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Abstract
Recent archaeological discoveries of early medieval horizontal water-wheels in Ireland have shed important new light on the origins and technical development of the horizontal water-wheel in Asia and Europe. As will be argued below, based on this evidence, a number of general patterns are beginning to emerge. In the first of these it is clear that regional variations on basic types had already developed across the island of Ireland from at least the seventh century onwards. Indeed, a number of these also appear to have been designed to accommodate seasonal water flows. The recent Irish evidence is also compared with what is currently known from medieval written sources from Europe. Together, these demonstrate clear continuity in the use of certain forms of horizontal water-wheel from the early medieval period up to very recent times.
Notes
1 C. Rynne, ‘Mills and Milling in Early Medieval Ireland’, in The Mill at Kilbegly. An Archaeological Investigation on the Route of the M6 Ballinasloe to Athlone National Road Scheme, ed. by N. Jackman, C. Moore and C. Rynne (NRA, Dublin, 2013), pp. 115–51, at p. 142.
2 Ibid., pp. 142–43.
3 C. Moore and E. O’Carroll, ‘Worked Wood and Woodland Resources’, in The Mill at Kilbegly, p. 52.
4 E. M. Fahy, ‘A Horizontal Mill at Mashanaglass, County Cork’, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, lxi (1956), 13–57, fig. 6.
5 P. L. Pelet, ‘Turbit et turbine. Les roués hydrauliques horizontals du Valais’, Vallesia, 43 (1988), 25–64.
6 Rynne, ‘Mills and Milling’, pp. 143–44.
7 T. McErlean, ‘The Water-Wheels of Mill 1 and Mill 2, the Water-Wheel Assembly, the Tentering System and the Wheelhouse’, in T. McErlean and N. Crothers, Harnessing the Tides: The Early Medieval Tide Mills at Nendrum Monastery, Strangford Lough (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 2007), pp. 158–59.
8 A. T. Lucas, ‘A Horizontal Mill at Ballykilleen, County Offaly’, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, lxxxv (1955), 100–13.
9 H. T. Knox, ‘Notes on Gig-Mills and Drying Kilns near Ballyhaunis, County Mayo’, Proc. of the Royal Irish Academy, 26C (1906–07), 263–73.
10 McErlean, p. 158; Moore and O’Carroll, p. 52.
11 T. Lalor Cooke, ‘Description of the Baranaan Cuilawn, and some conjectures upon the original use thereof; together with an account of the superstitious purposes to which it was latterly applied. Also a description of the remains of an ancient mill, which were recently discovered near the ruins of Glankeen church, in the County of Tipperary’, Trans. of the Royal Irish Academy, 14 (1825), 31–45, at p. 30, fig. 2.
12 D. Byrne, ‘Ancient Irish Watermills’, Trans. Kilkenny Archaeological Society, i (1849–51), 154–64.
13 Fahy, p. 22.
14 The Mill at Kilbegly, p. 33; C. Earwood, ‘The Wooden Artefacts’, in C. J. Lynn and J. A. McDowell, Deer Park Farms: The Excavation of a Raised Rath in the Glen Valley, Co. Antrim (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 2011), pp. 386–416, at p. 398; McErlean, pp. 171–72.
15 McErlean, pp. 172–73, table 8; Moore and O’Carroll, p. 52.
16 McErlean, table 8.
17 Earwood, p. 398.
18 Pelet, p. 54.
19 F. Kelly, Early Irish Farming: A Study Based Mainly on the Law Texts of the 7th and 8th Centuries ad (Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, Dublin, 1997), pp. 560–61.
20 Ibid., p. 565.
21 R. B. Ulrich, Roman Woodworking (New Haven and London, 2007), p. 54.
22 P. Kidson, ‘A Metrological Investigation’, Jnl of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 53 (1990), 71–97, at p. 74.
