Ted Hazen Looks at the Barnitz Mill
A. Roller Mill and Water Turbines Era: This is the last era of the Barnitz Mill's operation. The mill was powered by three water turbines. The smallest of the three that operated the corn mill was removed during the 1970's. The larger two turbines that operated the roller mill and flour mill remain. Turbines became popular because several turbines could be installed and the work (machinery) inside of the mill be divided up between a number of turbines. With a traditional single water wheel the entire load of the mill machinery would be dependent on the operation of a single water wheel. There were many makers of water turbines and generally the turbine salesmen over stated the practical uses of the turbines that they sold. Turbines tested in scientific laboratories for efficiency rating of turbines greatly fell short when these turbines were manufactured smaller and placed into small mills. In other words they work fine at large scale and with large dams but when manufactured smaller for the size of the average flour mill their efficiency greatly crashes. They work most effectively when their gates are wide open and they are drawing as much water as they can possibly use. The problem was that most of the time the stream did not have that amount of water for the turbines to work effectively. Much of the time an alternative power source had to be added to the mill or the mill was converted back to operate with a traditional water wheel. This is why the Fitz metal-steel I-X-L Overshoot Water Wheel manufactured by the Fitz Water Wheel Company of Hanover, Pennsylvania became so popular. They had a higher efficiency rating than any water turbine, and they did not have to have their gate wide open to be efficient (a quarter was enough). The big selling feature of a Fitz water wheel was that they would work on streams where a conventional water wheel or water turbine would not operate. The water turbine is a horizontal water wheel. It was developed in the 1840's by French engineers. The direct ancestor of the modern water turbine is the American tub mill. A tub mill is of horizontal wood (some of the later ones were made of metal) of the Norse Mill design. In America a round wooden tub, open on the top and bottom was placed around the water wheel to make them more efficient. These water wheels are terribly inefficient and when they are operating water would fly everywhere. The Norse Mill is a descendent of the earlier Greek Mill that was developed about 2 thousand years ago. This design was inspired by the Persian horizontal windmill that was developed about 3 thousand years ago. It was individuals interested in water power in Lowell, Massachusetts who first brought the early French turbines to American and afterwards the first American turbines began to be manufactured first in Lowell.
One of the two water turbines that is located in the Barnitz Mill is a Fitz Burnham Turbine, a register gate style of water turbine. I would guess this turbine was constructed between 1909 to 1922. The other is about an 1870's style of wicket gate water turbine. A good source of catalog source material is located at the Hagley Museum and Library, Post Office Box 3630, Wilmington, DE 19807-0630, (302) 658-2400. The Hagley Museum and Library web site (with its online catalog search engine) is at url: http://www.hagley.lib.de.us/ The trade catalogs are located in the Hagley Museum Library, and the paper archives (company records) are located in the "Soda House" building. August Wolf started the Wolf Company first in Philadelphia and then he moved the company to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In 1885 the company was manufacturing Wolf-Keiser Water Turbines. The company manufactured flour making machinery at least until World War II. From my personal experience Wolf Roller Mills (August Wolf Company, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) and Case Roller Mills (J.M. Case Company, Columbus, Ohio) were the best manufactured rollers mills ever produced. According to the flow diagram prepared for the the Barnitz Milling Company, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, "Milling Diagram," by the Wolf Company, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, drawing number 56, dated March 31, 1922,5 The flour mill in Barnitz Mill had the flour machinery: one Wheat Scourer, one Wetting Conveyor or two Tempering Bins, one Stock Bin, one Feed Governor, five Roller Mill Stands [7 inch by 16 inch rollers]. Of these roller stands, five were Break Rollers and five were Reduction Rollers, one Middlings Purifier, one Bran Duster, one Wonder Scroll [Middlings Regrinder], one McFreely Scroll [Middlings Regrinder], one Round Reel, one Plainsifter, three Dust Collectors, and one Roller Suction. This system would also include about a dozen flour elevators, at least two receiving elevators, conveyors, and chutes. This system produced four grades being: Flour, Straight Flour, Shorts, and Bran. This is all very straight forward and are very common pieces of milling machinery. They would not be too difficult to find like replacement pieces. The problems that some saw in using millstones for the milling of flour was that they needed constant dressing. Millstones on average need to be dressed once a month. After a pair of millstone grinds between 100 to 200 thousand pounds of grain, it takes between 12 to 14 hours to dress a pair of millstones and for a long period of time this job was done by itinerant millstone dressers. Others means of grinding grains were tried using a system of rollers. A Swiss engineer name Jacob Sulzberger is credited for being the inventor of the roller in the 1830's. These rollers were made of porcelain material or bisque, and the problem was that the abrasive quality of the grain break down the rollers in time. Mechwart in Budapest, Hungary, developed the first practical roller mill. Benoist, a French miller, installed a roller mill in his mill in 1830 using French Millstone material. It was this type of rollers that Ferdinand Schumacher used for introducing oat meal to his non-German neighbors in Akron, Ohio, in 1854, who they originally thought oats was only intend to feed animals. The Hungarian system of milling was introduced into America around 1876 to 1877. The reason it took so many years was that first the roller system in Hungary was not an automated process. Each machine was a separate step, and material had to be fed in by hand and collected, and then carried on to the next step. It was not until after the 1860's in Hungary was the system of chilled iron roller milling came into common practice. The first roller mills were noisy and gear driven. The first to adopt the Hungarian system of flour milling was the larger mills in Minneapolis. The improvement in flour making came with the introduction of the middlings purifier. One of the first purifiers was Paur's Middlings Purifier that was built and used in 1810 in Austria. The first practical modern middlings purifiers were developed in France by Perrigault in 1860. In 1870 Edmund N. La Croix introduced the first purifier to America. The change for the most part occurred in 1880 to 1881 when "New Process" milling adopted the roller mill in place of the millstone. The earlier system of milling was called "flat" or "American" milling. New process milling was developed in the late 1840's to early 1850's and it involved the regrinding of middlings on smaller pairs of millstones (middling stone). This flour was called "patient flour." It was not until the 1890's could it have been said that the roller mill had replaced the millstone in modern flour mills. What made the American roller mills such a success was their system of automation. The main problem with restoring the Barnitz Mill again to the roller system is the weight and vibration of the machinery. The roller stands, line shafts, gears, plainsifter and other pieces of machinery are very heavy and presently the structure would no longer take the weight of this machinery. Also the structure could not take the vibrations of the machinery if it were operating in the mill today. The vent stacks and roof dormer that are visible in the 1950 photograph of the mill showing the head race side (up stream south) of the building need not be returned. This was constructed to allow for the elevator line to be installed with the roller mills and the vent stacks are from dust collectors. The roof vent stacks are located in the mill building. These features need not be returned unless the Barnitz Mill was restored to the water turbine and roller mill era of operation.
