the final dressing of the flour
takes place, is a conglomeration
of machinery which at first
perplexes even the most ardent
engineering enthusiasts. There
are more gears, pulleys and
levers than in the cap which is
the engine room of the mill.
If you look at the ceiling you will
notice the positions of the
underside of the stones above.
The outer right-hand and left-
hand stones are furnished with
original tentering gear, thr right
hand having automatic
tentering accomplished by the
use of governers patented by
Thomas Mead in 1787. Although
the gap was set by hand when
spun round faster, lifting the
forked arm or ‘steelyard’ which
in turn lifts the ‘Bray’, a
secondary lever which lifted the
‘bridge tree’ and its spindle with
mace head on top and finally the
runner stone itself.
The inside right-hand stone has
a large horizontal pulley
underneath its spindle which
would appear to have driven the
countershaft via two smaller
pulleys, situated above the bolter
machine. Alternatively the
countershaft could be driven off
an intermediate pulley on the
outside left-hand stone. This
pulleys also drives another frame
between the four stout support
pillars. The speed of this machine
is governed by two alternately
arranged taper pulleys linked by
a belt which can be raised or
lowered by the governers near
the stairs via a long steelyard the
governers taking their drive off a
pulley on the same vertical axle
as one of the taper pulleys.
From the mealspout of the
outside right-hand stone and
driven through bevel gears and
pulley from its spindle is an
‘auger creeper’, which conveys
the meal horizontally across the
top of the ‘sifter’. There
are also two elevators, one for
recycling meal back to the stone
floor for second stage grinding
and one feeding the ‘sifter’.