23 D. Ó Corrain, ‘Some Cruxes in Críth Gablach’, Peritia, 15 (2001), 311–20. This is also mentioned in Cóir anmann (‘Fitness of Names’) a Middle Irish text which also contains material dating from perhaps the eighth and ninth centuries, right up to the twelfth century; ibid., p. 314; S. Arbuthnot, ed. and trans., Cóir Anmann: A Later Medieval Irish Treatise on Personal Names,Irish Texts Society, 59 (London, 2005).
24 McErlean, pp. 168–69. McErlean also points to the similarities between the Ballykilleen example and that from Dalswinton in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, although neither of the latter are dated and could also be post-medieval.
25 Ibid., p. 169.
26 Ibid., p. 169.
27 J. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 4 part II. Mechanical Engineering (Cambridge University Press, 1965), pp. 374–76. The use of water-power in the early Chinese iron industry, in the Nanyang region, is now known to extend back as far as the third century bc; see D. B. Wagner, Iron and Steel in Ancient China (Leiden: Brill, 1993), p. 263, and D. B. Wagner, Science and Civilization in China. Vol. 5. Chemistry and Chemical Technology: Part II Ferrous Metallurgy (Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 241–42.
28 M. Harverson, ‘Chutes and Droptowers Water Delivery to Horizontal Mills’, Transactions of the International Molinological Society,9 (2004) 53–65.
29 Two possible paddles have also been recovered from Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, but are undated. Neither of these has any close parallels in either the archaeological record or with more recent examples in Europe or Asia.
30 P. Rahtz and R. Meesom, An Anglo-Saxon Watermill at Tamworth. Excavations in the Boleridge Street Area of Tamworth, Staffordshire in 1971 and 1978, CBA Research Report 83 (London, 1992), 125.
31 Ibid., fig. 72, p. 104. According to Rahtz and Meeson (ibid., p. 125), ‘The paddle spacing at Tamworth, and the diameter of the wheel-assembly, and that of the main shaft, were agreed by [F. W. B.] Charles on the basis of his calculations and his extensive knowledge of both mills and timber technology’. In the course of this study I was unable to find any published work by Mr Charles on early medieval or later horizontal water-wheels.
32 To their credit, Rahtz and Meeson (ibid., p. 125) do acknowledge this as a possibility, on the basis of the Moycraig wheel but do, nevertheless, go along with Charles’ reconstruction.
33 M. Watts and A. Hardy, ‘The Design and Operation of the Northfleet Mill’, in Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley. High Speed 1. Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent: the Late Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval Landscape. Volume 1: The Sites, ed. by P. Andrews, E. Biddulph, A. Hardy, and R. Brown (Oxford, 2011), p. 327.
34 Ibid., p. 327.
35 Ibid., p. 326, fig. 6.12; p. 334, fig. 6.14.
36 Ibid., p. 327.
37 L. Smith, ‘The Northfleet Mill Pentrough Compass Geometry’, in Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley, fig. 6.24, p. 343.
38 Ibid., p. 342.
39 E. Caruso, Mulini e mugnai in Romagna e nell’Italia de medievo (n.p, 2004), pp. 160–61; G. Rochetta, D’acqua e di farine. Mulini idraulica nel castiglionese (n.p., 2009), pp. 51–53; I. Casoli, ‘La derivazione’, in I mulini ad adqua della Valle dell’Enza. Economia tecnica lessico, ed. by F. Foresti, W. Baricchi, and M. Tozzi Fontana (Casalecchio di Reno, 1984), pp. 72–73; W. Baricchi, ‘Sistema tecnico’, in I mulini ad adqua della Valle dell’Enza, pp. 75–79.
40 T. F. Glick, Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages (Princeton, 1979), p. 233.
41 L. Martínez Carillo and M. Martínez Martínez, Origenes y expansion de los molinos hidráulicos en la cuidad y huerta de Murcia (siglos XII–XV) (Ajuntamiento de Murcia, 2000), p. 99.
42 V. Lagardère, ‘Moulins d’Occident musulman au moyen age (IX au XV siècles), Al-Andalus’, Al Qantara, 12 (1991), 109; S. Selma, ‘De la construcció islàmica al casalici modern: l’evolució molí hidràulic Valencia’, in Els molins hidràulic valencians. Tecnologia, història i context social, ed. by T. F. Glick, E. Guinot, and L. P. Martínez (Valencia, 2000), pp. 103–63; M. Harverson, Mills of the Muslim World (London: SPAB, 2000), p. 13.
