedonia , and the name " Olynthus millstone, Olynthus grinder, Olynthus mill " has come to be attached to this type of mill, which represents a genuine technical revolution . In 1917,

4400-436: The disadvantage that the speed of rotation of the stone was dependent on the volume and flow of water available and was, therefore, only suitable for use in mountainous regions with fast-flowing streams. This dependence on the volume and speed of flow of the water also meant that the speed of rotation of the stone was highly variable and the optimum grinding speed could not always be maintained. Vertical wheels were in use in

4488-714: The driving mechanism of the mill ( wind , water (including tide ), or other means). Often referred to as the "oldest industry", the use of the millstone is inextricably linked to human history. Integrated into food processes since the Upper Palaeolithic , its use remained constant until the end of the 19th century, when it was gradually replaced by a new type of metal tool . However, it can still be seen in rural domestic installations, such as in India , where 300 million women used hand mills daily to produce flour in 2002. The earliest evidence for stones used to grind food

SECTION 50

#1732775794295

4576-478: The end of Antiquity, and then throughout the Middle Ages ; it only began to give way to the advances of water and then wind mills. With a diameter limited to the reach of an arm's movement, i.e. 40 to 70 cm, the hand mill could only produce a limited quantity of flour and was therefore essentially reserved for domestic use. By increasing the diameter and, above all, the height of the meta (nether millstone) and

4664-654: The end of the eighteenth century when he automated the process of making flour. His inventions included the Elevator, wood or tin buckets on a vertical endless leather belt, used to move grain and flour vertically upward; the Conveyor, a wooden auger to move material horizontally; the Hopper Boy, a device for stirring and cooling the newly ground flour; the Drill, a horizontal elevator with flaps instead of buckets (similar to

4752-471: The fibrous texture that would make them indigestible ( Scirpus maritimus ). The rhizomes of ferns and the peel of the fruit of the doum palm , also found on this site, benefit from being ground to improve their nutritional qualities; they thus complemented the meat diet of hunter-gatherers . Grinding barley or oat seeds was practiced at the end of the Upper Palaeolithic ( Franchthi ) or

4840-401: The flour produced. One common pest found in flour mills is the Mediterranean flour moth . Moth larvae produce a web-like material that clogs machinery, sometimes causing grain mills to shut down. Hyphaene thebaica Hyphaene thebaica , with common names doum palm (Ar: دوم) and gingerbread tree (also mistakenly doom palm ), is a type of palm tree with edible oval fruit. It

4928-490: The force of animals or people. The metate is a nether millstone for domestic use, for grinding corn . It has been used for several thousand years (around 3000 BC) in the cultural area of Mesoamerica , and its name comes from the Nahuatl " metatl ". Today's millstones are monolithic, usually made of basalt , apodous, or tripod, rectangular, and slightly concave on the grinding surface. These millstones are associated with

5016-481: The germinated seeds are also eaten as a vegetable. In Egypt , the fruit is sold by snack street vendors, and in herbalist shops. It is popular among children, gnawing its sweet yet sour hard fibrous flesh beneath the shiny hard crust. Occasionally, its pulp is roasted with sugar and made into a cold summer drink, similar to how Carob drink is made in Egypt. In Diu , Una and Saurashtra region of Gujarat (India),

5104-563: The handle of a millstone in Korea was made from an ash tree, the process for making a handle from the ash tree was known as "Mulpure-namu". To ensure that everything is "all right" with the creation of a millstone, a mason within ancient Kora offered food and alcohol in a ritual. Millstones were introduced to Britain by the Romans during the 1st century AD and were widely used there from the 3rd century AD onwards. In 1932-1933 in Ukraine, during

5192-418: The installation of the double lever or the use of a crank fixed to the center of the millstone (14th - 15th centuries), meant that this type of hand mill was used in the countryside until the 20th century. Because they wear more quickly, this type of millstone requires a stricter selection of stones, among which basalt has a privileged place. Most of the stone used in Roman times seems to have come from just

5280-510: The knees, spinal deformity and deformation of the first metatarsal , pathologies associated with long periods of bending while grinding, supporting the theory that early humans practiced a sexual division of labor . In India, millstone ( Chakki ) were used to grind grains and spices. These consist of a stationary stone cylinder upon which a smaller stone cylinder rotates. Smaller ones, for household use, were operated by two people. Larger ones, for community or commercial use, used livestock to rotate

5368-497: The man-made famine known as Holodomor , the Soviet authorities prohibited the use of millstones, claiming that a millstone is a "mechanism for enrichment" (which was a negative term in Soviet communist ideology). This forced Ukrainian villagers to hide their manually-operated millstones and use them secretly during the famine. In response, Soviet authorities regularly searched villages for "illegal" millstones and destroyed them. In 2007,

