Tiny house

I love those tiny houses and then thought turn it up side down so to speak. Put the bedroom underneath and the kitchen on top this would give a split leavel effect and do away with the ladder and the stairs going to the top level could be a seat. Being higher in the kitchen would give better views to the outside. Cheers to all and have an amazing years to come. Iggle

One of my play grounds as a child

As a child of 9 I used to play in this location and even to this day it can be seen on google earth at this location. -30.379037, 152.719818 Lightening used to strike the ground about a kilometer to the right of this spot with regular abandon and when it even looked like storms one would never go there. The noise of the lightening and the loud flashes was a frightening thing to experience as a child.
Show on Google Maps

Incompidence gets rewarded

I have seen over the years where craftsman did magical things with there tools and there minds on the jobs that they were performing. Watching an artisan working is a joy to my eyes.
These men never get promoted for they are too valuable on the shop floor which is a pity not only for the man concerned but for the company that they work for. These are the men to emulate the mentors in there fields, it is so sad that the younger generation have been dumped on by the impure and improper. Respect for the elderly has gone replaced by abuse and sometimes even violence.
How different things would be if the leaders of our countries and companies were craftsman and entrepreneurs, people with vision and integrity.
Alas this is but a dream. The below video shows this in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TvP9mSXVVxw#!

Insurance policies

Did you know that it is something like 90% of insurance policies never get claimed on. I have a insurance policy that covers landlords and the income. I asked about claiming massive damage done to one of my properties that the tenant did. Guess what I am not covered for damage done by a tenant even if the tenant burns the house down. The fences have been destroyed the shed has had the wall torn down and used for fire wood. All this timber was treated 150x 200x 500 blocks that was stacked and screwed like bricks all gone and not replaceable. Total damage bill in excess of thirty thousand dollars. I worked hard for what I have and to have the grandson of a friend of thirty years destroy it all. This was to be my retirement fund. Ducks in the bathroom bath tub and a dozen cats. The mould has destroyed the house from the inside. Then to top it off told to get off my own property.
Then there is the drug crop in the back yard and as a landlord I have been put in the position of supplying a place to cultivate and sell drugs with its jail term and the confiscation of all my property as product of crime.
I see here in this area where I live on average one house every two months gets burnt down at a huge cost to the community. All threw drug suppliers burning out the opposition. I will sell my properties and spend the money if I can cause there probably is a law against that too.

Phone call

I got a call from the neighbour in Gundagai about my tenants causing trouble, Apparently Joe got a AVO against the neighbours tenant. I rang Joe and asked how things were going. He snapped about the tenant using a third party having a go at him which wasn't the case. Having been to Gundagai I now know what the problem is DRUGS and there associated problems. Four houses in a row dealing with the stuff. Joe was helpful informing me what was going on.

My boy wears a blue uniform

My son wears a blue uniform at work. I asked my son to come with me to inspect one of my properties. On arrival I mentioned that he wears a blue uniform to work. Well he is a copper. The remark from the tenant was he ain't in uniform now is he. We were shown threw and given the full guided tour which included the garden. Even the marijuana crop with its flourishing plants. I was wondering why the water bill was so high? The he says I ain't stupid I don't smoke the stuff . I grow it to sell. Horrified to here this I looked at my son. Not a blink of and eye nothing. When we left he my son said you heard that didn't you. I asked the bit about the growing and selling. Yes he says. If I was to do anything there and then I would have had to caution him and then his words could have been used in a court of law. But, and here it is. You are a civilian and your testimony is admissible in court. If I did not report it (the crop) then I would have been an accomplice, and all my goods could be seized as property from criminal activity. No brainer isn't it

The building that aint a building

Talk about pozzers and twisting a story well Im up there with the best of em. A bit of lying and skiting never hurt anyone. But to tell you about a twenty story building that aint there and all it is Is a photo. Now thats hard to beat even in the lying and skiting ways thats just a plain Lie you would say. Well it aint as I got a video of the thing so here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmYoesuP5EA&list=UUM8ZCp4idH1c2xFUICOv93w&index=1&feature=plcp