43 A. Keller, trans., The Twenty-One Books of Engineering and Machines of Juanelo Turriano,2 vols (Madrid: Fundación Juanelo Turriano, 1998), vol. 2, p. 322.
44 Ibid., pp. 323, 329, 249.
45 J. A. García-Diego and N. García Tapia, Vida y técnica en el renacimiento. Manuscritó que escribió, en el siglo XVI, Francisco Lobato, vecino de Medina del Campo (Valladolid, 1987), pp. 16–17; N. García Tapia, ‘Los molinos en el manuscrito de Francisco Lobato (siglo XVI)’, in Losmolinos: cultura y tecnología, ed. by L. V. Elias (Madrid, 1988), pp. 151–72.
46 García-Diego and García Tapia, pp. 63–64, fol. 16.
47 F. Sendra Bañuls, Molins d’aigua a la Vall d’ Albaida (Ontinyent, 1998), p. 38; R. Córdoba de la Llave, ‘Some Reflections on the Use of Waterpower in Al-Andalus’, in Economia e energia Sec. XII–XVII, ed. by S. Cavaiciocchi (Florence, 2003), pp. 936–37; E. Viega de Oliviera, F. Galhano, and B. Pereira, Tecnologia tradicional portuguesa: sistemas de maogem, 2 (Lisbon, 1983), p. 112ff.
48 J. P. Azèma, ‘Horizontal Water-Wheels in Aveyron in the Southern Part of the Massif-Central, France’, Transactions of the International Molinological Society, 7 (1994), 85–92, at p. 8.
49 S. Caucanas, Moulin et irrigation en Roussillon du IXe au XVe siècle (Paris, 2002), pp. 147, 157, n. 32. However, despite the similarity in the terms for horizontal water-wheel in Catalan and the immediate proximity of Roussillon (where Catalan is still widely spoken) to northern Spain, Sylvie Caucanus maintains that the most widely used variety of water-wheel in the area during the medieval period is not known (ibid., p. 155).
50 P. Brandizzi Vitucci, ‘Circo massimo: contributo di scavo per la topographia medievale’, ArcheologiaLaziale, 9 (1988), 406–16; P. Brandizzi Vitucci, ‘L’emiciclo de Circo Massimo nell’utilizzazione post classica’, Mélanges de l’Ecole Francaise de Rome, Moyen Age, 103 (1991), 7–40.
51 J. Muendel, ‘The Horizontal Mills of Medieval Pistoia’, Technology and Culture, 15 (1974), 200.
52 Ibid., p. 200.
53 Muendel, pp. 194–225.
54 Caruso, p. 165.
55 Muendel, p. 200.
56 Ibid., p. 200.
57 F. D. Prager and G. Scaglia, Mariano Taccola and his book De Ingeneis (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1972), p. 107. Ibid., p. 107, 57. G. Scaglia, F. D. Prager, and U. Montag, Mariamo Taccola De Ingeneis. Liber primus leonis, liber secundis draconis, Addenda Books I and II, on Engines and Machines (The Notebook) (Wiesbaden, 1984), pp. 166, 214. It has been suggested by Anthony Bryer and by Philip Rahtz (1981) that a fifth- or sixth-century mosaic in the Great Palace of Constantinople depicts the tail-race outlets of two horizontal-wheeled mills, see A. Bryer, The Empire of Trebizond and the Pontus (London, 1980), p. 410; P. Rahtz, ‘Medieval Milling’, in Medieval Industry, ed. by D. W. Crossley, CBA Research Report 40 (London, 1981), 1–15. Based on what is currently known about medieval and recent water-mills of this type, this seems highly unlikely. In either chute- or arubah-fed mills the tail-race arches would have been much smaller than those depicted, whilst the buildings behind these have little in common with those of horizontal water-mills. There is also an illustration of a late fifteenth-century horizontal mill in Bohemia in the Anonymous of the Hussite Wars Ms (Codex Latinus Monacensis 197, fol. 18v). This has been dated by Hall to 1472–75, and it depicts a shrouded horizontal water-wheel with compass arms and what appear to be flat vanes, see B. S. Hall, The Technological Illustrations of the So-Called ‘Anonymous of the Hussite Wars’: Codex Latinus Monacensis 197. Pt. 1 (Wiesbaden, 1979).
