Название: A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2)
Автор: Johann Beckmann
Издательство: Public Domain
Жанр: Зарубежная классика
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After this improvement the use of water-mills was never laid aside or forgotten: they were soon made known all over Europe; and were it worth the trouble, one might quote passages in which they are mentioned in every century. The Roman, Salic, and other laws411 provided security for these mills, which they call molina or farinaria; and define a punishment for those who destroy the sluices, or steal the mill-irons (ferramentum). But there were water-mills in Germany and France a hundred years before the Salic laws were formed. Ausonius, who lived about the year 379, mentions some which were then still remaining on a small stream that falls into the Moselle, and which were noticed also by Fortunatus412, in the fifth century. Gregory of Tours, who wrote towards the end of the sixth century, speaks of a water-mill which was situated near the town of Dijon; and of another which a certain abbot caused to be built for the benefit of his convent413. Brito, who in the beginning of the thirteenth century wrote in verse an account of the actions of Philip Augustus king of France414, relates how by the piercing of a dam the mills near Gournay (castrum Gornacum or Cornacum) were destroyed, to the great detriment of the besieged. In the first crusade, at the end of the eleventh century, the Germans burned in Bulgaria seven mills which were situated below a bridge on a small rivulet, and which seem to have been floating-mills415. In deeds of the twelfth and thirteenth century, water-mills are often called aquimollia, aquimoli, aquismoli, aquimolæ416. Petrus Damiani, one of the fathers of the eleventh century, says, “Sicut aquimolum nequaquam potest sine gurgitis inundantia frumenta permolere, ita, &c.417”
At Venice and other places, there were mills which righted themselves by the ebbing and flowing of the tide, and which every six hours changed the position of the wheels. Zanetti418 has shown, from some old charters, that such mills existed about the year 1044; and with still more certainty in 1078, 1079, and 1107. In one charter are the words: Super toto ipso aquimolo molendini posito in palude juxta campo alto; where the expression aquimolum molendini deserves to be particularly remarked, as it perhaps indicates that the mill in question was a proper grinding-mill. Should this conjecture be well-founded, it would prove that so early as the eleventh century water-mills were used not only for grinding corn, but for many other purposes.
It appears that hand- and cattle-mills were everywhere still retained at private houses a long time after the erection of water-mills. We read in the Life of St. Benedict, that he had a mill with an ass, to grind corn for himself and his colleagues. Among the legendary tales of St. Bertin, there is one of a woman who, because she ground corn on a fast-day, lost the use of her arm; and of another whose hand stuck to the handle, because she undertook the same work at an unseasonable time. More wonders of this kind are to be found at later periods in the Popish mythology. Such small mills remained long in the convents; and it was considered as a great merit in many ecclesiastics, that they ground their own corn in order to make bread. The real cause of this was, that as the convents were entirely independent of every person without their walls, they wished to supply all their wants themselves as far as possible; and as these lazy ecclesiastics had, besides, too little labour and exercise, they employed grinding as an amusement, and to enable them to digest better their ill-deserved food. Sulpicius Severus419 gives an account of the mode of living of an Eastern monk in the beginning of the fifth century, and says expressly that he ground his own corn. Gregory of Tours mentions an abbot who eased his monks of their labour at the hand-mill, by erecting a water-mill. It deserves here to be remarked, that in the sixth century malefactors in France were condemned to the mill, as is proved by the history of Septimina the nurse of Childebert420.
The entrusting of that violent element water to support and drive mills constructed with great art, displayed no little share of boldness; but it was still more adventurous to employ the no less violent but much more untractable, and always changeable wind for the same purpose. Though the strength and direction of the wind cannot be any way altered, it has however been found possible to devise means by which a building can be moved in such a manner that it shall be exposed to neither more nor less wind than is necessary, let it come from what quarter it may.
It is very improbable, or much rather false, that the Romans had wind-mills, though Pomponius Sabinus affirms so, but without any proof421. Vitruvius422, where he speaks of all moving forces, mentions also the wind; but he does not say a word of wind-mills; nor are they noticed either by Seneca423 or Chrysostom424, who have both spoken of the advantages of the wind. I consider as false also, the account given by an old Bohemian annalist425, who says that before the year 718 there were none but wind-mills in Bohemia, and that water-mills were then introduced for the first time. I am of opinion that the author meant to have written hand- and cattle-mills instead of wind-mills.