Sydney Christmas

Went up to the big smoke for Christmas. Traffic I tells ya an hour to go a kilometer these blokes who drive in Parramatta are Nuts. Then I gets on one of those electric trains and gets to Sydney in thirty minutes. I gets out at Townhall station and goes to this shop called Hobbyco. Amazing! I get into this box and Im now on the second floor. Talk about teleportation, near buckles at the knees but arrives there safe. I cant find the box to go back down and Im stuck two flights up. I goes to climb over the rails to get down and Im pulled back and escorted to these moving stairs. Bloody helpful people there. Then there is this hand made christmas tree is like 80 feet high and covered in lights. So I gets my little trusty camera and does a video for yous to see. So here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3xzam_3uZI&list=UUM8ZCp4idH1c2xFUICOv93w&index=2&feature=plcp

Dont know where this came from

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Would Pamela Accept an Ethical Bribe, worth $154.15?

Well the answer is no. How dare you send mail to my house with this as the heading. Mr Alan Hewitt Director of Earth Star Publishing did. I emailed him and got a auto reply then I tried to Phone him and was put on hold. This is from one of those we'll fix your spiritually damaged body and mind companies. Charlitans thats all I can say.

New look

I have increased the text size so us older folk can read it. Sight and the loss of it is not good.
The colours have been changed to be easier on the eye so I hope you like it .Please feel free to leave a comment as I like reading them and I have a policy of publishing all comments even if they are critical of myself. Comments of a sexual nature and defamatory will be screened.

Aeroplane seats

Lets put the seats in backwards and if the plane was to crash there would be less chance of injury to passangers

home invasion

Home invasion

I went to see a couple of mates the other day and left my house locked and in the charge of my wife and the dogs. It was late when I got home that is it was dark at 7.00 pm....When I came in the drive way I could hear the dogs going ballistic in the back yard. Thinking that they were overly happy to hear me coming in. I got out of the car and yelled at them to shut up because of the noise. It seemed funny that the house was in darkness as  the wife used to leave the lights on. I went to open the door and you wouldn't believe the friggen door was open. I turned on the lights and called out and silence was the reply. Thinken where is the cook I went to all the rooms and blow me down she wasn't there and the back door was open. Being tired  I want to bed and in the morning I was reinforced she wasnt there. I fed the dogs and wondered where she was. Thinking the cars still there and all her things are there and her hand bag was gone.
I rang my mate and said that the wife was gone along with about two hundred dollars in change, him being a funny bastard said lucky bastard whats the problem. I said Im serious she aint here, The reply came, that's why you came over here to get an allaby yesterday, Now I was being serious and he was friggen joking. Then it dawned on me I could be in serious trouble if she didn't turn up and I told him so and that I didn't do her in.  He said to ring the local hospital so I did after finally finding the number in the telephone book. (See previous post) I gets on to this shela called Karen and she said she would ring me back after checking. well she didn't ring me she rang the police and informed them. Im struggling to find the police number in the phone book and they ring me and asked if my wife was there. I said to them how did you know as I was trying to find the police number in the phone book. They said the hospital rang them Karen must have known how hard it was to find the number and did it for me.
I had to file a missing persons report which I did. I rang my son who is a copper and he said he hoped they found her as I was number one suspect. Thinking to earlier times when she was put in hospital and in a lapse of sanity she told them I was conspiring to kill her with this other woman and the Sargent of the local police came out to arrest me, I was lucky that me old mate Donny spoke up for me.
Seven days went by and the police finally rang and said she was in hospital.
What a relief I was off the hook.
Turns out the mental health came and took her away, left the house open and in darkness. I went in and made several complaints as to what had happened and how it happened.
The next day I get a phone call from mental health and they were concerned that I said that they took the money............
After a long silence..........I said "what".....another long silence......... THEY REPEATED  THAT THEY DIDN'T TAKE THE MONEY......... Then I said I don't give a fuck about the money and I wasnt going to proceed down this line and that this matter was over. They hung up and didn't let me know where or how my wife was. Strange bastards they should book them selves into the hospital and inject themselves with those stranger drugs... Talk about nut cases they take the cake...I have now been declared single by the government and can see what my mate meant. Whats your problem??
Whats your problem?