B. Breast Shot Water Wheel and Millstone Era: The most common water wheel used in American industry from the mid-1700's until the 1840's was the breast shot water wheel. The same requirements along a stream for a breast shot water wheel also are the same requirements that are needed to operate a water turbine. This is why almost all breast shot water wheels were replaced by water turbines. Lowell, Massachusetts, saw the first installation of water turbines in America. One mill there continued to operate using a breast shot water wheel into the 1890's. A breast shot water wheel has almost the same efficiency as that of an overshot water wheel. It does not require as great of fall as an overshot water wheel and will operate more effectively in high flooding water backing up in a tail race than an overshot water wheel. A breast shot water wheel is most commonly used in falls of between 6 to 10 feet. These water wheels are constructed very similar to that of the overshot and pitch back design. Both often have elbow buckets. A breast shot is called a breast shot because behind and below where the water enters the water wheel is a breast or apron. These are usually fitted one inch away from the water wheel to retain the water in the buckets and make the water wheel more efficient. The wooden breast was most common in America. In England and Europe it was common to have a stone breast, extended along the lower curve of the water wheel just beyond its vertical center. The breast shot water wheel came in three different types: the middle, low and high breast shots. The middle and low breast shot water wheels had deeper buckets to deal with the increased volume of water required for the low head of water to develop power equivalent to that obtained by a high breast shot water wheel. A high breast shot water wheel would then have elbow buckets. A breast shot water wheel combined both the weight and impulse of the water in their operation, and these water wheel were larger in diameter and wider than many other water wheels. They were often well designed wheel that made them very popular with industry. The French millstones were quarried in and around La Ferte-sous-Jouarre near the town of Chalons in the Marne Valley of Northern France. The quarries were mainly active from about 1330 to 1940. The French millstone or burr stone is the best millstone material ever discovered for the grinding of wheat into white flour. It is made of a freshwater quartz. These millstones were imported into the American colonies as early as 1621 into Virginia. By the 1750's the French millstones became the great favorite of colonial millers particularly engaged in the merchant (export) business of flour manufacture. These millstones enable the American millers to produce white flour of comparable quality as that of the European mills. The two wars with Great Britain (the American Revolution and the War of 1812) cut off the supply of English Millstones so this increased the importation of French millstones. During this time the deposits of millstone material quarried from France, the stone size diminished so millstones could no longer be made of single millstone but now had to be constructed of blocks or "burrs," also spelled "buhrs." The French millstones are made up of pie shaped blocks cemented together with plaster of paris and held together with a metal band. These millstones should not be stored or placed outside. In time the weather will break them down and soon there will be only a pile of what used to be a millstone. Then the Napoleonic Wars increased the price of a barrel of flour so it increased the demand for white flour and more French millstones were imported to the United States. The United States was the largest importer of French millstones. There were more here than in France or anywhere else in the world. Here many firms were engaged in importing the blocks of the French stones, and making these blocks into complete millstones was for many years, an extensive industry. The advertisements by some of these millstone makers, in the American milling trade journals, claimed that they had their own men in constant attendance at the quarries in France. By having this personal supervision over the quarrying, the makers stated that only the very best quality burrs were selected for use in their millstones. A few of the firms engaged in building French millstones in the U. S. A. (Source: A paper entitle "Millstones, An Introduction," Notes by Charles Howell, no date) are listed as follows: In 1774. James Webb, Little Queen Street on the North River, New York City. 1791. G. Speth, New York. 1796. Samuel Wilson, 40 Cortland Street, New York City. 1797. Oliver Evans, 126 South Second Street, Philadelphia, Pa. In Leffel's Illustrated Milling & Mechanical News, January 1876, there were advertisements by the following millstone makers: Edward P. Allis & Co., Reliance Works, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Samuel Carey, No. 7 Broadway, New York City. William H. Dillingham, 143 Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky. Nordyke, Marmon & Co., Richmond, Indiana. Straub Mill Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. Other French millstone makers were B.F. Star in Baltimore, Maryland, Sprout Waldron & Company, Muncy, Pennsylvania, and Charles Ross & Sons, Brooklyn, New York. B.F. Star at one time claimed to have 2 thousand men working in French millstone quarries cutting blocks that would only be imported to the United States. The French millstones being approximately 4 foot in diameter is the average size for a pair of millstones. The average size of the time period in question ranged from 4 feet to 4 feet 6 inches. Millstones of earlier periods were larger and at time the average diameter of a millstone was 72 inches. Then they discovered that bigger is not necessarily better so that is when the average diameter became 48 inches. The millstones each have a case that is called the "Vat", horse, shoe, hopper and damsel. The shoes used in mills of the period of the mid to late 1700's would go around both sides of the damsel. Earlier shoes would have completely enclosed the damsel and only a round hole would be in the center of the shoe for the damsel to rotate in. The Blacksmith forged damsel is typical of the period for use on French millstones. They changed and evolved differently during the beginning to mid 1800's. The multi-sided opening in the top of the vat is also typical of the period and it also changed and evolved differently during the beginning to mid 1800's. During the mid to late 1700 many mills would have openings that were cut with multi-sides or fluted edges rather than the later round openings. The millstones on their hurst or husk frame is tentered in the manner typical to the period with a bridge tree and bray. The tentering is the process of adjusting the distance between the upper and lower millstones to adjust the coarseness or fineness of the grind. A tentering staff also called a "lighter staff" is connected to the bridge tree from the brayer. It is called the lighter staff because pulling down on this arm "lightens" the grinding effect of the millstones upon the grain. The lighter staff is controlled and held in position by a leather strap attached to the hurst frame and wind around the end of the arm several times and tucked over it self and hanging from the free end of the strap is a round (4 pound) wooden bottle (shape) weight. It appears in one of the later photos that the millstones were tentered with a tentering screw and hand wheel. Oliver Evans advocated this form of tentering system in mills to replace the traditional methods and would have been found in mills after the mid 1780's. There is a slot cut in the hurst frame for the ground meal to fall down a chute into the meal box. A twist peg is also found on the side of the hurst from above were the meal box would have been. In later mills after Oliver Evans they would have used the tentering screw, hand wheel and a twist peg found on the horse frame itself and there was no longer a need to maintain a long strap down the side of the hurst frame. In the book, "Historical Sketches of Dickinson Township," by Edith Logan and Barbara Barnitz