ken gibbs
02-08-2011, 8:14 AM
I hope that the Sawmill Creek folks will move this thread to a new home that will be appreciated.
Several years ago I had the pleasure of getting a long look inside a circa 1900 grain mill located in Blue Grass,Virginia in Highland County. Highland County is in far northwest Virginia and surrounded by West By god Virginia and is known as Little Switzerland of the South.
The Blue Grass Mill was the first mill in Virginia and likely these United States not built as an "water over the big wheel" type mill. It was water powered using a variable pitch water driven impeller wherein you could adjust the speed of the main drive shaft that extended up for four stories. This old water powered mill is the most amazing example of German mechanical engineering and wood working skills that I have ever seen. You could drive your wagon up to the side of the mill with grain sacks. A water driven winch was used to unload grain sacks up to the 4th story where the grain was dumped into grain shoots or hoppers. Your grain was then ground through several grinders to your specifications and blended with what ever you wanted. This process went through all four floors and you collected your finished grain on the bottom floor.
The Blue Grass Mill was built out of local woods milled in the area. The twenty foot grain augers were hand carved out of sugar (hard) maple and are still in place. These augers are carved as helix structures with no center supports. It must have taken a life time to learn how to carve these augers. The center 18" "bull" power shaft stands four stories high and runs vertically off of the impeller structure that is turned by the variable pitch impeller. I could grab the center drive shaft and turn it by hand because it is so perfectly balanced. All of the gearing is hand carved sugar maple and made to be replacable. All of the mechanical attachments to the bull shaft are either gear driven or driven off of leather belts that were engaged by hand. I am still in awh of these craftsmen. The mill still stands. If you might be intersted in organizing a tour in the future, get back to me.
Several years ago I had the pleasure of getting a long look inside a circa 1900 grain mill located in Blue Grass,Virginia in Highland County. Highland County is in far northwest Virginia and surrounded by West By god Virginia and is known as Little Switzerland of the South.
The Blue Grass Mill was the first mill in Virginia and likely these United States not built as an "water over the big wheel" type mill. It was water powered using a variable pitch water driven impeller wherein you could adjust the speed of the main drive shaft that extended up for four stories. This old water powered mill is the most amazing example of German mechanical engineering and wood working skills that I have ever seen. You could drive your wagon up to the side of the mill with grain sacks. A water driven winch was used to unload grain sacks up to the 4th story where the grain was dumped into grain shoots or hoppers. Your grain was then ground through several grinders to your specifications and blended with what ever you wanted. This process went through all four floors and you collected your finished grain on the bottom floor.
The Blue Grass Mill was built out of local woods milled in the area. The twenty foot grain augers were hand carved out of sugar (hard) maple and are still in place. These augers are carved as helix structures with no center supports. It must have taken a life time to learn how to carve these augers. The center 18" "bull" power shaft stands four stories high and runs vertically off of the impeller structure that is turned by the variable pitch impeller. I could grab the center drive shaft and turn it by hand because it is so perfectly balanced. All of the gearing is hand carved sugar maple and made to be replacable. All of the mechanical attachments to the bull shaft are either gear driven or driven off of leather belts that were engaged by hand. I am still in awh of these craftsmen. The mill still stands. If you might be intersted in organizing a tour in the future, get back to me.