Where is this leading to well my ex partner of 32 years is to have electric shock treatment  and my son is trying to stop it. I wonder why. My diagnosis is lack of work and too much time to think. Solution WORK and Exercise.

If I were to set up an cattle electric fence to  protect my property and some thief were to get a shock from the fence I would go to jail for setting a mantrap. 

If i were to hold a person against there will and subject them to electric shock I would go to jail.
Then there is the law about giving someone a drug against there will. These people are above the law and if anything was to happen to my ex wife. I will get the best lawyer in the country (my son)to have the people charged with murder.

If I were to say some one had a mental problem I could be sued. But I will say some one has a mental problem and it is the doctors of death from Auschwitz and yet doctors today use the same torture to so called treat people with mental illness. It cannot be called torture if you sedate them into a unconscious state. Let me tell you these people remember what has happened to them, I know because I live with one of the victims.

More money for mental health in Australia to do more torture and line the pockets of the doctors (quacks) with gold. 

Then there is the aboriginal way and I will use it if I have to.

Pointing of the bone. is this real or quackery I know there is people in graves who do not think it is. Delusions of grandeur quackery call it what you like no different to saying Jesus is the son of god.

If you the people do not stand up and be herd then you at some stage in your life just might face the morbid doctors of death at your local Psychoactric  hospital.  

Isn't it amazing that doctors practice and get paid even if they don't fix you, wouldn't have a mechanic or engineer like that would you? So why do you put up with Quackery.


Then there is the persecution for religious beliefs Jehovah Witnesses believe the end is near and my wife was given electric shock treatment for these thoughts. So much for freedom of religion.

You are being watched

Sounds like a crazy manes talk? Think for a moment! The Australian Government is spending millions of dollars for us to get digital television why? Yes the change over from analog to digital TV is happening,and they will even pay for it. I will ask you another question does your computer have a video camera built into it mine does, and it can be switched on remotely. Yes this is a fact. I can access my security cameras from my computer even when I am not there. The technology is there for the same to be done with your TV screen. Are you being watched? I think so!!!! My computer camera is taped over. Your mobile phone is tracking you all the time and voices are recorded that how prince Charles was found out with Comella. The air waves are monitored all the time. Does your car have a tracking device in it some can be stopped electronically and even lock the doors to trap the people inside. How do you stop this leave the car at home the mobile and any electronic devices. Wear a burker and you will not be photographed in public places and move to the bush or even in the suburbs in an underground house. I have a remote underground cave that only I know where it is.

Censored

This may be the last time to write as my sites are being blocked. This is due to a site that I write called http://starshipchurch.blogspot.com/  It is basically about an alternate way of looking at things and is done with a smile even though the smile may be warped. It is not to be taken seriously. If certain key words or phrases are used in emails and sites then you also may be be blocked. Large organisations and Governments are able to block for political or financial reasons. Typical financial reasons are when telcos drop the Internet services for a split second to drop out voip phone calls.They want to keep there monopoly's.

