Grist Mill

The early mills had paddle wheels, 

Very simple no whistles and bells

The paddle wheel was attached to a shaft not too long

Then attached to the center of the big millstone

The turning force produced by the water on the paddles 

was transferred to the runner stone, making a noise that rattled

causing it to grind against a stone where

It became a simple process requiring no gears

 The grist mill ground the grain into flour

water wheels are where it got its power

The Grisrmills have been around for centuries, 

Dating back some say, as early as 19 BC.

At the heart of the gristmill is the grinding stone

There are two stones upper and one that stands alone

Each stone was 18 to 24 inches thick 

It could weigh as much as half a ton of bricks

Millstones were made of sandstone and granite

quarried so each stone is a single piece that fit

The bottom stone is ironically called the stone bed

The runner stone had a hole in the center where grain was fed

There was a vertical spindle that passed through the rest

by lowering or raising the beam you could adjust the grain best

By feeling the texture of the meal between his thumb and fingers,  

Created the cliche, a “rule of thumb”, for the millers

the miller could determine how much to adjust the stones. 

He had to watch the flour to be sure that it did not get hot and burn 

It could catch fire from the friction of the grinding stones. 

His sense of smell was important that was well known

he had to keep his “nose to the grindstone

Another saying that’s well known

The flour moved outward from the center down a chute it went

 to a bin on the floor below where a barrel or sack was sent

The grain from the Gristmill was important to a family back in the day

Nothing compares in our times like it did the Grist mill way