this floor was spread the wheat to be dried, through which the hot air, urged by the action of the fan, found its way.

This arrangement was not only found to be very useful in drying corn after it had been washed, but it was also very beneficial in drying corn that had been exposed to wet on the field, and prevented it from spoiling, as well as in giving the requisite degree of dryness which millers prefer. The extreme hardness and dryness of much of the Italian wheat, and the produce of some parts of the south of France, render the corn, unless it be moistened to make it "grind kindly," apt to splinter and break, like ground rice, rather than to flag out into meal, when the flour and bran readily separate.

The corn being treated in the dry or the humid way, if it require either, or if it be clean English wheat carefully dressed and winnowed by the farmer, it is brought to the proper shoots to be delivered into the millstones and ground, by means of the endless screw and the Jacob's ladder, or in mills of less size and pretension it is shot from the sack by the miller as he wants it.

When the wheat arrives at the mill, in the barge or the farmer's waggon, it is hoisted up by the sack-tackle-a very simple but ingenious machine, which ought to be much more generally used in all places where merchandise is to be lifted and loaded or warehoused.

Let us return to the mill driven by spur-gear, with a vertical shaft in the centre, extending from the bottom of the mill to the top. On the upper end of the vertical shaft is fixed a horizontal wheel, bevelled on the face and clad with wood fitted into it endways and turned smooth: against this works another wheel made in the same way (without teeth in either of them), but the grain of the wood being at right angles with the faces of the wheels; the two, when brought in close contact by means of a compound lever, bite together with sufficient adhesion to hoist a sack of wheat or flour. This contact is produced by the miller pulling a cord attached to the lever, and the wheels are brought forcibly together; the upright shaft always revolving while the mill is going, but the other wheel, which carries a roller and a chain, revolves only when the cord is pulled and while the two wheels are kept in contact.

The miller makes a noose with the ring at the end of the chain, tackles the sack, and pulls the cord; the wheels are brought into contact, and the sack ascends, opening the

trap-doors in each succeeding floor, which again close as it passes through them, until the sack attains the required height, when he ceases to pull the cord, and lands it. In like manner, when he wants to lower a sack of flour into a barge or waggon, he tackles it with the noose, and lifts it by pulling the cord, then shoves it off, and preventing acceleration by an occasional, and dexterous pull of the cord, he drops it into the hands of the bargeman or waggoner, who guides its fall into the proper place.

Such is a brief outline of the mechanism of a corn-mill, whether driven by water or by steam; the windmill is fast disappearing from the rural landscape, and the author regrets the annihilation of one in which, when a boy, he spent many a pleasant hour; but surrounding buildings took the wind out of its sails, "and its destiny was accomplished."

Let it not be supposed by the readers of the present day that the author writes of times long past: he writes of his own time. "When George the Third was King," every Parliament was occupied in framing regulations respecting flour and bread, and most men of middle age remember when everything relating to flour and bread came under the cognisance of the magistrates, who fixed the price of the quartern loaf and the size of the penny loaf.

By the 36 Geo. 3, cap. 85 (1796), "Every miller shall keep balances and weights according to the standard of the Exchequer, and in default shall forfeit twenty shillings. Millers are to deliver the whole produce of corn when ground if required, allowing for waste on grinding and dressing, and for toll when taken; and if such corn shall weigh less than the full weight, such miller shall, for every bushel of corn deficient in weight forfeit a shilling and treble the value of such deficiency. When toll is taken, it shall be deducted before the corn is put into the mill, and no miller shall demand corn for toll under penalty of five pounds, except when persons shall not have money to pay for grinding. Every miller shall put up in his mill a table of the amount of such toll or multure, or forfeit twenty shillings for each offence, but this shall not extend to mills called 'Soke mills,' or to such ancient mills as are established by custom and the law of the land, which mills shall continue to take toll as they have been accustomed to do."

The inhabitants of two of the largest manufacturing towns in England are still compelled to have their corn

ground at the "Soke mills," and to eat no other bread. Leeds and Wakefield have risen rapidly in population and wealth, but when they were small communities, they petitioned their lords to build them mills, and in return bound themselves and their successors for ever to grind their corn there an obligation which, in these days of free trade, they would gladly cancel if they could. There are other places in the same condition, but they are content to give "the lords' mill" the preference to which it is by law entitled, so long as the lord of the manor will grind at market-price, without resisting his lordship "upon principle." Yet it is not to be supposed that such privileges, or even the toll taken by the miller, passed unquestioned or unresisted, for the 41 Geo. 3, c. 24, enacts that the damages occasioned by demolishing a mill by persons riotously assembled may be recovered in the manner prescribed by statute, respecting the demolishing of churches and other buildings; while the 43 Geo. 3, c. 58 (1802-3), enacts that any person who shall maliciously set fire to any mill in the possession of any other person or of any body corporate, shall be guilty of felony, and suffer death without benefit of clergy.