Lillich, 1985, are several photographs of the Barnitz Mill. on page 32. the lower photograph show the mill from the northeast corner of the building. This photo clearly shows the detail of window trip around the Dutch doors, the two windows in the front gable next to that door underneath the sack hoist overhang hood. A small low dormer is located on the north roof in line with the millstones and hurst frame below. This would indicate a main vertical shaft in the mill that would extend to the attic area to operate the sack hoist and other machinery. Other pieces of machinery located in the attic would be the smutter, rolling screen and hopper-boy. The smutter draws in its air that it used in its operation from the floor below but the hopper-boy would require light and air to effectively operate. This is more than likely the reason that the mill had a low dormer only on one side of the building was because a hopper-boy was located in that general area. The hopper-boy, or cooler, was invented in the late 1700's by America's best known milling engineer and inventor, Oliver Evans. This mechanical device, once commonly found in the upper floor of mills, is no longer in use. It faded out of popularity less than 100 years after its invention. Designed to cool hot flour coming off the buhr stones, the hopper-boy was automated and more sanitary than the traditional method it replaced. This was one of the five inventions that were to make Oliver Evans famous to this day.
Our story begins in 1782 when Oliver Evans and his younger brother Joseph moved from Delaware to Tuckahoe, Maryland. Here they opened a store on the Eastern Shore. However, his two older brothers in Delaware were planning to run a mill. Because Oliver Evans had mechanical training and interests, he was charged by them to design the mill machinery. He began to inspect local Maryland large and small mills. Prompted by the current inefficient practices, he began to formulate his ideas for a completely automated flour mill. His efforts started with paper models of bucket elevators. He went on to build several devices which together became his new system of automated milling. After his September 1785 marriage to Sarah Tomlinson, Evans continued work on his revolutionary ideas and perfected the principle of the hopper-boy. By September 1785, after nearly two years work, the Evans brothers had invested in a mill on Red Clay Creek near Newport, Delaware. Their aim was to secretly revolutionize milling practices utilizing the devices Oliver Evans had labored so long to perfect. Bucket elevators, conveyors, drills, descenders, and the hopper-boy were built for the mill from models that Evans had perfected. The devices were concealed from the public, and the doors were kept locked while the interior was completely renovated. These mechanical devices would become the heart of the American, or flat grinding, system, still used by smaller, custom mills into the early 20th century. In the pre-Evans mill, millers or boys would carry freshly ground flour sacks up ladder like stairways to the top floor or attic of the mill. Sometimes it was hoisted up using ropes and buckets or sacks, and dumped on the floor where it was spread with a rake to cool and dry it. The miller's helper in this process was called the hopper-boy. The flour might remain on the floor for many hours, filling the loft with flour while waiting for the moisture to evaporate so it would not sour later. Egg laying insects loved it! After the flour was dried and cooled, it was bolted, where again it would be deposited in hoppers or bins to age and whiten. Evans invention cooled and raked the freshly ground flour mechanically: saving labor, time, and space; and, it did a better, more complete job. The hopper-boy was a much more difficult device to invent than the bucket elevator. Evans would later say, "Both to spread and gather at the same time then seemed absurd, and the discovery caused months of the most intensive thinking, for the absurd always presented itself to baffle and defer me!" In 1795, Evans wrote and published his famous classic, "The Young Mill-Wright and Miller's Guide" (reprint for sale in SPOOM's Bookstore) that would be reprinted three times during his lifetime, and in twelve more reprintings after his death. In his book he describes how to build his inventions. A Description of the Hopper-Boy: Ground wheat from the millstones would fall into a bucket elevator where it was raised to the hopper-boy on the upper floor. The hopper-boy was customarily enclosed within a circular or octagonal wall (not found in Evans original drawings or descriptions) that kept the flour confined. As refinements were made, these walls became more and more completely enclosing the device, however, this would defeat its purpose as it needed an exchange of air to complete its purpose. The miller's hopper-boy once worked in a room in the loft with a rake. But Evans hopper-boy would fill the loft with a shallow, circular tub which contained a revolving rake usually about 12 to 15 feet long. The actual size would depend on the capacity of the mill. The rake, with arms of soft poplar, was turned by a cog wheel, and it turned the flour over and over by the use of paddles. The flour was eventually swept by the device into a chute that directed it to the bolter below. The size of the rakes actual varied from 4 to 15 feet long. Smaller machines had one discharge hole to one bolter, while larger machine had two discharge holes feeding two bolters. In operation, the rake was attached to a central vertical shaft which effected the motion about 4 rpm's. To the shaft was attached a horizontal balance arm; the arm was pinned to the vertical shaft in the center. The rake itself would float upon the vertical shaft being governed by a counter weight that was tied with a rope at one end and ran up the vertical shaft through a pulley in the shaft to the rake at the opposite end. The rake had to be able to float to adjust to the volume of the flour dumped into the tub. The counter weight regulated the length of the time flour spent in the hopper-boy. The rake, always on top of the flour, moved the flour in a declining spiral to an off-center discharge hole, or holes. The action of the rake's paddles, or flights, turned the meal over many times before falling to the bolter. Other of Evans inventions were designed to move material horizontally or vertically through the mill. These were the elevators, the conveyors, the drill, and the descender. The elevator raised material vertically. It was an endless strap of (white) leather that revolved over two pulleys. To the strap were attached a number of equidistantly spaced small, wooded or metal cups. The conveyor was made of maple or smooth hardwood paddles that were attached to an endless screw and arranged in two continuous spirals. The device was placed in a wooden trough and was used to transport material horizontal through the mill. The drill is similar to the elevator and the conveyor in design. It has an endless strap, like the elevator, to which are attached blocks of popular or willow. Moving between two pulleys, the drill moves material horizontally along the bottom of a wooden case from machine to machine. The descender was a broad endless strap made of leather like an elevator, but moved freely over two pulleys with different elevations creating a slight downward slope. The descender operates by the weight of the material, much as water falls over a water wheel, rather than by some outside force. The material moves on top of the belt at a controlled rate, much like an assembly line conveyor belt. When Oliver Evans opened his automated mill on Red Clay Creek, it was seen by 5 Brandywine millers. J. Shiply exclaimed, "It will not do it, cannot do, it is impossible that it can do!" But he saw it with his own eyes, and millers of the era who declined to adopt Evans's hopper-boy were doomed to produce an inferior flour. Evans thought the most of his hopper-boy invention. He organized a company in Philadelphia which made and sold milling goods; however, they refrained for whatever reason from putting their name on their goods. Thus, it is impossible to prove that any Evans produced machinery exists today.
