266 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 



west across the stream. The wheel is modern, but on the old principle. 

 The ladles used to be made of sallywood, and chambered as in Gannon's 

 mill; but the present owner finds it more convenient to make ladles 

 of inch boards, like long narrow boxes, but having no side boards 

 towards the water. The bottoms are horizontal, and the outer end 

 pieces are at right angles to the side pieces. They increase slightly 

 in width towards the outer ends, where they are about 4 inches wide. 

 A thin iron hoop goes round the outer ends, giving the appearance of 

 a wheel. There are no iron stays as in Gannon's mill. The ladles are 

 thirteen in number. 



The water is collected in a coffin-like cistern with the narrow end 

 pointing towards the wheel, from which the water is let down a chute 

 having an incline of 30 or 40 degrees from the vertical, which is 1^ 

 feet wide at the top and 1 foot at the bottom, and has a vertical fall 

 of about 1^ feet. 



Tlie water aperture to this chute is 1|- feet square. A head of about 

 5 feet above the level of the chute can be obtained. 



The use of a chute is an error, as some of the ladles are beaten 

 downwards ; to counteract this the outer ring is affixed — a late and 

 ineffective innovation. Gannon's mill utilizes the velocity of the 

 water horizontally; and the water acts practically as a projectile, 

 hardly pressing downwards at all. The 1^ feet wasted by the chute 

 should be utilized as head. The error of the slanting water discharge 

 is apparent on seeing Flatley's mill working, because only a little of 

 the water goes partly round with the wheel. The greater part rushes 

 across it in a nearly straight line, or gets between the ladles to the 

 ground, and does little or no work. The chute system is an innovation 

 here. Flatley's grandfather died while his father was very young, 

 and during the youth of the latter there was a good deal of meddling 

 with the mill by persons not conversant with traditional milling. 



The water is admitted across half of the wheel. The ladles are 

 sooner empty at the other side in Flatley's mill than in Gannon's. 



The wheel-shaft, 4|- feet long, goes up through a loft, penetrates 

 the lower stone, and articulates into the grinding face of the upper 

 stone by a * crusheerin,' or cross of iron. The ancient stones in 

 Coolnaha and near Doonooir had a * crusheerin ' of only two arms. 



The diameter of the stones is 4 feet 4 inches. They are in the north- 

 east corner of the mill. When working, a circular fence of boards 

 composed of two parts, called ' funsee,' is placed on the floor to the 

 south, to prevent the meal from flying off centrif ugally. The walls do 

 this duty to the north and east. To the west, abutting on the stones, 