Mr. James Watt, at a late period of his life, thus writes: "The mention of the Albion mills induces me to say a few words respecting an establishment so unjustly calumniated in its day, and the premature destruction of which, by fire, in 1791, was not improbably imputed to design. So far from being, as misrepresented, a monopoly injurious to the public, it was the means of considerably reducing the price of flour, while it continued at work.

"It consisted of two engines, each of fifty horses' power, and twenty pairs of millstones, of which twelve or more pairs, with the requisite machinery for dressing the flour and for other purposes, were generally kept at work.

"In place of wooden wheels, always subject to frequent derangement, wheels of cast iron with the teeth truly formed and finished, and properly proportioned to the work, were here employed; and other machinery, which used to be made of wood, was made of cast-iron of an improved form; and I believe the work executed here may be said to form the commencement of that system of millwork which has proved so useful to the country.

"In the construction of that mill-work and machinery, Boulton and Watt derived most valuable aasistance from that able mechanician and engineer, Mr. John Rennie, then

just entering into business, who assisted in planning them, and under whose direction they were executed.

"The engines and mill-work were contained in a commodious and elegant building, designed and executed under the direction of the late Mr. Samuel Wyatt, architect."

Such was the fate of the first great steam-mill erected in London little more than sixty years ago, in which the talents of Watt and Rennie were combined. The year 1852 has witnessed the completion of an undertaking-"The City Flour Mills," which may be termed a flour manufactory rather than a mill, built near Blackfriars Bridge, and within sight of the spot where the "Albion Mills were erected— an enterprise which, if successful, as it promises to be, will effect great changes in this branch of industry.

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The present cotton mills in Manchester are scarcely more unlike the old system of hand-spinning, than is this building as compared with the picturesque water-mills we were accustomed to see in our young days. It has two engines working together on one shaft; they are large steampacket" engines, each of 125 horses' power, or, together, 250. There will be 60 pairs of millstones, all of them 4 feet in diameter, and making about 128 revolutions per minute; the upper millstones have hollow backs, and a blast is sent into them; thence it passes through the eye and through holes in the top stone; the air quickens the grinding, and makes the stones work cool. The millstones are placed in two rows, one against each side wall, on one floor. The flour is received in covered metal troughs, in which endless screws work the meal along into boxes, to be carried away by the Jacob's ladders or elevators.

The dressing-machines are hexagonal, and are covered with silk; they are 3 ft. 4 in. in diameter across the angles, and 34 ft. long, and have a slight inclination, about 20 inches in their whole length, and are driven at about 28 or 30 revolutions in a minute. The shafts of these machines are hollow, and have also holes through them; but the lower half of the shaft is closed; a blast is driven into the upper end of the hollow shaft, and blows through the holes into the inside of the dressing-mill, for about half its length, and through the silk, so that it cools the flour, cleans the silk, and quickens the action of dressing.

There are some wire machines for brushing the bran, but all the flour is dressed through silk, the chief object being to make fine flour. There are, besides corn-cleansers, also

with a blast, somewhat like those already described, and sack-tackles, worked by belts, many of which are doubleacting, at every point where they can be made useful, so that manual labour may be economised at every stage of the work by the intervention of mechanical power.

All the millstones and most of the machines are driven by belts, which lessen the noise considerably, and much ingenuity is displayed in their application to prevent lateral stress on the necks of the mill spindles and to obviate the other objections to belts before mentioned: the spindles are long, and have no foot-bridges, each being stepped on a

b The meal spout.

c Collar or ring of leather to confine the air brought in by a flexible

pipe.

d Forked end of the lever to regulate the supply of corn to the millstones. The arrows show the course of the air.

hollow pillar, containing a regulating screw, and the upper stones are hung, like a mariner's compass, on gymbal rings, and carefully balanced: so that altogether it may be said this is a flour factory rather than a corn-mill; and in order