Early 19th Century Milling: In Evans's day, American millers used the old American or flat grinding system of milling. The fast turning millstones were set close together and placed a lot of pressure on the grain. They needed to be well dressed to do their job. The object was to produce as much flour as possible through one pass through the stones. Grind once, sift once was the rule. The meal would leave the stones hot and damp; the duller the stones, the hotter would be the flour. The bran was broken into fine particles, and the middlings turned into warm clumps which would clog the bolting cloths if not cooled before bolting. Hence the need for a device (or person) like the "hopper-boy." One explanation is that the name hopper-boy came from the saying meaning to "hop to it." The hopper-boy fell out of use with the coming of the high grinding, or gradual reduction process of milling that was popularized in the 1880's. In this method, the stones were set farther apart, and naturally produced a cooler flour. The flour was additionally cooled in the elevators as it was carried up through the floors in small cups. An adaption of the hopper-boy is still used in some coffee mills today to cool freshly roasted coffee beans before they are ground. Where is the Hopper-Boy Today? Hopper-boys can still be seen today. Remnants are occasionally found in attics with only the rakes, vertical posts, or tub circle remaining. The uninitiated do not realize what these devices did. Complete hopper-boys can be seen today at (1) Klines Mill south of Stephens City, Virginia. (2) Pierce Mill, Rock Creek Park, in Washington, D. C. where a hopper-boy from the Boxman Mill, Linesboro, Maryland was removed and reinstalled in the Pierce Mill by the Fitz Water Wheel Company on the 1930's. (3) Colvin Run Mill, Fairfax, Virginia has a reconstructed hopper-boy. (4) The Robbins Mill, Black Creek Pioneer Village, located just north of Toronto, Canada, has a reconstructed hopper-boy, and (5) the Hagley Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, has a working, miniature model of the hopper-boy in an Oliver Evans Mill model.7 A four pairs of millstones could supply flour for 8 bolters, 4 sifter box bin bolters in the basement and 4 bolters on the second floor.
C. Museum and Multi Usage Areas: A traditional wooden water wheel has a life time of 10 to 20 and possibly 30 years depending upon how it is cared for and regularly maintained. Wooden gear teeth can last up to 50 years ormore depending upon regular lubrication and how the gears are aligned. Wooden gear teeth if the gear faces are not aligned to each other will be worn away to uselessness in less than one day but if properly aligned and lubricated will last 50 or more years. The wooden faces of gears and arms can last 50 or more years. The main reasons these decay are lack of air, sunlight, flooding in the mill, dampness and water. If the mill is not operating and traditional machinery is installed as a static exhibit I would think they would last a great many years without presenting any problems. This building would be divided as followsinto the Museum and Multi Usage Areas: the museum would included milling machinery, and exhibits, and the multi usage areas would include the second floor of the mill and areas around the exterior of the building in the park. The basement would include the following mill machinery and museum items: possibly four meal boxes, four meal chutes from the millstones, four twist pegs, four Lighter staffs and bottle weights, and at least one sifter bin. This area would could include 1 or 2 tables for display items. On these tables could be displayed such items as the following: grain scoops, flour scoops, flour paddles, flour sacks and tie string (used in the mill), a flour barrel, a flour barrel branding iron and or stencils. Anything in this area (the front basement room) should be removable to higher level floors in case of flooding. A wooden barrel used for flour is constructed as a "dry" cooper. A dry cooper is different than that of a "wet" cooper. A wet cooper is meant to hold anything that is wet or a liquid. This would include: water, beer, wine, ale, molasses, rum, cider, tar, oils, etc. A wet cooper holds a liquid and the liquid will make the wooden barrels staves swell and may cause the barrel to leak. So a wet cooper has metal barrel hoops around it to prevent the barrel from leaking. A dry cooper does not present this problem, but there may be a problem if metal barrel hoops are used. The main method of moving a barrel is to tip it on its side and roll it. A flour barrel and a barrel of gunpowder would not use metal hoops because of the danger of striking a nail head and causing a spark. The dust from flour is more explosive than gun powder and it is 35 time more explosive than coal dust. A dry cooper is meant to hold flour, gunpowder, tobacco, salt, sugar, spices, paint pigments, etc. Laws required barrels to be of different sizes to hold different amounts of material. A flour barrel is required by law that the cooper had to make his barrels to hold 196 pounds of flour, and the miller also by law had to place 196 pounds of flour, or 14 stone, in each barrel of flour. A dry cooper for holding tobacco is called a "hogs head." it is much larger and would hold 500 pounds of tobacco. A dry cooper hoops are made of split ash hoops that are notched on the ends and interlocked together to form a barrel hoop. The hurst or husk frame area should represent the mill gears, millstone spindles, bridge trees and brays and the linkage for the lighter staffs, and should contain the inboard end of the water wheel shaft. This area of the gear pit can be lighted with spotlights so visitors can see into the area and it not be hidden in darkness. Visitors viewing into this area would only see the water wheel from the side. This means that only a side profile of a water wheel of approximately the proper size could be constructed or an entire water wheel constructed. The first floor can contain the following mill machinery and museum items, up to four pairs of millstones. One millstone should be complete and covered with all of its millstone furniture. This would include a hoop or vat, horse frame, shoe, damsel, and hopper. There should be one pair of millstones with the cover off showing the runner millstone sitting on the bed stone. This pair of millstones should be able to be turned by hand to show visitors the turning of the upper runner millstones and it should be able to be tentered. In other words, raised and lowered to show the adjustment between both millstones that regulates the coarseness or fineness of the grind. There should be one pair of millstones apart for millstone dressing. This would mean at least one millstone crane (the mill should have at least two a lifted runner stone off of the millstones spindle showing the grinding surface, a bed stone showing the grinding surface, and the tools used in millstone dressing (a proof staff, paint staff, mill pick or mill bill and thrift, furrowing stick or straight edge and brush). The final pair