Bartolomeo Verde proposed to the Venetians in 1332, to build a wind-mill. When his plan had been examined, he had a piece of ground assigned him, which he was to retain if his undertaking succeeded within a specified time. In 1373, the city of Spires caused a wind-mill to be erected, and sent to the Netherlands for a person acquainted with the method of grinding by it. A wind-mill was also constructed at Frankfort, in 1442; but it does not appear to have been ascertained whether there were any there before.
About the twelfth century, in the pontificate of Gregory, when both wind and water-mills became more general, a dispute arose whether mills were titheable or not. The dispute existed for some time between the persons possessed of mills and the clergy; when neither would yield. At length, upon the matter being referred to the pope and sacred college, the question was, (as might have been expected when interested persons were made the arbitrators,) determined in favour of the claims of the church.
There was one inconvenience attending wind-mills, which might be obviated in other mills: the mill was useless unless the wind was in a particular direction. To remedy this, various modes were tried; at first, the mill was fixed on a floating body in the water, which might be turned to any wind. The next improvement consisted in turning the body of the mill to meet the direction of the wind; this was effected by two modes: first, the whole building is constructed in such a manner as to turn on a pivot below; this method is said to have been invented in Germany, and is called the German mode: second, the building is formed so as to turn on the roof, with the shafts supporting the sails only; this is called the Dutch mode, being invented by a Fleming about the middle of the sixteenth century. This is the mode principally adopted in England.
Although in the earliest ages of the world men might have been, perhaps, satisfied with having their corn reduced to a mealable form alone; yet after this had been with care effected, then they thought of improving upon this conveniency, and separating the farinaceous part from the bran and husks. This was certainly desirable; therefore they bolted it in a sieve with a long handle attached to it, with a hair, or fine lawn lining; this was common in this country till within the last sixty or eighty years; but by degrees, opportunities of improvement in the mechanism of mills suggested to some mechanic the idea of constructing what is now called bolting mills, applied to the mill for grinding, and wrought at the same time by appropriate machinery.
It appears that sieves of horse-hair were first used by the Gauls, then those of linen by the Spaniards. The mode of applying a sieve in the form of an extending bag to catch the meal as it fell from the stones, and of causing it to be turned and shaken, was first made known in the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The best bolting cloths are universally allowed to be manufactured in England; they are made of wool of the longest and the best kind, peculiarly prepared; being first well washed and spun to a fine and equal thread; which, before it be scoured, must be scalded in hot water to prevent its shrinking. The web must be then stiffened; it is in this we possess an advantage which others cannot attain. Our bolting cloth is stiffer, as well as much smoother, than any foreign manufacture. So jealous are our German neighbours of this, that they have established manufactories in several places at a great expense, and under very peculiar regulations, for its fabrication. After all, they are compelled to confess, that theirs will not wear above three weeks in a flour manufactory, whereas ours will continue well three months in equal exposure to friction and ordinary wear.
For some years past, the French have been extolled for a mode of grinding, called mouture economique; that were we not aware such had been practised in ancient Rome, it might be conceived to form an important epoch in the miller’s art. This process, however, is not new; it consists in first grinding the wheat not so fine as might be required for ordinary purposes; afterwards putting the meal several times through the mill, and sifting it with various sieves. It should seem this method was practised in ancient Rome; for Pliny, who took care to inform himself of most things, tells us, that in his time they had, at least, five different kinds of flour, all procured from the same corn. It appears, that the ancient Romans had advanced very far in this art, as well as in that of baking, &c., from what may be collected from its economical polity preserved by Pliny and others. Whence it may be fairly inferred, they knew how to prepare from corn more kinds of meal, and from meal more kinds of bread, than the moderns even now are acquainted with.
Pliny reckons that bread should be one-third heavier than the meal used for baking it: this proportion it appears, was known in Germany nearly a century and a half ago, and discovered from experiments on bread made at different times. German bakers, although they may have been occasionally mistaken, have always undoubtedly given more bread than meal. It appears that in latter periods, the art of grinding, as well as baking, has declined very much in Italy; and their bread, although produced from the finest grain in the world, is altogether bad when manufactured by Italians. On this account, bakers from Germany it seems, are generally employed in public baking-houses, as well at Rome as in Venice. Bakers of that people are generally settled at those places, where they have been in the habit of manufacturing that article for the principal inhabitants, for upwards of three hundred years.
From Beckmann’s History, it would appear that the mouture economique of the French has been known to the Germans for more than two hundred years. Many were the attempts, repeatedly enforced, to deter the experiments made, from time to time, by the French experimentalists, to perfect this article previous to its being accomplished. In this, the French suffered themselves to be taught by prejudice and directed by ignorance. Numerous and judicious were the experiments made by the scientific and philosophic of that people to produce the most in quantity and best in quality from a definite quantity of grain, at which the ignorant of their species suffered their prejudice to revolt, and the powerful readily come into the mode of thinking of the vulgar, to whom they lent their aid, to effect what Heaven in revelation had commanded, viz: “Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” Mat. vii. 6.
It will, from the succeeding statement, that in using the language which has just appeared, circumstances sanctioned us. The clergy of the chapel royal, and parish church at Versailles, sent their wheat in the beginning of last century to be ground at an adjacent mill: according to custom, it was put through the mill only once, and the bran, which yet contained much flour, was sold for fattening cattle. This miller having, however, in process of time learnt the process of the mouture economique, purchased the bran from these ecclesiastics, and found that it yielded him as good flour as they had procured from the whole wheat. The miller, at length, is presumed, in a qualm of conscience, to have regretted cheating those holy men; he accordingly discovered to them the secret, and gave them afterwards fourteen bushels of flour from their wheat, instead of eight, which he had only furnished them before. This voluntary discovery of the miller was made in 1760; and it is probable the same discovery was made at the same time by others.