It has been often asserted that these mills were first invented in the East, and introduced into Europe by the crusaders; but this also is improbable; for mills of this kind are not at all, or very seldom, found in the East. There are none of them in Persia, Palestine, or Arabia, and even water-mills are there uncommon, and constructed on a small scale. Besides, we find wind-mills before the crusades, or at least at the time when they were first undertaken. It is probable that these buildings may have been made known to a great part of Europe, and particularly in France and England426, by those who returned from these expeditions; but it does not thence follow that they were invented in the East427. The crusaders perhaps saw such mills in the course of their travels through Europe; very probably in Germany, which is the original country of most large machines. In the like manner, the knowledge of several useful things has been introduced into Germany by soldiers who have returned from different wars; as the English and French, after their return from the last war, made known in their respective countries many of our useful implements of husbandry, such as our straw-chopper, scythe, &c.
Mabillon mentions a diploma of the year 1105, in which a convent in France is allowed to erect water- and wind-mills, molendina ad ventum428. In the year 1143, there was in Northamptonshire an abbey (Pipewell) situated in a wood, which in the course of 180 years was entirely destroyed. One cause of its destruction was said to be, that СКАЧАТЬ
410
The account of Procopius, in the first book of the War of the Goths, deserves to be here given at length: – “When these aqueducts were cut off by the enemy, as the mills were stopped for want of water, and as cattle could not be found to drive them, the Romans, closely besieged, were deprived of every kind of food (for with the utmost care they could scarcely find provender for their horses). Belisarius however being a man of great ingenuity devised a remedy for this distress. Below the bridge which reaches to the walls of Janiculum, he extended ropes well-fastened, and stretched across the river from both banks. To these he affixed two boats of equal size, at the distance of two feet from each other, where the current flowed with the greatest velocity under the arch of the bridge, and placing large mill-stones in one of the boats, suspended in the middle space a machine by which they were turned. He constructed at certain intervals on the river, other machines of the like kind, which being put in motion by the force of the water that ran below them, drove as many mills as were necessary to grind provisions for the city,” &c.
411
“Si quis ingenuus annonam in molino furaverit… Si quis sclusam de farinario alieno ruperit… Si quis ferramentum de molino alieno furaverit…” – Leges Francorum Salicæ, edit. Eccardi, Francof. et Lipsiæ 1720, fol. p. 51.
412
Auson. Mosella, v. 362. Fortunati Carmina, Moguntiæ 1617, 4to, p. 83.
413
Gregorii Turonensis Opera, Paris, 1699, fol. Hist. lib. iii. 19, p. 126. Ibid. Vita Patrum, 18, p. 1242.
414
Gul. Britonis Philippidos libri xii. lib. vi. v. 220.
415
Chronicon Hierosolymitanum, edit. a Reineccio. Helms. 1584, 4to, lib. i. c. 10.
416
See Carpentieri Gloss. Nov. ad Scriptores medii, ævi, (Supp. ad Ducang.) Paris, 1766, fol. vol. i. p. 266. In a chronicle written in the year 1290, a floating-mill is called
417
Damiani Opera, ed. Cajetani. Paris, 1743, fol. i. p. 105, lib. vi. epist. 23.
418
Dell’ Origine di alcune Arti Principali Appresso i Veneziani. Ven. 1758, 4to, p. 71.
419
Dialog. i. 2.
420
Histor. Francorum, lib. ix. 38, p. 462.
421
See Pomponius Sabinus,
422
Lib. ix. c. 9; x. c. 1, 13.
423
Natur. Quæst. lib. v. c. 18.
424
Chrysost. in Psalm. cxxxiv. p. 362.
425
“At the same period (718) one named Halek the son of Uladi the weak, built close to the city an ingenious mill which was driven by water. It was visited by many Bohemians, in whom it excited much wonder, and who taking it as a model, built others of the like kind here and there on the rivers; for before that time all the Bohemian mills were wind-mills, erected on mountains.” – Wenceslai Hagecii Chronic. Bohem. translated into German by John Sandel. Nuremberg, 1697, fol. p. 13.
426
See De la Mare, Traité de la Police, &c.
427
There are no wind-mills at Ispahan nor in any part of Persia. The mills are all driven by water, by the hand, or by cattle. Voyages de Chardin. Rouen, 1723, 8vo, viii. p. 221. – The Arabs have no wind-mills; these are used in the East only in places where no streams are to be found; and in most parts the people make use of hand-mills. Those which I saw on Mount Lebanon and Mount Carmel had a great resemblance to those which are found in many parts of Italy. They are exceedingly simple and cost very little. The mill-stone and the wheel are fastened to the same axis. The wheel, if it can be so called, consists of eight hollow boards shaped like a shovel, placed across the axis. When the water falls with violence upon these boards it turns them round and puts in motion the mill-stone over which the corn is poured. – Darvieux, Reisen, Part iii. Copenh. 1754, 8vo. I did not see either water- or wind-mills in all Arabia. I however found an oil-press at Tehama, which was driven by oxen; and thence suppose that the Arabs have corn-mills of the like kind. – Niebuhr, p. 217.
428
Mabillon, Annales Ord. Benedicti. Paris, 1713, fol. p. 474.