Tide Mill Institute continues its mission of researching and cataloging historic tide mill sites and promoting the use of tidal energy as a sustainable power source. In the past year, we have accomplished the following:

• Transferred mid-twentieth century notes and papers of Peveril Meigs, tide mill researcher, to the Maine State Library.
• Expanded our growing database of worldwide tide mill sites.
• Built a consortium with Canadian researchers investigating seventeenth-century tide mill remnants in Maine and the Maritime provinces of Canada.
• Collaborated with preservation organizations on several extant tide mill structures on the east coast of the U.S.
• Organized and found a publicly-accessible home for the Bud Warren Collection of multi-decade tide mill research.
• Worked with engineers, scientists, and the National Hydropower Association to investigate sites for future tidal power generation.

TMI is always looking for information (deeds, oral history, maps, physical remnants) about tide mill sites. Please contact TMI if you can help.

by Deane Rykerson
TMI President

“Merchant and Millwright, the Water Powered Mills of the Piscataqua” by Richard Candee is a fascinating article about the economy of early New England published in 1970. Although rarely differentiating between stream and tidal mills, the text explains how the resources of timber and water power were integral to the earliest European settlements.

From the first mill (1633-1634) contracted by John Mason on the Little Newichwannok River (presently South Berwick), sawing lumber was a primary activity. Several English maps included show the number of water powered mills before 1700 in the region. Although it is commonly believed that New England wood resources were mostly for ships’ masts, Candee shows that sawn lumber was also an important export.

Continue reading “Sawmills and the Economy of Early New England” →

By Deane Rykerson
TMI President

Tide mills had all the functions that stream mills did, from cutting lumber to milling flour. But did you ever wonder why gristmills are so much more vertical than sawmills? There is often a roof monitor or cupola in a gristmill. Well, form follows function and gravity is an important part of the function of grinding grain. If we follow a kernel of wheat from harvesting to being ready for bread, we can see how important height can be to aid the milling process. What goes up must come down.

At the top of the mill there is storage for the grain, fed by a hopper. The grain then descends to a screening process that shakes and sifts to remove gravel and sticks from the food product. At the next lower level the clean kernels are fed between the grinding stones, gradually working outward on the grooves of the bedstone. A rotating screened tube, called a bolter, can then be used to separate the coarser meal from the finer flour.

Continue reading “Grist Mills and Gravity” →