Composite Mill, Punkalaidun (1)

A wind-powered corn mill in Finland.

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This mill, dated 1878, is essentially a hollow post mill with a cap like that of a smock mill. The construction is octagonal in the lower part like a smock mill, but of heavy timbers interlocked as far as the curb. There is a double "clasp arm" support for the collar which is at the level of the curb. Above the collar are three beams running fore and aft, parallel with each other, which support a frame of three upright and three cross beams in the breast of the cap, the uppermost cross beam being the breast beam. Resting on the three fore-and-aft beams is a single clasp-arm frame, mortised at the front into the two outer upright beams.

To the live curb there are four rollers 4 1/2 in. diameter by 4 1/2 in. long. The curb is bound with wrought iron bands at each end and its working surface is of unprotected wood. The hollow post is 16 in. diameter, the upright shaft is 4 in. diameter. The windshaft is of wood, 9 in. diameter, with a 3 in. iron shaft right through it, with plummer blocks at the head and tail.

The clasp-arm brake-wheel is stayed in front to the wooden portion of the shaft and has 56 cogs, 3 in. pitch, 3 1/2 in. face, 2 1/4 in. deep, while the wooden wallower has 12 cogs. At the noes of the iron windshaft there are two wrought iron two-armed crosses, one in front of the other, with four wrought iron clamps stayed to the windshaft and rivetted to it just in front of the neck bearing. Each of the crosses separately holds a pair of sails.

The cap, which is eight-sided, has eight rafters, is double-boarded, horizontal on the inside, and has a weather cock on top showing a man with a horse-drawn plough. Down below, the end of the upright shaft carries a driving spindle of wrought iron 1 1/2 in. square. The stones have round vats, a horse and hopper, and a show with a twist peg to raise it. There is no spring, but there is a rap in the show. Tentering is by screw and nut.

The eight-sided mill body is built up of 20 logs and is 13 ft. 7 in. high above the rocks which level it up. It is 13 ft. 10 in. across the body, while the cap, also eight-sided is 10 ft. across. The vertical height of the cap is 11 ft. 5 in. When seen in 1963, the mill was sited near the museum buildings and badly treed up. When examined in 1969, it had been moved to a cleared site close to the road at the expense of a local farmer.

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References

• TIMS Mills GPS Database Mill ID 3020
• Wailes, Rex, & Auvo Hirsjärvi, "Finnish Mills Part III: Hollow Post Mills", (Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 44, 1971-1972, pp.99-118)

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