Fulling Mills, Paper Mills, Threshing Machines and Rice Hullers, Pestles

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Until the early centuries of the Middle Ages, fulling was done by beating the cloth with the feet. Later, as part of the general process of mechanization, fulling mills driven by a water wheel were introduced. A camshaft converted the continuous rotation of the water wheel into the desired movement of the pestles. It seems that fulling mills were among the first examples of mechanization. This may have been due to the particularly hard and unhealthy nature of the work. According to tradition, paper was invented in China at the beginning of the second century AD. From China, the invention slowly spread to the West. It arrived in Europe around the year one thousand. To beat the rags, hand mortars were soon replaced by hydraulic mills. This made it possible to increase production, reduce costs and improve quality. Rice hullers were like the simplest pestles. The pestles were raised vertically by cams and then released. This type was used until the twentieth century. Cam threshers for wheat are rare. Pestles are machines used to crush, pulverize, or break up solid materials to make them usable or, in some cases, to extract liquid substances. They usually consist of rods that are raised by cams and fall by weight into the chamber where the material to be treated is placed. The categories of pestles are very numerous. We can mention, for example, pestles for mining, but the applications range from the pulverization of spices to the pressing of seeds to obtain oil, from the beating of hemp and flax to the crushing of materials for the production of glass, and so on. In all the machines discussed in this chapter, a certain progress can be observed in their evolution over time, but it is limited to the improvement of what already existed: More and more refined machines made by specialized and experienced craftsmen. The general scheme, however, remains almost unchanged.