172 [Assembly 



bably been made within one hunrlred years. The mill of the ancients 

 would not be called a machine at the present day; but und6r the 

 transforming power of the age in which we live, the grist-mill is 

 now a machine upon a grand scale. 



It is to be presumed that the first attempts for the reduction of grain 

 to a powder, were very simple. In the absence of proof on the sub- 

 ject, we draw upon the imagination to supply a presumed account of 

 its history and progress. At the outset, no doubt, two simple flat 

 stones were selected and placed one upon the other, and having the 

 grain between them, were rubbed together by hand; and in this form, 

 the germ of the now powerful and perfect mill appeared. An eye 

 in the top of the stone for the convenience of introducing the grain 

 under it, next followed; and anon a spindle, a curb and rotary mo- 

 tion were each attained, with a crank to drive by hand. In this 

 condition, we are told in Scripture, " two women shall be found 

 grinding," &c., at a period two thousand years since; and in this 

 state it may have continued two or three thousand years. 



But it is presumed that the grist mill is among the very first of all 

 machines driven by power. Wind has been employed as the propel- 

 ling power for " grist mills," for several hundred years;* but it must 

 be recollected that in no instance was this kind of mill furnished 

 with the now ordinary fixtures for elevating the grain to the loft, or 

 any other mode of hoisting than a man's broad shoulders and efficient 

 knee joints. The power was employed simply to rotate the stones 

 arid the bolt; to these mills no such a thing as a smut machine, cool- 

 er, or packing press was ever known, and the same remark would 

 apply to water mills a half a century ago. The grain was trans- 

 ported to and from these mills in bags. 



The grain w^as ground but not purified. It remained for the mas- 

 ter genius of man as a mechanic, the first of the age in which he 

 lived, to ordain that the old grist mill, should assume the distinctive 

 traits of a machine. 



Oliver Evans concentrated his powerful mind upon it, improved 

 and left it perfect, so that to the present day, with the single excep- 

 tion of a more perfect smut machine, no great improvement has been 

 added to it, since it came from his hands. 



A merchant's flouring mill of the present day is a huge machine. 

 • Wind mills were invented in the time of Augustus Caesar. 



