OF WATER-MILLS. 81 



of it at i; the other end being twited round the pin L. LECT 

 As the pin is turned one way, the string draws up the v^^T-v 

 shoe closer to the hopper, and so lessens the aperture 

 between them ; and as the pin is turned the other way, 

 it lets down the shoe, and enlarges the aperture. 



If the shoe be drawn up quite to the hopper, no earn 

 can fall from the hopper into the mill ; if it be let a little 

 down, some will fall : and the quantity will be more or 

 less, according as the shoe is more or less let down. 

 For the hopper is open at bottom, and there is a hole 

 in the bottom of the shoe, not directly under the bottom 

 of the hopper, but forwarder towards the end i, over 

 the middle of the eye of the millstone. 



There is a square hole in the top of the spindle, in 

 which is put the feeder -e: (see engraving, page 80.) 

 this feeder (as the spindle turns round) jogs the shoe 

 three times in each revolution, and so causes the corn 

 to run constantly down from the hopper through the 

 shoe, into the eye of the millstone, where it falls upon 

 the top of the rynd, and is, by the motion of the rynd, 

 and the leather under it, thrown below the upper stone, 

 and ground between it and the lower one. The violent 

 motion of the stone creates a centrifugal force in the 

 corn going round with it, by which means it gets farther 

 and farther from the center, as in a spiral, in every 

 revolution, until it be thrown quite out ; and, being then 

 ground, it falls through a spout M, called the mill-eye, 

 into the trough N. 



When the mill is fed too fast, the corn bears up the 

 stone, and is ground too coarse ; and besides, it clogs 

 the mill so as to make it go too slow. When the mill 

 is too slowly fed, it goes too fast, and the stones by 

 their attrition are apt to strike fire against one another. 

 Both which inconveniences are avoided by turning the 

 pin L backwards or forwards, which draws up or lets 



O 