Yowie, Kangaroo Valley Panther or imagination

I was a scout leader and was camping with a group of cubs at Kangaroo valley south of Sydney. We decided to play a few tricks on the group of kids and we had a big claw made from steel on a long handle. There was also a large footprint made as well also on a long handle. While the other leader was doing camp inspections and breakfast duties with the group I made my way down to the river and on the way scratched the bark on various trees along the track at the river footprints were made in the sand while keeping up on the river bank. The scratchings were about twelve to fourteen feet from the ground and the footprints were spaced about five feet apart. I secretly put the tools of deception away. Then came the fun part, TRACKING, the group was told to look for tracks of the local wild animals. This was to get a badge. Then one of the more astute boys noticed the scratching in the tree and asked what could it be was asked.  I reached up and they were about two feet out of my reach then came the punch line "it was the infamous kangaroo valley panther that no one had ever seen! Now the adrenalin was flowing. I lead them on down to the river and then stopped in my tracks and stood still they all followed suit. What are you looking at I was asked and the reply came quite!! The silence was deafening and there over there and I ran to the river bank followed by the group. Again one of the group saw the foot prints and pointed then out to the rest of them. The funny thing is from then on they never wanderered off on there own. Back to the foot prints I paced them out and the were about a foot longer in stride than I could make. This thing must have been huge about as big as a horse. The excitement grew with there imaginations getting the better of them enlarged the beast and the stories of men eating tigers and the like were spreading like a wild fire threw the group. That night we had finished tea and it was then stories around the camp fire. During one of those moments where all conversations seem to cease and silence is golden a cow in the field let out this almighty bellow MOOOOOO. Not expecting what was to follow this little guy jumps up from the other side of the ring of kids and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him and darts under my left arm and says you can look after me wont you sir!? Yes I says and the conversations went on into the night. Back a the scout hall a week later the leaders myself included were asked as to what went on at the camp as all the kids had night mares for the following week. We were forced to reveal our hand and the tools of deception and not one of those kids would admit that they were conned and all said they knew and were going along to keep the leaders happy.

I will leave the humour for others

This site is about humour and at the same time gives us a wake up call . Keep up the good work Phil,

http://www.philforhumanity.com/Useless_Christmas_Gifts.html

Retraction

Mr Warren Tyson near Wagga Wagga built one before me. He developed  a turbine that would not catch flotsam during floods. It was anchored in the Murrumbidgee river near Wagga. The story below is from the web site below. I dont know if Warren has a boat mill in Australia any more.
http://www.ncsmed.org.fj/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=77
 

Tyson Turbine

The Tyson turbine project was funded by AusAID. The project aim was to install a hydro electricity generator at Naravuka village near Seaqaqa in Vanua Levu. The concept was introduced as a conduit for enterprise development through the provision of electricity to a rural based community. The inventor of the turbine Mr. Warren Tyson helped in the installation of the turbine. Project Benefits The Tyson turbine has been marketed worldwide as the world’s first environmentally friendly machine that provides the versatility of water pumping and power generation simultaneously. Its key benefits include: Cheap remote area power supply Generates up to 3 kW electricity per hour. A large village requires approximately 12 kW of power, surplus power is stored in batteries. Effective water pumping operation at 0.75m/sec water flow only Renewable energy system, highly corrosive resistance Easy installation and low maintenance

Boat mill

This is probably Australia's first and last boat mill it was cut up and a trailer was made from the hull. It was used for camping after a night out fishing for prawns. A small water turbine was placed at the rear and was driven by the tide coming in and going out. The power was used for the prawning lights and navigation lights. This was before the use of led lights. I still have the generator but not the turbine itself  It was coupled up using
olive pipe fitting for couplings. The olives were replaced with "O" rings and gave a good positive and flexable drive.

Australians

We Australians do not always approve of our governments decisions. Most Australians are not happy with the Gillard government. We do not want war ships in our waters.

Tom Thumb

Cave art

Where is this? What is it about. Who did it? I know some of the Questions, where it is.

Zero waste

Regular readers to this post have read a lot in recent years about sustainable recycled and reused all cleashade words. You know the in yuppie thing. Well they are old school as the new word is zero waste. Leave no photo zit nothing zero waste. Some thing like the previous post. This is to be the philosophy of this site  from now on but also to tell a story or yarn at the same time. This is going to be a challenge and interesting at the same time. Cheers Iggle

Where is the Bubble Puppy

        OK, this is odd story

This is the Welpe Luft-Blassen  or bubble puppy in english

It was built by a Nazi scientist conscripted by the American Military to work in New Mexico during WW 2. Count S. von Teleki disappeared without trace and they claim that to this day nobody knows what the BubblePuppy was designed to do. It was was lost for a number of years until being found in an old crate in Alamogordo, New Mexico during the 1980's.