SECTION 60

#1732775794295

5456-442: The milling of wild cereals in the early Upper Paleolithic, at least in Europe, there is no reason not to believe that other plant matter ( acorns , nuts , hazelnuts , etc.) and animal matter ( fat ) were already being ground into paste before cooking. Similarly, it's likely that millstones were being used at this time for technical purposes, to crush mineral substances ( dyes ) and certain plant or animal fibers for technical use. In

5544-410: The millstones became flatter, and a number of improvements were introduced, such as an upper wedge to center the movable wheel on the pivot. A device for adjusting the distance between the millstones (the anille ) also appeared, enabling grinding quality to be controlled (1st century B.C.), and radii cut into the millstone could accentuate the natural abrasiveness of the stone. Later developments, such as

5632-496: The old wheel mills. In most wheel-driven mills, a large 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 around 10 rpm . The millstones themselves turn at around 120 rpm . They are laid one on top of

5720-414: 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 turning to drive other machinery. This might include driving

5808-580: The people of Victorivka village in Cherkasy Oblast built a monument using the millstones they had managed to hide and save from the Soviet plunder during the Holodomor . The preparation of vegetable products ( roots , tubers , almonds , leaves , etc.), animal products ( marrow , tendons , etc.), or mineral products ( ochre ) by grinding or milling, for consumption or technical use, has existed for several dozen millennia. Unlike crushing, in which

5896-590: The place where the millstone is located was a space reserved for women. A couple often acquires, or is given, a millstone when they set up home. This acquisition represents a major expense in the life of a Mixtec peasant, as evidenced by the wills of nobles and wealthy peasants from the 16th to 18th centuries, which included metates. Daily tortillas are made from sufficiently moistened corn dough , which, unlike flour, cannot be preserved. This technical characteristic no doubt explains why domestic metates were not replaced centuries ago by mills, as they were in Europe. During

5984-418: The present state of Victoria used grinding stones to crush roots, bulbs, tubers , and berries, as well as insects, small mammals, and reptiles before cooking them. Careful examination of Paleolithic grinders ( pebbles , wheels , mortar and pestle, etc.) enables us to determine the nature of the action exerted on the material and the gesture performed; the function of the tool can then be specified, as well as

6072-507: The pressure is exerted only moderately, without breaking the stones, which would give bad taste. The resultant pulp could then be subjected to the action of a press to collect the oil. A melting pot of African, Eastern and Mediterranean civilizations, Morocco has preserved tools and techniques from different eras. The Volubilis site, located in Mauritania Tingitana (northeastern Morocco), features grain and olive mills from

6160-418: The process. Evans himself did not use the term gristmill to describe his automatic flour mill, which was purpose designed as a merchant mill (he used the more general term "water-mill"). In his book his only reference to "grist" (or "grists") is to the small batches of grain a farmer would bring in to have ground for himself (what would be generally called barter or custom milling). In his book, Evans describes

6248-406: The rotating millstone spread at the end of the 5th century BC from Spain, and that it was directly derived from attempts to perfect the Olynthus mill. André Leroi-Gourhan states that " the transformation of rectilinear reciprocating motion into circular-continuous motion leads to another form of milling ". Some authors do not agree on its geographical origin, located for some " towards Carthage and

6336-558: The ruins of the town of Olynthus : it was the millstone of an oil mill , not a flour mill. Historians Marie-Claire Amouretti and Georges Comet point out that these millstones pre-date the earliest known examples of circular grain mills. So it was probably through oil production that the first rotary crushing machine was introduced. Cereals and other fruits and seeds followed. The oldest rotating millstone are thought to have originated in Spain 2,500 years ago(600 BC - 400 BC). It seems that

6424-406: The runner on top of the bedstone creates a "scissoring" action that grinds grain trapped between the stones. Millstones are constructed so that their shape and configuration help to channel ground flour to the outer edges of the mechanism for collection. The runner stone is supported by a cross-shaped metal piece ( millrind or rynd) fixed to a "mace head" topping the main shaft or spindle leading to

6512-416: The runner stone from the outer rim of the stones and is fed down a chute to be collected in sacks on the ground or meal floor. A similar process is used for grains such as wheat to make flour, and for maize to make corn meal . In order to prevent vibrations from the millstones shaking the building apart, they were usually placed on a separate timber foundation, not attached to the mill walls, known as

6600-455: The size of peas, throw it into the millstones, in numerous lines, two or three people standing at each lever and grind it." Photius' version specifies " on either side " of the lever. It's also known as a "hand millstone", "arm millstone" or "moulinet", and in Latin as a " molendinum bracchis " or " molendinum manuale ". According to de Barry, the oldest circular stone millstone was unearthed in

