What was a gristmill used for?
What was a gristmill used for?
A gristmill grinds grain into flour. The name refers to the grinding equipment as well as the building. Gristmills, powered by water wheels, have been around for many centuries, some as early as 19 BC. In the United States, they were common by the 1840s.
When were grist mills used?
Gristmills used to grind corn, wheat, and other grains into flour and meal were a common sight in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century North Carolina. The first recorded North American gristmill was built in Jamestown, Va., in 1621.
How old are grist mills?
The earliest grist mills in America were built in the early 1600s. But the grinding of grain goes back centuries before that. Think of a mortar and pestle and how it can grind something as simple as a dill seed or a whole black peppercorn. This is how grains were first ground.
Do we still have grist mills today?
Many American Grist Mills Still in Use. Many American grist mills have been preserved or renovated and are in use today. Some have become museums that seek to preserve the story of the early entrepreneurs that built and ran them.
Who invented the gristmill?
The new system was invented by Oliver Evans, a Delaware native, who had been actively working on developing and refining his milling system since the early 1780s.
Where did grist for the mill come from?
What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Grist to the mill’? Grist is the corn that is brought to a mill to be ground into flour. In the days when farmers took ‘grist to the mill’ the phrase would have been used literally to denote produce that was a source of profit.
Who made the first grist mill?
The first wind-powered gristmills were built in the 9th and 10th centuries in what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. The Egyptian town of Bilbays had a grain-processing factory that produced an estimated 300 tons of flour and grain per day.
