From Quern to Computer; a history of flour milling by Martin and Sue Watts covers a wide range of topics and this summarises Chapter 8. This period to the mid-18th century saw significant developments in the technology of corn milling, changes in land ownership and a rise in population as standards of living improved. The treble mill…
From Quern to Computer; a history of flour milling by Martin and Sue Watts covers a wide range of topics and this series of emails will summarise each one separately. It is clear that by the time of the Norman Conquest mills were regarded as important manorial assets. No manor was properly equipped unless it had…
From Quern to Computer; a history of flour milling by Martin and Sue Watts covers a wide range of topics and this series of emails will summarise each one separately. The application of animal and water power: From the Mediterranean to Britain The earliest milling tools were worked by human effort, using specially selected stones or…
From Quern to Computer; a history of flour milling by Martin and Sue Watts covers a wide range of topics and this series of emails will summarise each one separately. The first milling stonesCereal grains form the staple food of many societies but such grains cannot easily be digested by humans until their hard outer cellulose shells…
From Quern to Computer; a history of flour milling by Martin and Sue Watts covers a wide range of topics and this series of emails will summarise each one separately. The early medieval period, c.AD500 to the present day By the end of the Roman period hulled wheats such as spelt and emmer were generally giving…
Evans (September 13, 1755 – April 15, 1819) was an American inventor, engineer and businessman. In the early 1780s Evans’s attention turned to flour milling, an industry that was producing a low quality product that took too many workers to make. He worked for over a decade designing, building and perfecting an automated mill (see…
James Herbert Venn was born on 30th December 1921 at Furze Platt in Maidenhead. He developed an interest in mills from a very early age, as evidenced by his building a model windmill in his parents’ garden whilst still a schoolboy. Photography was a second major strand of his personal interests, also rooted in his…
Helen Major (1927 – 2013) was an amateur historian and an active volunteer at the Mills Archive. Helen was well known in the mill world in the UK and much loved. She and her late husband, Ken (whom she married in April 1954), attended most functions of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings…
A Malawian inventor and author. After reading a book called Using Energy, he decided to create a makeshift wind turbine. He experimented with a small model using a cheap dynamo and eventually made a functioning wind turbine that powered some electrical appliances in his family’s house. Local farmers and journalists investigated the spinning device and…
Name: Willard Garfield Weston Birth: 26 February 1898, Toronto, Canada. Death: 22 October 1978, Toronto, Canada. Occupation: Biscuit manufacturer; Businessman; Mill-Owner. Notable Accomplishments: Worked for his father’s Canadian company, George Weston Limited. In 1922 he launched Weston’s, English Quality Biscuits and became president of the company after his father died in 1924. He expanded the business into Britain during the…
