Parts of a mill
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The Engine The Powersource The Workplace |
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Mills in Altoaragón
Parts of a mill |
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| The Engine |
| open cárcavo | rodete | botana | levador | |
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As already mentioned in the introduction, the
driving wheel, the rodete, rests in a cavity, the
cárcavo, underneath the mill. This cárcavo
drains the water away after the good work. It
is also the way to creep for maintenance. The
open cárcavo shown is not very common (i.e. Ainielle,
Bara, Torrolluala); most are low and narrow.
Originally the rodete was made from several kinds of wood. But later on metallic wheels replaced the wood. The construction of the engine is straightforward. A long vertical axis goes through the roof of the cárcavo. The lower end bears the wheel, rodete. The mill-stone is connected to the upper end of the axis. |
Even with this simple engine, the miller had
to master some controls.
The inlet-pipe, botana, injects the water over the rodete. The valve, tajadera, with rod on top makes it possible to control the water-flow. The levador is a lever used to adjust the space between the mill-stones. The miller decided in this way on the number of revolutions and the quality of the flour. Both controls were managed from the work-floor. |
| The Powersource: precious water |
| azud with canal | canal | cubo | |
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| balsa | saetín | ||
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Right when most needed, water was a scarce
commodity. Most millers had to spend a lot of
their energy to the construction and
maintenance of water-collecting devices. Even
then, some mills could work only few days a year.
The tricklet is dammed upstream (azud) and serves as a reservoir for the water brought to the mill by a canal, sometimes several hunderd meters long. The water can also be kept in a most often small, but sometimes impressive (Samper), pond (balsa) nearby. |
The balsa
can be borded with fine masonry (Gabardilla), or with an earthen embankment
(Torrolluala).
The balsa discharges through the saetín: the inlet of the botana. In many cases, the canal, or the balsa ends in a very deep reservoir: the cubo used to build up the necessary pressure. (f.e. Nueno, Ara) |
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