A-Z glossary

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Hackle
An instrument or machine set with parallel iron or steel pins for splitting or combing out the fibres of flax or hemp. See HECKLE.

Hackle Plate
A square or round cover plate over the NECK-BOX in a bedstone, sometimes with a leather washer to prevent dirt from entering the bearing of the stone spindle.

Hackle Screws
Screws used to secure HACKLE PLATE to the BEDSTONE BOX.

Half Brass
A BEARING BRASS fitted only under a JOURNAL bearing - as in windshaft NECK BEARINGS or WHEEL SHAFT bearings.

Half Elliptic Spring
See Springs.

Half High Grinding
See New Process.

Half Hipped
A small triangular piece of roof sloping between the ridge of a roof and the top of a gable wall which projects to above eaves level.

Half Housed
See Crosshalved.

Half Stuff
Any partially broken or beaten source of fibres for papermaking is termed HALFSTUFF.

Hammer Mill
A form of grinding machine which uses rotating hammers to break up the grain.

Hammer Pond
Mill pond associated with a forge, supplying power for the bellows of furnaces or tilt hammers; associated with the Wealden iron industry.

Hand Hoist
See Sack Hoist.

Hand Mill
See Quern.

Hand Mould
See Mould.

Hand Rope
The rope controlling the sackhoist gear. See also SNAP ROPE.

Hand Speke
The capstan bar or handle used on a design of manual internal cap winding gear in which the drive shaft is brought down to an operating point at ground level.

Hand Winding
The act of turning a post, smock or tower mill into the wind by hand.

Handrail
Safety rail around the stage of a smock or tower mill or a rail running up a ladder or stairway.

Handspike
(1) The wooden or metal lever attached like a handle to the wedge used for prising up the runner, prior to removing it for dressing. See also CROWBAR. (2) A straight bar of iron or wood, used for turning a windlass bollard to raise a MILLSTONE or sluice.

Hanger
(1) A relatively short and vertical pendant timber used to hold up heavy components such as bridge trees and brays or as used in a cap-centring frame. (2) A timber or metal frame used to support a bearing/plumber- block.

Hanging Arms
Oak arms with slots for adjustment and with their lower ends fitted with iron toe plates, fixed to the SWEEP ARMS. They push the FLINT MILL RUNNERS round the GRINDING PAN.

Harp
(1) A hand sieve. (2) A segment (usually ten) of the grinding face of a millstone, containing a parallel series of LANDS & FURROWS. A template for marking out such a segment on the face of a stone. see MASTER, JOURNEYMAN, PRENTICE, FLY and FURROWS.

Harp Irons
Iron castings in the form of a triangle, part of patent sail front striking gear. Same as TRIANGLES (Kent).

Harp Sector
See Harp.

Harp Strings
See Stitching.

Hatch
The movable gate in a sluice or penstock to control the water supply. See also STORM HATCH, SACK TRAP.

Head
(1) Upper front part of post mill. (2) Somerset term for CAP. (3) see HEAD OF WATER.

Head & Tail
Common arrangement of stones in the post mill, permitting two pairs to be driven from opposite ends of the windshaft, without the interposition of a vertical shaft.

Head & Tail Mill
Post mill with millstones fore & aft.

Head Gate
A water gate near a dam or at a millpond to control the flow of water through a race or FLUME to a mill.

Head Goit
See Headrace.

Head Of Water
The difference between the level of water available to the WATERWHEEL or TURBINE and the level at which it is discharged.

Head Rail
The top rail of a post mill wall at the eaves.

Head Sick
An expression describing a post mill whose body has tilted forwards due to a defect. See also TAILSICK.

Head Stones
The pair of stones in the head of a post mill driven from the brake wheel. See also HEAD & TAIL. See also TAILSTONES.

Head Wheel
See Brake Wheel.

Heading To Wind
The act of the fantail turning a mill into the wind (Kent).

