A ship mill, more commonly known as a boat mill is a type of watermill. The milling and grinding technology and the drive (waterwheel) are built on a floating platform on this type of mill. [1] Its first recorded use dates back to mid-6th century AD Italy. [2]
Between barge and boat well is the undershot water wheel, which is driven by the flowing water of the current. There is also evidence of water mills for which both sides had a narrower water wheel, similar to an old paddle steamer. The floating platform is anchored at the most intense point in the current, to the bridge piers for easy access to the mill, or to the shore.
Floating allows the mill to operate with the same power despite changing water levels. The efficiency of the mill can at best match a standard undershot mill. Ship mills could potentially run full-time, good for tasks that demanded constant power.
Ship mills could be drawn to shore (due to shipping, rafting, ice) when needed. In central Europe ship mills were, as most water and wind mills, owned by lords or monasteries. Ship mills in Central Europe have not remained; after the advent of riverboat traffic, they became a hindrance. Ship mills last about fifty years.
In the 537 siege of Rome, supplies were interrupted by the Goths from providing the population with vital flour from the surrounding water mills. Also, the aqueducts that supplied Rome with water and some cities which had water-driven mills could no longer work. The solution devised by the Eastern Roman general Belisarius was the "reverse principle of a water mill" - the ship mills, which were anchored on the Tiber river around Rome. [2]
It was a type of watermill powered by water wheels mounted on the sides of vessels moored in midstream, preferably close to bridges where the current is stronger. From then on, the ship mill spread to Europe, reaching Paris (556), Geneva (563) and Dijon (c. 575). [3]
Ship mills were developed in the Islamic world some time between the 8th and 10th centuries. [4] They were employed along the Tigris at Mosul in 10th-century Iraq, where large ship mills made of wood and iron could produce 10 tons of flour from corn daily for the granary in Baghdad. [5] In 1184, Ibn Jubayr described ship mills in the same region on the Khabur River. [5] From the lack of records, it appears that they did not spread further to Iran. [6]
From the late 10th century onwards, there was an expansion of milling in Northern Europe. [4] Since then, ship mills were common in much of Europe until the 19th century, with a few of them surviving today. [7]
The German terms "Schiffsmühle" or "Schiffmühle" are used according to local language preferences.
Ship mills were used on most major rivers in Europe.
There are some replicas of ship mills:
There are also ship mills on land, as monuments:
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of many material goods, including flour, lumber, paper, textiles, and many metal products. These watermills may comprise gristmills, sawmills, paper mills, textile mills, hammermills, trip hammering mills, rolling mills, wire drawing mills.
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving car. Water wheels were still in commercial use well into the 20th century but they are no longer in common use. Uses included milling flour in gristmills, grinding wood into pulp for papermaking, hammering wrought iron, machining, ore crushing and pounding fibre for use in the manufacture of cloth.
The Mulde is a river in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Elbe and is 124 kilometres (77 mi) long.
A noria is a hydropowered scoop wheel used to lift water into a small aqueduct, either for the purpose of irrigation or to supply water to cities and villages.
Haxted Watermill is a much-restored Grade II listed watermill in Surrey, England, close to the border with Kent, and is powered by the River Eden.
The Mur or Mura is a river in Central Europe rising in the Hohe Tauern national park of the Central Eastern Alps in Austria with its source being 1,898 m (6,227 ft) above sea level. It is a tributary of the Drava and subsequently the Danube.
Floridsdorf is the 21st district of Vienna, located in the northern part of the city and comprising seven formerly independent communities: Floridsdorf, Donaufeld, Greater Jedlersdorf, Jedlesee, Leopoldau, Stammersdorf, and Strebersdorf.
Donaustadt is the 22nd district of Vienna, Austria . Donaustadt is the eastern district of Vienna.
Donau-Auen National Park covers 93 square kilometres in Vienna and Lower Austria and is one of the largest remaining floodplains of the Danube in Middle Europe.
The Danube–Oder Canal is a planned and partially constructed artificial waterway in the Lobau floodplain of the Danube at Vienna, that was supposed to stretch along the Morava River to the Oder at the city of Kędzierzyn-Koźle in Poland.
Grimma is a town in Saxony, Central Germany, on the left bank of the Mulde, 25 kilometres (16 mi) southeast of Leipzig. Founded in c. 1170, it is part of the Leipzig district.
The ancient Romans were famous for their advanced engineering accomplishments. Technology for bringing running water into cities was developed in the east, but transformed by the Romans into a technology inconceivable in Greece. The architecture used in Rome was strongly influenced by Greek and Etruscan sources.
A tide mill is a water mill driven by tidal rise and fall. A dam with a sluice is created across a suitable tidal inlet, or a section of river estuary is made into a reservoir. As the tide comes in, it enters the mill pond through a one-way gate, and this gate closes automatically when the tide begins to fall. When the tide is low enough, the stored water can be released to turn a water wheel.
Letheringsett watermill is situated on the River Glaven in the village of Letheringsett within the English county of Norfolk. Letheringsett is in the district of North Norfolk and is 1.4 miles (2.3 km) west of the town of Holt. The watermill is a Grade II* listed building and is the last fully operational watermill in Norfolk that produces flour. See inside and explore the watermill here
The Hierapolis sawmill was a Roman water-powered stone sawmill at Hierapolis, Asia Minor. Dating to the second half of the 3rd century AD, the sawmill is considered the earliest known machine to combine a crank with a connecting rod to form a crank slider mechanism.
The International Wind- and Watermill Museum, at Gifhorn in the German state of Lower Saxony, is the only one of its kind in Europe. On the museum's open-air site, which covers an area of around 16 hectares, there are currently 16 mills from 12 different countries. The mills are either original or faithful reproductions and are set in landscapes typical of their origins. Right across the site are historic artefacts associated with mills and the milling industry. The museum site is easily accessed by road; nearby is the intersection between the B 4 and B 188 federal highways. The museum is station 65 on the Lower Saxon Mill Road.
A gristmill grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding.
The Watermill at Kollen is a watermill along the river Kleine Dommel, located on the Collseweg 1 in 't Coll, Eindhoven, in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. First mentioned in the 14th century, the watermill burned down and was rebuilt in 1681.
