l68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



a better contrivance than any we use, for the hfting of 

 water to such heights as 30 feet. A Roman dipping- 

 wheel found lately in the Rio Tinlo Mines in Spain, is 

 not so good an appHance. 



Of the turbine, my friend Wilson Sturge, who has been 

 for some years British Consul at Poti, writes : — " Early 

 " in the century a Frenchman, I believe, introduced the 

 " turbine. When I was a boy they were rare in England : 

 " in fact hardly known. But the turbine, or horizontal 

 " water-wheel from which the turbine is developed, is the 

 " ordinary water-wheel in use here, and has been no doubt, 

 " for centuries." 



The principle was known in France in the last century, 

 but its practical application has only been made, as Wilson 

 Sturge says, within our own era ; if we except what is 

 known in Scotland as Baker's Mill, which is, I think, 

 older. The oldest water-mill mentioned in history, was 

 one at Pontus, described by Strabo ; that is, on the 

 Black Sea, not far from the Caucasus. 



At Kedabek we were taken about half a mile down the 

 valley to a mill belonging to a Tartar. The old man 

 promptly and courteously shewed us the mechanism. First, 

 a stream was led along an artificial channel, to get a head 

 of about twelve feet. From this the water came down a 

 shoot made by hollowing a tree, which was placed at a 

 slant of 45 degrees : the open or upper side of the hollow 

 being secured by a plank nailed lengthways over it. At 

 the bottom was a horizontal wheel about three feet in 

 diameter, set round on its upper side with stout float- 

 boards, diagonally placed, to receive the impact of the 

 water. The shaft or axle of this wheel went up through 

 the mill-stones, of which the nether one was made fast to 

 it. The foot of this driving shaft rested in a bearing on 

 a beam of oak, arranged as a lever, so that by tightening 

 a wedge under one end of this lever, the Turbine with 

 the nether mill-stone could be lifted nearer the top stone, 