Headrace
That section of the mill stream above the wheel; usually an artificial channel. also known as MILL RACE, LEAT or GOIT.

Heads
The projecting parts of a millstone face which have not been worn as much as the rest.

Headsill
See Sill(s).

Headstock
(1) The transverse beam in mill caps between weather beam & brake wheel, acting as a tie between sheers and as a seating for stub members passing forwards under the weather beam for support. (2) The support for the ends of the axle tree (also INNER & OUTER or WATER HEADSTOCK) (Scot.).

Heckle
The dressing of FLAX.

Heckling Mill
A mill where FLAX and HEMP are dressed with a HACKLE.

Heel Of A Sail
The inner end against the canister.

Heft
See Thrift.

Helve
The SHAFT(2) of a TILT HAMMER.

Hem (5)
See Skirt.

Hemlath
Piece of wood running longitudinally along the outer and inner edges of sails joining the SAIL BARS and holding them firm.

Hemp Mill
A TEXTILE MILL in which hemp is prepared and spun into rope or yarn for stout fabrics.

Herriot, Heriot
A tax due to the Lord of the manor on the death of a tenant.

Hexagon Frame
A hexagonal timber frame set into the brickwork at the top of a windmill tower, carrying the CURB. Found mostly in the North East. See also OCTAGON FRAME.

High Breast Wheel
A WATERWHEEL receiving water into BUCKETS above the wheel-shaft level. Developed in the C18th & C19th, but in use much earlier.

High Grinding
See High Milling.

High Milling
The process of milling by gradual reduction. Grinding and sieving grain several times using stones or rollers set progressively closer, so that the BRAN is more completely sieved out from the coarsely ground meal (popular on the Continent from the 16th Century).

Hipped Gable
A triangular area of roof that extends from the eaves of a gable wall up to the ridge of a roof.

Hipped Roof
See Hipped Gable.

Hog Corn
Corn for grist milling.

Hog Feed
Animal food that has been ground.

Hog Meat
Feed for swine (C17 Hants).

Hog-Backed Cogs
Cogs in a face wheel, which are made slightly barrel-shaped in order to mesh correctly, not being truly bevelled.

Hogging
Distortion of timber under stress (such as a side girt 'bowing down' at the end).

Hoist
See Sack Hoist.

Holding Roll
The less-rapidly rotating of a pair of rollers. See ROLLER MILL(2).

Holland Stone
See Cullin Stone.

Hollander
A device employed for pulping (macerate) rags by means of a revolving drum equipped with blades. Superseded stampers in paper mills. Also called a BEATING MACHINE or ENGINE.see BEATER

Hollander Beating Machine
see BEATER.

Hollow Post Mill
A windmill in which power is transmitted by an upright shaft, through the hollow central post, to machinery housed in the base, as in some WIP, OIL, CORN or DRAINAGE MILLS for example.

Hominy
Foodstuff made from hulled and coarsely-broken maize, mixed with water and boiled (hulled maize).

Hoodway
Wooden casing enclosing the scoopwheel of a drainage mill.

Hooke's Coupling
A type of C19th universal joint. Named after the inventor, Robert Hooke (1635-1703).

Hooks
Specially-shaped pieces of wood used to pack the leading side of a sail up to a constant weather, equal to that at the heel of the SAIL (Sussex).

Hoop
(1) see TUN. (2) An iron ring shrunk onto a millstone to prevent it from bursting. Some, such as built up French Burr stones, may have several hoops fitted.

Hoop
See Tun.

Hoopers Patent Sails
See ROLLER REEFING SAILS A Type Patented (No.1706) By Captain Stephen Hooper In 1789.

Hopper
An open wooden funnel-like container holding grain prior to its discharge to the stones via the shoe. See also SPATTLE.

Hopper Boy
A device invented by Oliver Evans for spreading out the warm freshly-ground meal for cooling and then gathering it together again prior to BOLTING-INCORPORATION. Important process of intimate mixing and grinding in an EDGE-RUNNER MILL.