The pix are of a copy of the Bubble Puppy made by an artist who claims to have only been allowed to see a glimpse of the blueprints. The story is that its all top secret kinda shit although they never come right out and say that.

Now apparently a movie has been made about the Bubble Puppy but hasn't been released yet.

__________________

http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19919&page=4
This story was copied from the above post and would like to have an answer?

The story of broke

http://cl.exct.net/?qs=7c382fe4b03cc1785a3f1e9f141a6b71e17621a69064677453343d993cce28c0

World heritage area being distroyed

The Australian government is destroying the great barrier reef with the Queensland state government. Fish are inedible from Gladstone Harbour.Some people will not let there children touch the waters of the harbour.

Fish have red exploding eyes, lesions to the skin then the flesh are then destroyed. By a parasites that come from dredging.
The disease is a stress related problem.. Water quality has been effected by flood waters, What ever the problem the dredging and harbour activities should stop.
 Dredging has had to be stopped due to water quality on several occasions. Water quality is a matter of what is tested for.
 High reading of heavy metals has been recorded and follow up tests have now been carried out,  and serious issues exist Sharks are also effected.
  Fishing grounds have been affected. Du gongs are dying.and these area endangered species with over one hundred deaths of Du-gongs have been reported. Turtles are also being effected.
Vessels movements have trebled in the area. Many ports are to be developed in the world heritage area.
 If you want to see the barrier reef then don't wait as it might not be there in the future.
If there is a ship grounding again then the reef is doomed.

 Write to Tony Burke the environment minister and voice your opposition.
 The flat back turtle is under treat and is an endangered species.
 Bass bay is also under threat as well. The managers of the reef park have no teeth to stop the destruction. Thirteen % of the reef has been destroyed .
Coral is dying, Stop the resources boom at the expense of the reef, the reef is lasting resource and the liquid gas is only here for a short time....

drug sub has finally hit the water

Doing do-nuts in its own length.

At speed in a creek.

Cabin interior which is larger than a real drug sub.
This is the final post on the drug sub/ It worked as good as expected with a small problem of tracking, some work will have to be investigated on this and propeller pitch as it does as fast in idle as at top speed. The top photo shows it on the Shoalhaven river.

Blue gums are dying across Australia

This is a major problem that has not been recognised and must be seen for what it is. The problems are that minuscule amounts of phosphorus is effecting the Tassie tigers and the same goes for the trees but it is not phosphorus. I was in the wilderness area of Pidgion mountains in the south east of the state and was speaking to a local bushman and he has noticed the dying. Now this is totally random dying one in a stand of blue gums and it is not the oldest it is any age height middle of the stand or the outside ones even trees sorronded by healthy trees.
The problem comes from the bi products of the automobile and maybe from the rubber particles from the tyres or the products of combustion and this is attacked by a fungus to clean up our mess. Now you see the problem..Maybe the trees are going to attack people!

Water mills design

We did some work on cross flow water turbines and one of the common mistakes is to put the electrical part of the generating system below or level with the wheel.
Place the electric above the wheel away from the water, water falls and placing the generator above the wheel keeps it dry . Hope this helps some one...

Boat mills

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/11/boat-mills-bridge-mills-and-hanging-mills.html

November 16, 2010

Boat mills: water powered, floating factories

The waterwheel was seen as the most important power source in the world, from the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth century. When smaller streams became saturated, medieval engineers turned their attention to larger rivers, eventually leading to the development of the hydropower dams that still exists today. Lesser known are the intermediate steps toward that technology: boat mills, bridge mills and hanging mills. Boat mills had already appeared in 6th century Italy and spread all over the world. Most of them remained in use up until the end of the 1800s, with some of them surviving well into the 1900s.

