Watermills within the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin
Full details
| Authors & editors | |
| Publisher | TIMS |
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Languages | |
| Medium | Book |
| Edition | 1 |
| Series | Bibliotheca Molinologica |
| No. in series | 24 |
| Topics | |
| Tags | |
| Scope & content | Publisher: Originally published in 2010 in Hungarian, this English edition is fully updated with new material. The author recounts the history of this region and its watermills, spanning present-day Romania and Hungary. This was shaped by geo-political change; repeated attacks by the Turkish Empire led to 150 years of subjugation, then liberation by the Habsburgs and later assimilation into the Soviet bloc. The necessary cooperation to keep mills running resulted in special water and mill laws. Then of course the changes in milling technology from the 19th century onwards; but, throughout, the mills kept going and now there still remain large numbers of small traditional working watermills situated on the many creeks.BM The building and machinery of traditional grain mills and their systems of water supply are explored. Then follows a chapter describing a local specialty, palinka mills, where mills share their buildings with distilleries. Moving on to industrial uses, we see how the power of water was used to saw wood and to process textiles, with detailed descriptions of fulling mills, and then crushing mills used to process ores. The next two chapters look at the ownership of mills, by the church, the nobility and by the rural population. Mill communities held meetings to organize the operation and maintenance of mills, with powers to enforce regulations. Lastly, a look at how these social systems coped with changing borders and political systems of the 20th century. The whole book counts 180 pages and is illustrated with photographs together with the locations of hundreds of surviving mills. |
Copies held
Accession no. 230629
- Shelf location: C116.4-OZS
- Donor: JG Hawksley Collection
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