Hopper Ladder
See Horse.

Hopper-Bottomed
A bin which has its bottom shaped like the inside of a hopper so that it will empty fully.

Horizontal Air Mill
See Horizontal Windmill.

Horizontal Shaft
See Line Shaft.

Horizontal Watermill
A mill driven by a horizontal waterwheel in which paddles are secured to the lower end of an upright shaft and which drives a runner stone directly above it without any gearing. It is usually driven by a jet of water from an orifice or steeply-sloping trough. There is a considerable variation of detailed design. It can have a number of features, among which are See TIRL. See TUB WHEEL. See also NORSE MILL, GREEK MILL, CLICK MILL, SHETLAND MILL and SALTKVARN (Scandinavian).

Horizontal Windmill
A windmill powered by vanes or sails mounted on a vertical shaft which may be within a cylindrical tower or a louvred body.

Horn End
The forward end of the WINDSHAFT, to which the cross will be attached by keys (Lincs.).

Horns
The short, horizontal large section timbers radiating from the cap sheers in tower and smock mills and forming part of the cap construction.

Horns Of A Post
The tongues fitting down between the cross trees. Projections on the bottom of the POST which sit over the centre of the CROSS TREES.

Horse
The frame supporting the HOPPER & SHOE resting on the TUN, above the millstones. Usually of wood, sometimes of iron.

Horse Engine
See Horse Gin.

Horse Gin
A method of harnessing the power of a horse for milling or driving other machinery. One or more horses or donkeys walking round a circular track and harnessed so as to turn a large toothed wheel, either in the same plane or above, which turnes smaller wheels to operate machinery.

Horse Load
A ton = 2240 lbs. (20 cwt) (approximately one tonne).

Horse Mill
Rotary motion mill powered by horses walking around a turnpost in a circle; (or on an inclined continuous slatted belt).

Horse Wheel
See Horse Gin.

Hour-Glass Mill
See Donkey Mill.

Households
A type of flour for family use.

Howetree
See Crowntree.

Hub
The central piece or boss of a wheel. See also NAVE.

Hull
A mill specialising in the grinding of EDGE TOOLS.

Hulling
The removal of husks of cereals. See SHELLING.

Hulling Mill
A mill equipped for the husking of cereal grains such as barley & rice.

Hulling Stones
Millstones which remove the outer husks including the bran, of cereal grains.

Hulls
The outer covering of seeds such as peas and beans etc.

Hungarian Process
The process of gradual reduction in ROLLER MILLING which was developed in Hungary. See ROLLER MILLING.

Hunting Cog
An additional COG on one of the two meshing GEAR WHEELS. A simple but highly effective device to counter uneven wear on cogs by ensuring that wheels mesh differently on each revolution.

Huper
See Hopper.

Huperlather
The leather stop inside the hopper for activating the warning bell (medieval term).

Hurst
Heavy timber or iron framework supporting MILLSTONES at floor or shoulder level, & enclosing the main gearing in the water or windmill. Sometimes independent of the main structure of the mill especially in America.

Hurst Frame
See Hurst.

Hursting
See Hurst.

Hurstle
See Tun.

Husk
(1) The fibrous outer casing of the grain. (2) see TUN. (3) see HURST (archaic term).

Husk Cupboard
A settling chamber for containing the HUSKS winnowed from oats by a GROAT MACHINE or similar separator.

Husk Frame
syn. with HURST FRAME.

Hutch
See Bin.

Hybrid Wheel
A WATERWHEEL constructed both in wood and iron.

Hydraulic Ram
(1) A device which utilises the ram effect of water flowing down an inclined pipe, to deliver a smaller quantity of water to a much greater height than the source water. (2) Powering machinery (Hydraulic Crane, Hydraulic Winch, etc) by water supplied at high pressure, often from commercial mains.