Picture above: Last ship mill on the Rhine, 1925

Until recently, "boat mills", also known as "ship mills" or "floating mills", were largely thought of as a curiosity, a mere footnote in the long history of water power technology. Today some historians think that they were almost as widespread as windmills - although it should be noted that windmills, contrary to popular belief, were less common than watermills. The first monographs of boat mills only appeared in 2003 and 2006 (see sources). They contain, among many other new facts, the discovery of three tiny ship mills on a famous medieval painting from 1435 ("Madonna of Chancellor Rodin" by the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck). Nobody had noted them before, or weren't cognisant of exactly what they were.

Boat mill, Encyclopédie Diderot, 1751

Granted, boat mills are curious things. Some look like paddle-wheel riverboats, but in fact they are exactly the opposite. A waterwheel can be used in two ways: to create energy from moving water, as is the case with the water mill, or to apply energy to water with the result of motion, as is the case with a paddle-wheel boat.

The boat mill has the outside appearance of the latter, but it works just like a water mill. Basically, a ship mill is a water mill (waterwheel + milling house) built on a floating platform, moored to the river bank or anchored in the stream. The flowing water turns the water wheel, which in its turn drives the milling machinery. Ship mills could be used as single units, or fastened together side by side. 

Advantages of ship mills

Why build floating water mills when you can just as well construct a fixed water mill on the bank of a river? There were several good reasons. Although water is a much more reliable power source than wind, you cannot always count on it. Rivers rise and fall with the seasons and with the prevailing weather, while the axle of the water wheel remains at a fixed height. On smaller streams this variability could easily be mitigated by creating a small dam and sluice gates, forming a mill pond to even out natural flow conditions. An overshot wheel could also be used, especially in hilly regions. This wheel receives water from above via some kind of aqueduct and is more efficient (50 to 65%) than an undershot wheel (20 to 30%).

However, constructing dams and sluice gates would be much more difficult to achieve on a stream 100 metres wide and 10 metres deep. Overshot wheels could not be used. Since the water level in many large rivers could vary substantially, a fixed watermill on the bank of a river could thus easily end up with its blades above the water, rendering it useless. Conversely, rising water levels could partly or completely submerge the wheel, again rendering it useless (contrary to a modern turbine, which can operate fully submerged).

Ship mill on the Mura in Slovenia, source.

Even less extreme variations of the water level could seriously decrease the efficiency of a fixed water wheel. An undershot wheel derives its power entirely from the impulse of water, not complemented by gravity as is the case with an overshot wheel. In combination with a mill pond, the water could be directed at an optimal angle to the undershot wheel in order to obtain maximum efficiency. On a large river, where no mill pond was available, this was not possible - further decreasing the already limited efficiency of the undershot wheel.

Ship mills on the Seihun, Adana, Turkey, around 1920. Postcard collection Ton Meesters, Breda, the Netherlands

Floating watermills solved these problems. They simply followed the water level, keeping the undershot wheel always at a continuously ideal position. The result was a power source that was available 24 hours a day and 365 days per year (with the exception of extreme weather events). Furthermore, ship mills could be located at other parts of the stream where water velocity was higher than close to river banks, increasing their power output. Last but not least, ship mills also overcame the problem of overcrowded river banks, an especially important consideration for cities.

Two types of boat mills

 Basically, there were two main types of boat mills. One type was composed of two hulls with a water wheel in between, while the other type consisted of one hull with two waterwheels on both sides (or, sometimes, one waterwheel on one side). The boat mill with two hulls, somewhat resembling a catamaran, was by far the most efficient and powerful of both models. The two hulls channelled the water onto the wheel, increasing the impulse. A boat mill with a single hull did exactly the opposite.