58 C. Maltese, ed., Francesco di Giorgio Martini: Trattati di Architettura Ingegneria e Arte Militare, 2 vols (Milan, 1967), vol. i, 143; vol. ii, fol. 34, Tav 63; fol. 36v, Tav 70; vol. 2, 501, fol. 95v, Tav 326.
59 Ibid., vol. ii, fol. 95v, Tav 326; vol. i, fol. 34, Tav 64.
60 Ibid., vol. ii, 501, fol. 95v, Tav 326; vol. i, 143, fol. 34 Tav 63.
61 Caruso, p. 146, Ms 172, fol. 110v, Fondo Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scale. Archivo di Stao di Sienna.
62 L. Reti, ‘Francesco di Giorgio Martini’s Treatise on Engineering and its Plagiarists’, Technology and Culture, 4.3 (1963), 287–98, at p. 287.
63 S. B. Ek, Väder kvarnar och vatten möllor,Nordiska Museets Handlingar, 58 (Stockholm, 1962), 56; L. Reti, ‘A Postscript to the Filarete Discussion on Horizontal Water-Wheels and Smelter Blowers in the Writings of Leonardo da Vinci and Juanelo Turriano’, Technology and Culture, 6 (1965), 428–41, at p. 437.
64 Ibid., pp. 437–38.
65 M. T. Gnudi and E. S. Ferguson, The Various and Ingenious Machines of Agostino Ramelli. A Classic Sixteenth-Century Illustrated Treatise on Technology (New York, 1976), pp. 13–19.
66 Ibid., pl. 114, p. 293.
67 H. Liu, ‘“The Water-mill” and Northern Song Imperial Patronage of Art, Commerce and Science’, The Art Bulletin,84.4 (2002), 566–95.
68 Needham, pp. 374–76.
69 E. Wehrli and H. Brütsch, Mühlen in Tibet (Opuscula Tibetana. Arbeiten aus dem Tibet-Institut Rikon-Zürich, 1993), pp. 28–30.
70 Banu Musa bin Shakir, The Book of Ingenious Devices (Kitāb al-hiyal), trans. by D. R. Hill (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1979), pp. 19–24.
71 Ibn al Razzaz al Jazari, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (Kitab fi ma ‘rifat al-hihal al handasiyya),trans. by D. R. Hill (Dordrecht/Boston, 1974), p. 223.
72 Ibid., p. 223.
73 Ibid., p. 274.
74 Ibid., p. 274.
75 Ibid., p. 182.
76 H. E. Wulff, The Traditional Crafts of Persia (London, 1966), p. 291. In the traditional rice-hulling mills of the Alburz mountains of Iran, described by Hans Wulff, a hollowed-out tree trunk was used to direct a jet of water onto what he characterized as ‘a kind of Pelton wheel’. The latter consisted of some 16 scooped vanes, vertically mounted on a horizontal axle, a mode of construction very similar to the dawlab dhu kaffat illustrated by al Jazari.
77 Ibid., pp. 95–96.
78 Ibid., p. 275.
79 Ibid., p. 275.
80 Ibid., p. 186.
81 Ibid., p. 186.
82 M. Barceló, ‘The Missing Watermill: A Question of Technological Diffusion in the High Middle Ages’, in The Making of Feudal Agricultures?, ed. byM. Barceló and F. Sigaut (Leiden: Brill, 2004), p. 277.
83 C. Rynne, ‘Technological Continuity, Technological “Survival”: The Use of Horizontal Mills in Western Ireland, c. 1632–1940’, Industrial Archaeological Review, 33.2 (2011), 96–105.