6688-526: The tree is appreciated for the shade it provides. All parts of the tree are useful, but probably the most important product is the leaves. The fibre and leaflets are used by people along the Niger and Nile Rivers to weave baskets, such as in the material culture of the Manasir , mats, coarse textiles, brooms, ropes, string and thatch. The timber is used for posts and poles, furniture manufacture and beehives, and

6776-536: The tree is known as Hoka Tree and the red ripe edible fruit is known as Hoka . In the northern part of Nigeria, among the Hausa people , it is known as Goruba . In south-eastern Niger, its fruit pulp is known as bri and a traditional well-known millet pancake is made with this pulp as seasoning, called massan bri . A commercial drink in Niger, called Torridité Glacée , is made from this fruit, somewhat reminiscent in taste of ice coffee or milk chocolate. Apart from

6864-478: The tree provides wood for fuel. The leaf stalks are used for fencing and the fibre is used for textiles. Other products include fishing rafts, brooms, hammocks, carpets, buttons and beads. The doum palm fruit-dates are edible. In Eritrea its name is Akat , or Akaat in the Tigre language . The thin dried brown rind is made into molasses , cakes , and sweetmeats . The unripe kernels are edible. The shoots of

6952-410: The truncated surface of the lying millstone and on the inside of the grinding ring. Columella asserts that, to extract the oil, the millstones ( molae ) are more useful than the crusher ( trapetum ), as they can be lowered or raised according to the size of the fruit, so as to avoid crushing the stone. A second type of olive mill can be found on the same site, and consists of a monolithic vat on which

7040-582: The upper cylinder. Today a majority of the stone flour mills (Atta Chakki) are equipped with lower stone rotating and upper stone stationary millstones also called Shikhar Emery Stones which are made from abrasive emery grains and grits, with a binding agent similar to Sorel Cement. These stones are made from two types of emery abrasives - Natural Jaspar Red Emery or Synthetic Calcined Bauxite Black Emery. In Korea, there were three different millstones, each made from different materials, serving other purposes, such as threshing, grinding, and producing starch. Generally,

7128-605: The use of a conveyor but easier to build); and the Descender, an endless strap (leather or flannel) in a trough that is angled downward, the strap helps to move the ground flour in the trough. Most importantly, he integrated these into a single continuous process, the overall design later becoming known as the Automatic (or Automated) mill. In 1790 he received the third Federal patent for his process. In 1795 he published "The Young Mill-Wright and Miller’s Guide" which fully described

7216-521: The use of the fruit as food, juice is extracted from the young fruit and palm wine is prepared from the sap. Doum palm was considered sacred by the ancient Egyptians , and the seed was found in many pharaoh's tombs. On September 24, 2007, it was announced that a team of Egyptian archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass , discovered eight baskets of 3,000-year-old doum fruit in King Tutankhamun 's tomb. The fruit baskets were each 50 centimetres high,

7304-556: The wars of the 19th century and the Mexican Revolution of 1910 , Mexican armies were accompanied by women and metates to ensure the stewardship of the country; the Spanish conquest did not replace tortillas with bread - quite the contrary. At the end of the 19th century, the owners of the large plantations introduced motorized corn mills, which freed up female labor for the fields. From 1920 onwards, electric mills appeared in

7392-522: Was a staple part of the diet. Classical mill designs are usually water-powered , though some are powered by the wind or by livestock. In a watermill a sluice gate is opened to allow water to flow onto, or under, a water wheel to make it turn. In most watermills 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 wheel ). Later designs incorporated horizontal steel or cast iron turbines and these were sometimes refitted into

7480-440: Was for foods, in particular to grind seeds to make bread, but stones were also adapted for grinding specific types of starchy nuts, ochres for artwork, plant fibres for string, or plants for use in bush medicine , and are still used today. The Australian grindstones usually comprise a large flat sandstone rock (for its abrasive qualities), used with a top stone, known as a "muller", "pounder", or pestle . The Aboriginal peoples of

7568-602: Was invented by Aristaeus , and excavations at Olynthus have revealed examples dating back to the 5th century BC. The trapetum was precisely described by Cato the Elder, who gave us the technical names of all its parts. Excavations at Stabies, Pompeii , the villa at Boscoreale and in Roman Africa show that the system was widely used in ancient Rome and disappeared with it. The trapetum consists of two plano-convex millstones (3, orbes ), standing vertically, supported by

7656-441: Was not limited to grinding cereals, as the finds from Thasos or Lavrio suggest: it was also used to grind ore, so as to calibrate it for subsequent selection by washing. It may even have appeared in the mines of Pangaion Hills . The text by Agatharchides on the gold mines of Egypt in the 1st century B.C., transmitted by Photios and Diodorus , mentions a mill with a lever: "Women and older men then receive this ore crushed to

7744-474: 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 at around 17,000 by 1300. Limited extant examples of gristmills can be found in Europe from the High Middle Ages . An extant well-preserved waterwheel and gristmill on

#294705