The Florida agriculturist., 1880-09-15
NUMBER XI

Simmons
The first mills used in more modern
times were known as edge mills, and
are now chiefly used for crushing oil.
seeds, apples (in cider districts, and
in tanneries. A large heavy wheel,
generally Of stone, Was made to re-
volve vertically upon its edge i'll a
small circular area some eight or ten
feet in diameter, by cattle or wind
power. The epieces Of caneare strewed
in Sthe concave path OF the wheel,
and the juice howed away by a
channel formed for the purpose.
Pere Lafitau relates the donation to
the Convent OF st. Benoit by William
H., King of Sicily, of such mill
tor crushing sugar-canes, along with
it's privileges, workmen and depend
encies, which remarkable gift bears
the date 11G6*
IN the next century we find men>
ton of the use of vertical wooden
rollers in Europe, the introduction OF
which is generally attributed to Con
zales de Nelosa. In the fifteenth
century their use crept TO Madeira
and the Brazils. Early in the century
following roller mills were established
in Hayti and in other places contem-
poraneously with the spread OF cane
cultivation. The old vertical wooden
mill is still 10 be found in many
places in the West Indies and else
where; and more tba9 one may now
be seen at no great distance from
Port ot-Spain, Trinidad.
From wooden rollers to those OF
stone aud then of iron the progress
sion was unavoidable. Many exam
pies of stone roller vertical mills are
still in existence, while vertical mills
with IRON rollers are, even now, CON-
paratively common. Lyon states
that when he visited Barbados in
1647, the planters were ignorant Of
many things, and amongst Others he
mentions "the true way OF covering
their rollers with plates or bars OF
iron."i This information, it appears,
they obtained from Fernambuck
(Pernambuco), in Brazil, whence they
had "gotten plants"
Cattle gave place, subsequently to
wind and water power, both Of which
are still largely used in remote dis
tricts. AS recently as 184S me-
chanical engineer found it necessary
TO call the attention of the planters
Of Trinidad to the superior adVan-
tages of steam-power, which at that
time seemed not to be fully appreci-
ated.t The use of steam has enabled
boiling houses to be erected, and
consequently estates to be established,
in situations where it had been i'm
possible to do SO previously. It's en-
ployment as the motive power in es-
tates' boiling houses may now be said
to be general, although it offers
method OF economizing labor in many
operations to which it has been sell
dom or never applied as yet, the ad-
vantages of which, even at the present
day, remain to be estimated at their
true value.
Within the last thirty or forty
years mechanical engineers have
brought the old model horizontal
roller mill to the highest state OF per-
lection. The first letter patent ever
issued in England, in connection with
sugar manufacture, were granted 10
"Willoughby, Francis, Lord Hyde,
Laurence; and De Marcato, David"
TOR the "makeinge and trameinge OF
sugar mills" and are dated and
numbered A. d. 1868, February 4
No. III. Mills have since been
made of three, four, and five rollers:
but those consisting of three rollers
have been found to give the best re-
suits with the least expenditure of
power Since the above date, up
wards Of eighty patents have been
taken out relating to machinery for
extracting the juice from the sugar
cane, all Of which, with some dozen
or so OF exceptions, are merely adap-
tations OF, or improvements in COM
nection with, roller crushing mills.
The inspissation OF the juice ap.
pears to have been carried on in In.
dia from the earliest times of which
any account is discoverable. AL
though the mill was universally
without shelter, the boiling apparatus
OH the other hand was invariably
covered with a shed. The range
consisted of series OF generally
eleven eartben boiling pots, suspended
between two parallel mud walls
about 20 feet long, TWO feet high, and