of millstones can be represented for interpretive proposes by two clear pieces of glass or plexiglass with the furrows of the bed and runner stones marked on each representing millstone. These stones can be viewed because of the back light from the basement that would show the crossing and scissors cutting action of the millstone furrows that does the grinding action. The first floor can contain the following mill machinery and museum items. In the area in front of the millstones to the second floor steps a scales bin for weighing the grain and a flour packer with a wooden flour barrel. This would be of the earlier Oliver Evans style of a long arm or lever that would compress the flour into a wooden barrel. The water wheel pit can be viewed from this area. It can be a whole or partially constructed water wheel. Who is to say that the mill could not represent a day in time where a new wooden water wheel is being installed in the mill. This would allow for the interpretation of all of the various parts of a breast shot water wheel. The wooden apron or breast could be seen that would normally be hidden, as well as, the water wheel shaft and gudgeons, water wheel arms, shrouding or rim boards, cant boards, buckets, drum boards. The process is then shown for constructing and making the parts with the various tools displayed. Several drawing of the complete water wheel could be represented on period parchment paper. The final item of the first floor mill machinery and museum items would be the miller's office. The chimney is restored with a period stove. The mill would be open during the warm months of the year and there should be no need for a stove that would function and present any fire problems with the structure or Fire Marshall inspection. In the office would be the miller's desk, ledgers, records, paper, writing materials such as feather quills and ink, tools, bench, books (a copy of "The Young Mill-Wright's & Miller's Guide"), supplies, aprons, scoops, stencils, barrel branding irons, new wooden gear teeth, lubricants, a water barrel and tin cup, hat and coat. The second floor can contain the a flour bolter (sifter) restored. the attic floor can contain a block and tackle mounted on the underside of the sack hoist hood above the Dutch doors. This is the last of the flour mill machinery items.
D. Conclusion And Interior Options: Several years ago I made an extensive tour of the grist mills of Perry County, Pennsylvania. My companion was the late Charles Howell (1926-1993). We used as a guide a small booklet on the mills of Perry County (a similar booklet is available on covered bridges), and the classic county history book: "Perry County Grist Mills, 1762-1978," by the late Eugene E. Eby, The Triangle Press Inc., Penbrook, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1978. Mr. Howell like myself was a master miller, millwright, milling consultant, and millstone dresser. Together we both have spent our lives working in both commercial and public flour and grist mills. Charlie and I had read both of these publications cover to cover, over and over again. It was not evident from our reading but after we both had begun to see a number of 1700's mills that were still standing in the county (at that time), we came to an interesting conclusion. The mills that we saw that were constructed in the 1700's before the improvements of Oliver Evans, they still had their characteristics of a pre-Oliver Evans mill with the millstones feeding to meal boxes, lighter staffs to tenter the millstones, and a sack hoist. These mills were constructed, operated and never saw the improvements brought about by Oliver Evans. The mills missed a stage in the development of flour milling and remained the same until the introduction of the roller milling process and the desire by the American household for Minneapolis style flour. I almost have the same gut feeling about Barnitz Mill. It was built in and around the time of Oliver Evans but it was a manual labor mill of the old "sack and back" method of flour milling. I believe that Barnitz Mill had 4 pairs of millstone feeding to meal boxes, lighter staffs to tenter the millstones, and a sack hoist. There was a vertical shaft in the mill that ran to the attic that operated a sack hoist and possibly flour bolters on the second floor. But the second floor was also full of grain and flour bins also. The attic may have been located underneath the eaves. The mill may have been full of manual labor that moved the grain and flour from place to place and the only automated device was the sack hoist. I could not find any evidence that the earlier operation of Barnitz (Weakly's) Mill had elevators. Removing some of the later fabric of the structure may reveal the presence of elevators and other things. Our educational and interpretive efforts in recent years has been increasingly moving towards a hands-on approach to education. When I worked for the National Park Service increasingly over the years when teachers would call and schedule a field trip they would ask if we had any hands-on items for the kids. The second floor could contain the following hand-on items: A table top model of a bolter. This small bolter would have plexiglass sides and contain one screen (window mesh) that would sift out a mixture of baby powder and saw dust. Baby powder would be preferable over plaster of paris because it does not lend itself to vandalism like something that can be wet and then turns hard like cement. A conveyor or auger can also be set up that can be operated by a crank. The bolter would show visitors how a mixture of the fine flour and coarser bran would be sifted or bolted apart by screens. A table top model of a elevator. A smaller than average size elevator that would use actual size elevator cups and belting and perhaps a conveyor or auger. It would have plexiglass sides and contain one elevator belt with cups turning over two wooden pulleys, a chute and conveyor, that would move a small size fish tank gravel. The gravel would represent either corn or wheat and not present health or insect problems if real grain was used. A mortar and pestle is one of the earliest forms of milling devices. It remained in common use into the modern era. A simple mortar can be made from a hollow tree section and a pestle fashioned out of a limb with a large burr on the end. Grain would be used in this hands on demonstration but discarded afterwards A quern. A quern is a simple form of rotary grist mill, consisting of a stationary lower bed millstone and an upper runner millstone usually rotated by hand with the aid of a stick or lever fastened to the upper stone in a hole. This was the first form of hand powered mill. It spread throughout Europe and most of the rest of the world. The quern shows how two millstones, one of them moving in a circular manner, could do a better job of milling and with less expenditure of muscle than any previous form of mill (such as saddle stone, mortar and pestle, etc). Within time animal power and then wind and water power was applied to turn the millstones. A pair of