0'E,KiLi,Y — Aiicfeiit Watev-millH, Nalirc and Pore(jin. 65 



3r(l, 1248. Mandate from the Justiciaiy of Ireland to assign to the 

 abbot and monks of St. Mary's, near Dublin, land or annual rent of 

 10 marks in compensation for tbe injury done to them by the erection 

 of the King's mills near the Castle of Dublin. That the hand-mills 

 were in common use at that time appears from the first entries in 

 that calendar, p. 1, entry 1, "Earth, de Glanville and others render 

 their account for 468 equippers (eskiperii), six hand-mills 

 (manumolendina) . ' ' 



Similar mentions occur in the entries 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 

 14, lo, 16. 



It would seem from these different citations that while the hand- 

 mill was in common usage all over Europe during ancient times, and 

 in the northern countries down to quite recently, water-mills, though 

 not so common, were also in use, particularly in these northern 

 countries, and that they presented generally, the peculiarity of con- 

 struction detailed in the before-mentioned descriptions, that is, were 

 horizontal wheels, with, paddles of peculiar form, adapted to receive 

 the impulse of a small stream of water having a certain velocity, that 

 is, a certain sufficient head. Mr. M'Adam's conclusion that the 

 origin of this style of mill must be referred to the Danish or jS'orso 

 people seemed plausible enough, granting his assumptions, and taking 

 as ascertained, that no other such mills were known elsewhere in 

 Europe or in the East, but Mr. M'Adam does not appear to have made 

 the necessary research in this respect, and hence it is desirable to 

 examine if there be any evidence for the existence in past or present 

 times of such mills in the countries of Europe and of the East which 

 have still remaining either monuments or records. 



A priori, one might expect that the Chinese knew of water-mills, 

 as of many other mechanical appliances, long before any other nation 

 in the East, and in Chambers' Encyclopedia, under the heading, "JVaier- 

 power,^' p. 365, it is stated : " jSTotably, amongst eastern nations, the 

 Chinese were conversant with water-motors from a very early period." 



" The first attempt to produce hydraulic machinery proper, as 

 the tenn is now understood, were made in the Greek schools at 

 Alexandria, which flourished under the Ptolemies, under whose 

 regime Ctesibius and Hiero invented the fountain of compression, the 

 siphon, and the force-pump about 120 b.c." That water-mills were 

 invented or introduced into Europe as early as that period would 

 appear from the following paragraph taken from Smith's -'Dictionary 

 of Greek and Roman Antiquities," 2nd edition, 1859, xmder the 



