Two men on a mill : $b The story of the restoration of Baxter's MillCastonguay, A. Harold
Philosophy
Two men on a mill : $b The story of the restoration of Baxter's Mill
Castonguay, A. Harold
Flour mills -- Conservation and restoration -- Massachusetts -- Cape Cod; Flour mills -- Massachusetts -- Cape Cod -- History
The summer of 1961 is now hard upon us, as is the horde of vacation
seekers; so, at least for a while, we are forced to give up our labors
at the mill and go to other pursuits, but just as soon as autumn comes
around we start in again Saturday mornings at the old mill site.
The mill stones had to be sharpened and we found out that this was
really beyond the scope of our knowledge and skill.
Inquiries at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts led
us to finding one of the few men left who could “pick up” the stones.
This gentleman, Arthur Mattson, of Plainville, Connecticut, consented
to come, and finally did come to the Cape, and in a matter of hours had
sharpened the stones to the nth degree.
While he was here, we gleaned as much information from him as we could,
in the course of which we found that he owned five mill stones which
were grinding out stone ground flour, and that he had been supplying,
for many years, the stone ground flour to the Pepperidge Farm Mills in
Connecticut, famous for their Pepperidge Farm Bread.
Among other things, he showed us how to construct a “damsel” (which is
nothing but a small flutter board hung below the mouth of the hopper)
and wiggles just enough to let the grain drop into the stones at the
proper quantity.
About a year from the date we started to work on the mill, to wit:
August 3, 1960, we are able to open the pen gate, let the rushing
water fill up the flume and wheel pit, raise the skirt in the turbine,
and with a feeling of great self-satisfaction, see and hear the
stones turn, albeit, a little slow at first, since the stones were
not properly balanced, but, nevertheless, lo and behold, all our work
finally paid off.
Someone shouted, “Ho, ho, she starts, she moves, she feels a spark of
life.” You can well imagine who that was.
As near as we can figure, these stones had not been turning for exactly
seventy-one years, and frankness would be lacking if we did not feel
proud of our hard work and efforts.
The mill actually ran smoothly, and with very little noise, but to be
sure that we were not subject to hallucinations we spent the better
part of the afternoon turning the wheel off and on. The wheel and
its heavy but simplified gears responded with slow speed and gradual
pick-up of revolutions to a very deliberate cadence.
Again I was struck with the simplicity of the working of the turbine
and wheel, and perhaps the economy of the whole affair was intriguing.
One had only to look at the water pouring into the wheel pit to
see the power of the stream and to reflect upon the fact that it
cost absolutely nothing for this power. Gear grease, oil or other
lubrication was absolutely unnecessary to maintain the operation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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