millstones can be purchased from the Meadows Mill Company, Meadows Mills, Inc., North Wilksboro, NC 1-800-626-2282. Then fashion the table and other simple parts needed to construct a quern. Real corn would have to be used (vacuumed up and tossed out at the end of the day). A corn sheller is a good hands on activity for school children. It should only be done under adult supervision and otherwise the corn sheller should be chained and locked or tied with a rope. Eared corn can be stored in trash cans with tight lids, and thrown out when finished. A vacuum cleaner is necessary to clean kernels from cracks in floor. Generally one ear of corn per student works best and allows then to shell their ear of corn. This can be combined with a table top grain mill. A variety of hand crank operated grain mills are on the market for sale that can be bolted to a table edge. They range from mills with metal burr or stone burr plates. A metal or wooden tub is placed under the grain mill. Allow the student to turn the handle several times to grind the grain. A simple hand sifter or "temse" is a hand sieve for dressing flour to make it fine by hand sifting. They are either round or square in form with an open top and bottom. On the bottom is attached either bolting cloth, screen or woven cloth. A simple one can be made for student use with 1 by 4 cut and assembled into an 12 by 12, or 18 by 18 inch square frame. A simple window screen from a hardware store is about the right size mesh (approximately 16 mesh) for sifting out corn and wheat bran. This can be stapled to the bottom and then the edge covered with thin strips of wood. The medieval German method of bolting was to put the ground material into a bag and the bag boy would beat the bag on a table and the fine flour would come through the weave of the bag and the larger coarser bran would remain inside. The next stage in Germany was tube milling, where a cloth sock or tub was attached to the millstones in place of a wooden chute. The other open end was attached to an outside wall of the mill usually over the tail race. The sack boy would hit the sock with a stick and the sifted flour would fall onto the floor while the larger bran would fall into the stream. This method advanced to an automated stick powered from the mill machinery during the American Colonial period. Another term that was developed for bolting was "flogging," because the flour was produced by a flogging method. In colonial America the term for flour sifting was spelled "boulting," and later the "u" was dropped from the word. A flail and winnowing basket. A simple flail can be constructed and a basket maker can make a winnowing basket or someone make a winnowing tray. A canvas drop cloth can be laid down on the second floor or outside of the mill on the ground to demonstrate the operation of a flail and winnowing basket. A simple flail can be easily made with two stick and a piece of rope. Sometimes a sheet was used for winnowing. Applied Science-Mechanics. There are many simple machines that are used in the mill that can be made into hands-on devices for visitors. Care must be taken so these devices are constructed so fingers do not get caught or crushed. Examples are the lever, the wedge, the incline plane, the screw, and different types if gears from spur gears, to lantern pinions, etc. All of these devices can be made into hands-on examples and then shown how they are actually used in the real mill. A good example of how these are exhibited can be found in the Miller's House at the Colvin Run Mill. You can write them for a copy of Applied Science-Mechanics program. Colvin Run Mill, Route 7 and 10017 Colvin Run Rd., Great Falls, Virginia 22066, 703-759-2771. There are several films that could be purchased and shown on 16mm film or video. One is "The Mill at Philipsburg Manor." It is a 20 minute film that shows the year-round operation of a colonial mill by the miller and his apprentices. This was filmed and produced by Sleepy Hollow Restorations, Sleepy Hollow, New York. "Waterground" is a 20 minute film that shows the operation of old time country mills, namely the Winebarger Mill located in Meat Camp, North Carolina, and White's Mill, Abington, Virginia. This is produced by Ashop Films of Kentucky. "I am Wheat" an animated film with a talking grain of wheat explains the operations of a flour mill and how wheat is sifted into different types of flour. This film is produced by Pyramid Films and the Miller's Federation in Washington, D.C. Others are available by the US Wheat. "Water Mills Monuments to the Past," is a 6 minute 40 second film that shows why water mills were important, why they disappeared and why they should be preserved. This film is produced by the education department of John Deere in Moline and it is part of a longer film called "Farming Frontiers." There are a number of other films that are available on 16mm or video format. American Lifestyles Series film entitled the "Grist Miller, Today and Yesterday." is a documentary film showing the Stillwater Grist Mill in Stillwater, New Jersey. A class room area can be set up on the second floor for films, puppet shows, volunteer functions, etc. Exhibits of Oliver Evans system of automated flour milling could be made of panels, also models of an Oliver Evans mill, millstone operation, different types of water wheels. A water wheel model would show different types of water wheels such as the undershot, breast shot and overshot. A number of good museum exhibits models can be seen at the Hagley Museum and Library, P.O. Box 3630, Wilmington, Delaware 19807-0630 (302) 658-2400. There are models of a Greek or Norse Mill, a cutaway of a pair of millstones with the runner millstone turning, a mill representing what it looked like before the improvements of Oliver Evans, an Oliver Evans Mill model, different types of water wheels operating in a series model, a cutaway of a water turbine, and a number of models relating to the gunpowder and textile industry. The pre-Oliver Evans model cost 50 thousand dollars and the Oliver Evans model cost 100 thousand dollars. It is in a glass case perhaps 5 feet high and 6 feet long and both models have complete moving parts. In Oliver Evans model has a button that can be pushed to show a series of red flashing lights following the path of grain and flour throughout the mill. These are models of extreme cost and in a museum setting and environment . Barnitz Mill does not have a museum environment for this category of models at this time. Barnitz Mill should have something more visitor friendly and more interactive with the visitor. An exhibit can be made from items (that can be donated) such as period flail, winnowing basket or tray, wheat cradle, and period tools used in grist mills such as ledgers, mill picks, small beam scales, hand truck, scoops, wooden grain shovel, etc. One or two female Mill Cats would go a long way in creating the atmosphere of a real mill. Since the mill would not grind grain for human consumption there should be no law preventing examples of rodent control running around the mill.
