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The
Mill Operation
Wilton Windmill
has two types of sails - one pair of common sails and one pair of
'patent' sails. The common sails comprise of a trellis-like
structure over which canvas sails are spread. This operation
requires a total of three men. Two to climb up the sail framework
to spread and secure the canvas, while the third man operates the brake
in the top of the mill. This act takes about half an hour and is,
of course, undertaken in a wind thereby endangering the two men climbing
the sails. The invention of patent sails in 1807 eliminated these
problems. The sails are made up of shutters which can be opened
and closed on the same principle as a Venetian blind. Should the
wind prove to be too strong the shutters will 'feather' to give the best
speed for milling. In a strong wind when the use of four sails is unnecessary,
the patent sails only can be used to drive the mill.
Dust
Floor
The windmill works
logically from the top floor, the dust floor, downwards. The dust
floor is the powerhouse, or engine room of the mill. It is here
that the horizontal force of the wind is turned through 90 degrees to
operate machinery on the lower floors of the mill. In the same way
use is made of other natural energy, gravity, to feed wheat into the
machinery on the lower floors
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Bin
Floor
The bin
floor stores the grain in two large bins before it is let down to
the stones on the floor below. There are two bins because in
earlier days the mill operated two pairs of stones simultaneously,
but today we only use one pair of stones.
Stone
Floor
On the stone
floor the wheat is ground into flour. The floor contains the
two pairs of stones of which, at the moment, only one pair is
driven. The working pair is enclosed in a wooden frame
called a vat, and a spout leading from the bin floor above leads
into the centre of the stones. There are a number of controls to
regulate the speed of flow of the grain into the middle of the
stones. The grain is thrown out to the outer edge of the stones by
centrifugal force and is cut into dust, i.e., flour, by the
grooves on the inside faces of both stones. A paddle set on
the outer edge of the runner stone collects the flour and sweeps
it into a hole in the floor. All this action occurs within
the vat.
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| Spout
Floor
The spout
floor is the last working floor of the mill as the ground floor
acts as an office and store for the miller. The main shaft is
bedded on a beam just below the great spur wheel. The stone nut
engages with the spur wheel and drives the stone shaft on which it
is centred. The top of the stone shaft carries the spindle
on which the runner stone is supported. The flour from the stones
travels down the spout to this floor and is collected in a sack as
stoneground wholemeal flour.
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