Johann Beckmann - A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2)

Wecker gives directions also to make an impression with calcined gypsum, and a solution of gum or isinglass. Porta knew that this could be done to greater perfection with amalgam of quicksilver; an art employed even at present.

Tavernier, in his Travels, says that in Surat lac is melted and formed into sticks like sealing-wax. Compare with this Dapper’s Asia, Nuremberg, 1681, fol. p. 237.

Bruchstücke betreffend die Pflichten eines Staatsdieners; aus den Handlungen des Raths Dreitz, nebst Bemerkungen vom ältesten Gebrauche des Spanischen Siegelwachses, Frankf. 1785, 4to, p. 86; where the use of these antiquarian researches is illustrated by examples worthy of notice.

Historische Untersuchungen gesammelt von J. G. Meusel, i. 3, p. 240.

Original Letters of the Paston Family, temp. Henry VI. i. p. 21, and p. 87 and 92.

Meusel’s Geschichtforscher. Halle, 8vo, vi. p. 270.

Ibid. iv. p. 251.

Aromatum et Simplicium aliquot Historia, Garcia ab Horto auctore. Antverpiæ 1574, 8vo, p. 33.

Neu Titularbuch, – sambt etlichen hinzugethanen Gehaimnüssen und Künsten, das Lesen und die Schreiberey betreffendt. 4to, 1579, p. 112.

Archivische Nebenarbeiten und Nachrichten. Halle, 1785, 4to, ii. p. 3.

Hesiod, Opera et Dies, 421. – It appears that both the mortar and pestle were then made of wood, and that the former was three feet in height; but, to speak the truth, Hesiod does not expressly say that this mortar was for the purpose of pounding corn. The mortar was called ὕπερος, pila; the pestle ὕπερος, or ὕπερον, pistillus or pistillum; to pound, μάσσειν, pinsere, which word, as well as pinsor , was afterwards retained when mills came to be used. – Plin. lib. xviii. c. 3.

Plin. xviii. 10. ii. p. 111. This passage Gesner has endeavoured to explain, in his Index to the Scriptores Rei Rusticæ, p. 59, to which he gives the too-dignified title of Lexicon Rusticum.

Gellius, iii. c. 3.

Deuteronomy, ch. xxiv. v. 6.

When Moses threatened Pharaoh with the destruction of the first-born in the land of Egypt, he said, “All the first-born shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth on the throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill.” – Genesis, ch. xi. v. 5. See Homeri Odyss. vii. 103, and xx. 105.

Apuleii Metamorph. lib. ix.

The oldest cattle-mills have, in my opinion, resembled the oil-mills represented in plate 25th of Sonnerat, Voyages aux Indes, &c., i. Zurich, 1783, 4to. To the pestle of a mortar made fast to a stake driven into the earth, is affixed a shaft to which two oxen are yoked. The oxen are driven by a man, and another stands at the mortar to push the seed under the pestle. Sonnerat says, that with an Indian hand-mill two men can grind no more than sixty pounds of meal in a day; while one of our mills, under the direction of one man, can grind more than a thousand.

Voyage du Lévant, 4to, p. 155.

A haycock was called meta fœni . Colum. ii. 19. Plin. xxvii. 28.

Niebuhr’s Déscription de l’Arabie. A figure of both stones is represented in the first plate, fig. H.

Memorie di varia erudizione della Societa Colombaria Fiorentina. Livorno, 1752, 4to, vol. ii. p. 207.

No. 282, p. 1285, and in the abridgement by Jones, 1700–20, vol. ii. p. 38.

Joh. Heringii Tractatus de Molendinis eorumque jure. Franc. 1663, 4to. A very confused book, which requires a very patient reader. F. L. Gœtzius De Pistrinis Veterum. Cygneæ 1730, 8vo. Extracted chiefly from the former, equally confused, and filled with quotations from authors who afford very little insight into the history or knowledge of mills. Traité de la Police, par De la Mare. – G. H. Ayrer, De Molarum Initiis; et Prolusio de Molarum Progressibus, Gottin. 1772. – C. L. Hoheiselii Diss. de Molis Manualibus Veterum. Gedani 1728. – Pancirollus, edit. Salmuth. ii. p. 294. – Histoire de la vie privée des Francois, par Le Grand d’Aussy. Paris, 1782, i. p. 33. – See Fabricii Bibliographia Antiq. Hamburgi, 1760, p. 1002.

Plin. lib. vii. c. 56.

Stephan. De Urbibus, v. μυλαντία.

Pausanias, iii. c. 20. edit. Kuhnii, p. 260.

Strabo, lib. xii. edit. Almelov. p. 834. In the Greek stands the words ὑδραλέτης, perhaps an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, which the scholiasts have explained by a water-mill. In many of the later translations of Strabo that word is wanting.

This Pomponius Sabinus, author of a Commentary on the works of Virgil, is called also Julius Pomponius Lætus, though in a letter he denies that he is the author. He died in 1496. A good account of him may be found in Fabricii Biblioth. Med. et Infimæ Latinitatis, iv. p. 594. There are several editions of his Commentary, the first printed at Basil, 1544. The one I have before me is contained in Vergilii Opera, cum Variorum Commentariis, studio L. Lucii. Basiliæ (1613), fol. Where the poet gives an ingenious description of a hand-mill, Pomponius adds, “Usus molarum ad manum in Cappadocia inventus; inde inventus usus earum ad ventum et ad equos. Paulo ante Augustum molæ aquis actæ Romæ in Tiberi primum factæ, tempore Græcorum, cum fornices diruissent.”

This Greek epigram was first made known by Salmasius, in his Annotations on the Life of Heliogabalus by Lanipridius. See Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores; ed. C. Salmasius, Par. 1620, fol. p. 193. It is to be found also in Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, ii. p. 315, and in Analecta Veterum Græcorum, edit. Brunk. ii. p. 119, epig. 39.

Pallad. in Script. De Re Rustica, lib. i. 42, edit. Gesn.

Lucret. v. 517. Compare Salmas. ad Solin. p. 416.

Hist. Aug. Scr. Lamprid. in Vita Heliogabali.

Among the doubtful passages is one of Pliny, lib. xviii. c. 10. “Major pars Italiæ ruido utitur pilo; rotis etiam, quas aqua verset obiter, et molat.” So reads Hardouin: but the French translator of Pliny divides these words otherwise, and reads thus: “Major pars Italiæ ruido utitur pilo, rotis etiam quas aqua verset; obiter et molit;” which he translates as follows; “Dans la majeure partie de l’Italie, on se sert d’un pilon raboteux, ou de roues que l’eau fait tourner; et par fois aussi on y emploie la meule.” This explanation is in my opinion very proper; Pliny is not speaking here of the labour of grinding corn, but that of freeing it from the husks, or of converting it into grits. For this purpose a mortar was used, the pestle of which could be so managed that the grain remained whole; but water-wheels were sometimes employed also. I agree with Le Prince (Journal des Sçavans, 1779, Septem.), who thinks that Pliny here certainly speaks of a water-mill.