Mills and Machinery from Medieval to Colonial Times

Steven A. Walton, Penn State STS Program

One of the most enduring legacies of the middle ages was the intensification of powerd machinery in society. While most of the mechanical elements known to the middle ages were known to the Ropmans (with the likely exception of the crank), European innovators took great pride in elaborating on those mechanical components. By the 15th century, especially, Europeans began inventing new and fabulous machiner - Leonardo's flying machines are only one well-known example.

In this lesson, a number of images and documents from the transitional period from the middle ages to the American colonial experince illustrate the mechanical toolkit with which the settlers had to work.

Source Documents

Ramelli's Clockwork MIll NIcholas Bloy's Engines Oliver Evan's Mill

 

Images

Background

Agostino Ramelli (c1531-c1600) came from Italy but ended up in the service of the armies of the Marquis de Marignan and of the Duc d'Anjou who later became King Henry III of France. Late in life, his fame as an engineer inspired him to publish the most lavishly-illustrated technical book in history at the time, filled with "diverse and artificial" (that is, not natural but rather of the mind and hand of men) machinery including waterwheels, mills, pumps, cranes, sawmills, military bridges, siege weapons. Although many of his machines are relatively impractical, they do demonstrate the attention to inventive detail in gearing and machinery that characterized the Renaissance Artist-Engineers (a group to which Leonardo da Vinci certainly belongs).

Implicit in most of his machines is waterpower, which by the latter middle ages had become the standard form of motive power for all industrial and agricultural mills. Although Ramelli is clearly interested in more than waterwheels, as a centralized power source can be used to drive many parts of the machine.

See also the Smithsonian Institution's online exhibit about Ramelli.

Questions

1. How does Ramelli's mill work? Identify what all the parts do in the mill (we suggest having students label all the parts A,B,C, etc., and then break into teams to determine which parts for sub-components of the mill).
2. Is Ramelli's mill practical? Why is this a consideration?

 

Source Text

Get the Bloy text as a single-page PDF file.

Background

Absolutely nothing is known about Bloy beyond this unique broadsheet. In the early 17^th-century London, however, numerous men ("projectors" for they proposed all sorts of "projects") were known in and around the Elizabethan and Stuart courts. The most famous of these was Corneius Drebble (1572-1634), a mathematician and engineer from Holland who attended the court of James I, inventing, among other things, a self-regulating oven, pumping engines for the City of London, clocks, a supposed perpetual motion machine, and even a 12-person submarine that could remain underwater for hours. Drebble seems to have actually constructed many of these machines, and other inventors at the time sought similar patronage. Some found a home under the Marquis of Worcester, who seems to have patronized a sort of ‘invention factory' in Vauxhall (just upriver from London). Whether these projectors ever delivered on their many ideas is unclear; it is clear, however, that the 17^th century was a time ripe for invention.

Questions

1. Have students break up into teams and suggest what any of these inventions of Bloy's actually are (there is lots of room for speculation here.)
2. Are the machines designed for a certain industry or industries? Why?
3. Who would be interested in Bloy's set of 9 inventions?
4. Of what use would this sort of approach be to a colonial venture?

 

Images

Background

text goes here

See also the Pond Lilly Mill Restoration pages about Evans.

Questions

1. Identify the flow of the grain from when it enters the mill via the wagon at the lower right to its exit as flour in barrels loaded onto the ship in the lower left. Trace the paths and identify the processes, if you can.
2. What is the advantage to a mill like Evans'?
3. What need was Evans responding to?