A Meadows stone buhr mill could be purchased new or used and used outside of the mill during festivals to grind grain. Their address is The Meadows Mill Company, 1352 West D Street, Post Office Box 1288, North Wilksboro, North Carolina 28659, (800) 626-2282, (336) 838-2282. They are also a source for Meadows Stone Buhr Mills, custom made millstones, mill picks (steel mill picks and carbide tipped mill picks). A design could be made and flour sacks printed up and used or sold as souvenir items at the mill. Suggestions for souvenir Items sold at the mill. Some items that could be sold at the mill are post cards (restored pictures of the exterior and interior of the mill, historical photographs), empty flour sacks. Flour sold in Barnitz Mill flour sacks that would be made by a local commercial mill but this might require a deep freezer on the second floor in the flour room. The most expensive cost of a 2 pound sack of corn meal or flour is the cost per sack. The actual cost of the grain product is nothing compared to the packaging. Children's books that deal with flour and grain. There are several punch out children books of wind and water mills that could be sold. Books on mills technology and crafts. Poster or posters that show the mill's machinery and or mill's operation. Keep it simple and all items sold should be done with the Dickinson's Township's approval. Barnitz Mill Brochure: A good history should be done first and then a brochure written about the mill and how it functioned. Generally with flour and grist mills the standard formula is the front side is used for the history of the mill. This shows pictures or drawings of the mill today, historical photographs of the mill and mill owners and operators and gives a simple friendy upbeat history of the mill. On the back side is generally used to show the operation of the mill. A decision has to be made if it should show the mill's operation with a breast shot water wheel and millstones and or also with the roller mills and water turbines. My feeling it that you can't tell the whole story on the folder. The visitor may just pick up the folder and leave. If the mill is being restored to represent the water wheel and millstone era of the mill's history then that is what should be shown on the folder. This operation and the mill's later changes in operation can be show and demonstrated within the mill. Mill folders come and go. I have seen the changes and evolution of mill folders within just one mill. Some have started out with colored paper and photo copying and folded into a brochure. I have seen others use the same folder over 20 to 40 years and only changing photos of the millers during each reprinting. I have seen slick folders printed with several colors and then change to full color. My favorites are the ones that open up and become full size wall posters, but they are folders sold and not handed out for free. When I worked with the National Park Service our folders were budgeted out according to how many visitors we had each year. The formula they used was one out of every 10 visitors would actually take one home and read it. Then they printed folders based on our yearly visitation. Themes: When I worked for the National Park Service it was always drummed into us, what is the theme of this site? Or does that fit into our theme? Certainly one of the themes of Barnitz Mill should be milling. There was a flour mill or merchant mill and in addition to that a saw mill, a copper mill, and a fulling mill. The operation of each one of these processes is different and can be explained in exhibits and models. Another theme of Barnitz Mill could be "Milling along the Yellow Breeches Creek." This would include the Enck's or Cumberland Mill. The head race of Enck's mill is a half a mile long and water flowed through two separate mill buildings of two equal or mirrored sections. Two breast shot water wheels each operated a separate mill identical to the other each operating two sets of millstones. The theme of "Milling along the Yellow Breeches Creek," can take the shape of a folder with map and text explaining the history of each mill. Also this can be expanded into a booklet or book entitled "Milling along the Yellow Breeches Creek." Another form is a panel with a map of the Yellow Breeches Creek with the locations of each mill. It can be simply wired with lights that show the location along the stream when a button is pushed. Another possibility is a diorama with a model of each mill. The theme of "Milling along the Yellow Breeches Creek," can be expanded to mills of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania Mills, mills of the mid Atlantic States, and the history of flour milling. The theme of "Milling along the Yellow Breeches Creek," would include the changes in milling technology. Another theme of course would be "water power." Exhibits can focus on the different types of mill power. This would include human power, animal power, wind power, water power, tidal power, etc. The differences between water mills and wind mills can be explained. In a water mill water flows on the ground so the water wheel is close to the ground and the power goes up to operate the millstones. In a wind mill wind is in the air so the wind wheel is high in the air to catch the wind, and the power comes down to operate the millstones. Water mills do not have breaks but wind mills do so when the wind speed increases too much the sails are turned out of the wind and them are locked down with a break wheel to prevent the sails from turning and damaging the mill. Most people when you mention "tidal" powered mill have no idea of how a tidal powered mill would operate. Themes can be very basic for school children like what is wheat, that wheat is a food stuff, or how the mill fits into the process from the farmer's field to the bakery. Most people today have no idea how flour is made let alone ever been in a flour mill (operating or non-operating). Other programs can have themes like crafts and trades of the area or of a time period, and more specific like what trades and craftsman it took to construct, operate and maintain Barnitz Mill as an operating flour mill. Concepts: When I have worked in operating flour and grist mills that were open to the public the most important concept that I felt should be explained to the visitors is the grinding action of the millstones. Most visitors came into the mills with the misconception that two millstones (rocks) mash the grain into flour. It is called "stone ground" because you end up with pieces of stone in you flour and meal, and possibly the reason the whole world switched to roller process flour is not to have stone ground up into your flour. This is just not so. The millstones never touch, most people don't know that. One millstones turns while the other one is stationary. There are grooves in the millstone's grinding surface called furrows. When you take the two millstones apart and look at both stones together the pattern is identical. But when you place the one millstone on the millstone spindle and it rotates the furrow pattern is reversed from the top to the bottom stone and a scissors action is created that cuts the grain. Each kernel of grain enters between the millstones gets cut by hundreds