Excerpt from History of Corn Milling, Vol. 2: Watermills and WindmillsSuch a record is not merely one of the manufacture of our. The art of milling has been most slow of growth: evolving itself from absolute crudity to modern perfection but gradually, and as it were very leisurely, as the centuries passed away. But in tracing this apparently listless and lethargic evolution, we are brought face to face with affairs which not only largely account for it, but which in no slight degree are found to react upon the social life and industrial welfare of the people of all nations. Peculiar laws and restrictions have for hundreds of years denied the corn miller freedom to trade (and even personal freedom), encouragement to progress, and permission to compete for quality and cheapness of work. And the same restrictions have filtered and doled the our of the people through feudal legislative channels, and retarded for many ages the production of that cheap bread with which the wel fare Of the masses is so intimately concerned. These matters seem as well worthy of study as the political and military troubles or glories of nations: and it is in this view that the authors have approached a subject which has hitherto been almost entirely overlooked.Referring to the mills, all power corn mills are shown to be directly derived from the Greek watermill, the simple little machine with horizontal wheel, and devoid of gearing, which, under the designation Norse Mill.

Survives in some places to the present day. The invention of the Roman watermill, of larger capacity and greater power, with a vertical wheel driving stones through the intervention of cog gearing.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition.

We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.