Old Mills Album Page Number 2
The wheat kernel is the seed of the wheat plant. It is also an important source of people food. More foods are made with wheat than any other cereal grain. One bushel of wheat contains approximately 1 million individual wheat kernels. Each tiny seed has 3 parts: the endosperm, the bran, and the germ. The endosperm is about 83% of the wheat kernel. It is used to make white flour. To make whole wheat flour, the endosperm is combined with the bran and the germ. Bran is made up of the outer layers of the wheat kernel. Bran is used in whole wheat flour. It is also used in breakfast cereals. The germ is tiny - about 2 1/2% of the whole wheat kernel. The germ is the part that will sprout and grow into a new wheat plant if the kernel is planted. Wheat germ is sold in grocery stores and food markets. Whole wheat flour also contains wheat germ. Drawing courtesy of the Kansas Wheat Commission
Millstone Cover (Vat) over the millstones. To the left of the millstone cover is the tentering screw. This adjusts the distance between the millstones for coarse or fine grind.
This millstone sitting against a wall is the upper turning "runner" stone. The French millstones are quarried principally at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre near the town of Chalons in the Marne Valley in Northern France. French burr (buhr) stones are composed of separate pieces of freshwater quartz each piece is known as a burr.
Top of millstone cover (vat) showing the round opening in the top of the cover, and the runner stone seen through. In the center "eye" of the runner stone sits the turning damsel it shakes the "shoe" hanging below the wooden frame that sits on the cover. The wooden frame called a "horse." Attached to the side of the horse is a wooden ash spring called the "miller's willow." This keeps tension of the shoe against the damsel. Sitting on the to of the horse is the hopper that supplies grain to the shoe. The hopper is fed with grain by either a chute (left center) or a cloth "sock." The cloth "sock" is used to feed grain from a bin on the above floor. It allows the cover and feed mechanisms to be removed and swing the millstone crane over the millstones, and lift the runner stone for dressing. To the right of the millstones is the tentering rod and hand wheel that adjusts the distance between the millstones for coarse or fine grind.
Wooden Water Wheel constructed by the Fitz Water Wheel Company. Photo circa 1923-1959 at the Burwell-Morgan Mill, Millwood, Virginia. This is not a photo of the "custom" just down stream. This is the Burwell-Morgan Mill!
A Double Wide Wooden Breast Shot Water Wheel constructed by the Fitz Water Wheel Company circa 1935-1936 at the Isaac Peirce Mill, Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C.
Old Mills Album Page #1 Mill images collected from other web sites
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