of crossing furrows in its circular path outward. The distance between the two millstones determine the coarseness or fineness of the grind. This is another concept. Operating the mill is like operating a machine in a machine shop. You have the same controls: feed, speed and cut. Feed is the amount of grain going into the millstones. The more feed, the slower it will run. Then you have cut, the distance between the millstones that determines how course or fine the grain is being ground. Then you have speed. The amount of water going over the water wheel. The more water the faster it will run and less water the slower it will run. This is all balanced out by the amount of grain the miller wants to grind in a set amount of time and it is effected by the amount of moisture found in the grain. Still another concept is that buckwheat is not a member of the wheat family, it is not a grain or a grass but an herb. Its closest relatives are rhubarb and morning glory. It grows on a flowering plant and its pollen produces buckwheat honey. It is used as a cereal grain but in many ways it is very different. Buckwheat has no gluten (which makes bread rise) and is used to make pancakes, noodles, and cookies, and is nature's highest source of protein in the plant kingdom. It builds up the immune system but it has a strong taste and not everyone likes it. An important concept in working in a mill is knowing that the dust from wheat is more explosive than gunpowder and 35 times more explosive than coal dust. Wheat, rye, oats, and barley have explosive dust but corn and buckwheat do not. The hardest concept to explain is the operation of the roller mill system. The passage of grain between or through the roller system that would entail anywhere from a half a dozen pair of rollers to possibly a dozen or a dozen and a half would be equal to the passage of grain between two pairs of millstones. The process of milling between a single pair of millstones is called "American" or "flat" milling. The "new process" milling grain between a series of millstone or roller is called, "gradual reduction." The grain is gradually reduced for milling into flour rather than by a single or sudden passage between one pair of millstone. In between each passage of the rollers the material is sifted to remove any flour that may have been produced and the rest is sent on for another passage between the next set of rollers. The first series of rollers have saw tooth corrugations and these rollers are called "break" rollers. The next series and the last series are smooth and these are called "reduction" and "germ" rollers. Each roller mill had a different arrangement of machines and the flour that was produced was called "patent flour." That is because each mill produced their flour by a "patented" process. The grinding surface of the roller mills is a thin line between the two rollers were they come in close contact, and the grinding surface of the millstones is the area of the millstone's circle [pi r2 (pi the ratio of a circumference of a circle to its diameter (3.14159) times the radius squared]. To determine the horse power required per millstone you multiply the revolutions per minute times the area of the stone in square inches (working surface), and divide that by 33,000 pounds and the sum is the required horse power. A more elaborate formula would factor in the weight of the stone, pressure per square foot, the specific gravity of the stone, the capacity of the stone per hour (in either barrels or hundred weight), the running under load versus empty consumption of power, feed of stones (more or less), and the condition of the stones (sharp of dull). To measure the needed horse power with roller mills you use the measurement of the rollers linear surface. Millstones take about 60 percent of the mill's available power to operate and roller mills require about 40 percent. To calculate the needed horsepower to operate a mill you need to add up the grinding surface of the mill and plug that into a formula. A simple problem can be done with school children to measure the flow of water in a stream. You make an approximate measurement of a stream profile (Its width times is approximate depth and figure out the area of a slice of the stream. Then you throw a floating object in the stream (like a stick or log) and measure how far it travels in an amount of time. If it moved 20 feet in 10 or 20 seconds calculate it out to how far it could move in one minute and them multiply how many cubic feet per minute the stream flows.8 This basic measurement of a stream a millwright would make to determine if a stream could support or operate a mill. Horse Power= Cubic feet per minute x 62.125 (weight per cubic foot of water) x Head (fall) divided by 33,000 pounds. Rollers operate in pairs like millstone. One roller is rotating slower than the faster turning roller. The slower pair of rollers is called the "holding roller," and the other roller is cutting the "cutting roller." If both rollers were operating at the same speed the material would tend to pass between them relatively unharmed. Rollers were not the ultimate grinding machine, and the break rollers need to be removed once every two or three years to be regrooved by a machine shop. Since the second World War some people have looked for another means of grinding grain. They have tried passing the grain over a stainless steel plate and exposing it to high pressure burst of air and laser light but the roller mill and the millstone methods have worked the best. To explain the roller system some mills have an extra non operational roller stand. These mills will take the roller mill top housing off so visitor can see the two double pairs of rollers. Some mills will have one or two pairs of rollers out of a mill and others may have some industrial chart or flow diagram to explain the process. Roller mills and rollers are heavy. Fingers can get pinched between metal rollers. Wooden pairs of rollers can be made for models and demonstration purposes. The best method of explaining the roller system is simply to keep it simple otherwise you may loose a lot of visitor's interests. There is a lot of material that can be reproduced that is in the public domain from old milling books, text books, trade catalogs, milling journals (magazines) and from such agencies such a US Wheat, Kansas Wheat, and the Miller's Federation. These can be used for display material without paying for a graphics artist to do the work. In time you could create a list of 20 most common visitor asked questions and answers. This could be developed into a volunteer handbook at some future date.
o Note portions of the text from Section Number Three: Various Options and Structural Repairs of the FEASIBILITY RESTORATION STUDY for the BARNITZ MILL (JAMES WEAKLEY MILL)Yellow Breeches Creek, Dickinson Township, Cumberland County, Pine Road and Barnitz Mill Road, Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania., by Theodore R. Hazen,1999. o Note all the conceptual drawings of Barnitz Mill by T. R. Hazen are drawn "freehand." o Dickinson College Freshman Seminar: Historic Mill Restoration Fall 2000 (Barnitz Mill). http://www.dickinson.edu/carlisle/barnitz/index.html
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