Furthermore, the floating mill with two hulls (illustration on the right, by Johann Matthias Beyer) could support much larger wheels than the type with one hull (illustrations on the left, from the "Encyclopédie Diderot"), again increasing the power output. Thirdly, the double hull allowed for a system of control gates to regulate the amount of water hitting the wheel, thereby making it possible to better control the speed of the machinery inside the milling house, or to stop the wheel altogether. This system also protected the wheel against driftwood. Finally, a boat mill with two hulls was also more stable.

Construction plan

One of the hulls was much wider than the other one. It housed the millling machinery (mill stones and gears), the grain to be ground, and - in the case of larger ship mills - the boat miller residence. In the case of smaller ship mills, this house stood on the bank of the river. The smaller pontoon only served to carry the axle. The main hull and the pontoon were connected at the front and the rear with strong beams. Balancing the floating mill was done by loading stones in the pontoon.

The large hull was always on the side of the river bank for easy accessibility - this meant that ship mills with two hulls were designed with a specific location in mind: the left or the right bank of the river (on the aforementioned painting by Jan Van Eyck, this fact was overlooked by the artist). If it was moored on the river bank, the mill was accessible by a stone or wood bridge or gangway. Sometimes pack animals were used to deliver the grain and to take away the flour. If the boat mill was located midstream, it was only accessible via small boats.

Diversity

Boat mills, which were built almost entirely out of wood, could be impressive structures. Generally, they were 10 to 15 metres long, while the longest ship mills described measured 20 metres and more. The large hull was usually 5 to 8 metres wide, the pontoon 2 to 3 metres. Both were mostly built in a rectangular form. A ship mill could be more than 6 metres tall and some had two or even three floors.

However, while some floating mills were huge and outstandingly crafted, others were rather small and sometimes very crude contraptions. The life expectancy of a boat mill could be between 30 and 50 years, with the wheel itself lasting for a decade. But some ship mills did not last even that long, rotting from the inside or simply falling apart.

Two boat mills - one with balcony - on the Elbe in Aachen, Germany, 1899. Postcard collection Ton Meesters, Breda, the Netherlands

Huge wheels

While conventional water mill wheels were seldom wider than 1 metre, the wheels of ship mills with two hulls could be up to 6 metres wide, with the axle up to 10 metres long. Medieval engineers explored the limits - wooden wheels could not be built larger than this if they were to retain their strength. The huge wheels had a diameter of about 5 metres and turned at 3 to 5 revolutions per minute, depending on the velocity of the stream. They delivered between 3 and 5 horse power at the shaft.

Ship mill on the Kur in Tiflis, Georgia, around 1900. Postcard collection Ton Meesters, Breda, the Netherlands

Ship mills with one hull could not support these wide wheels and delivered much less power. Among the lesser common types of boat mills were those with two water wheels in between the main hull and the pontoon, allowing them to operate two mills at the same time. They required very long axles, which were not always easy to find (illustration below). Placing the two wheels one after the other resolved this, at the expense of decreased efficiency.

Uses of boat mills

From the 15th century onwards, many conventional water mills started performing tasks other than milling grain, but most boat mills did not. Almost all of them were corn mills. There were a few exceptions. Karel Broes, the Flemish author of the 2003 monograph, lists a few floating paper mills, sawmills, fulling mills, oil mills, polishing mills, minting mills and cotton mills. Some of the more recent ship mills ended their life as an energy source for power generation.

In his standard work on the history of Chinese technology, Joseph Needham cites a 16th century Chinese writer who describes trip hammers mounted on boat mills to make paper:

"In Liang-chiang there were many ship mills, which work on the same principle as the water raising wheels, and are all anchored in the rushing water. The operations of grinding, pounding, and shifting (bolting) are all carried out by the use of water power. The boats make a noise 'ya-ya, ya-ya' incessantly".

Diderot described a stationary tugboat (below).

Origins

Few inventions from Antiquity can be dated as precisely as the ship mill. In 536 or 537 AD the Goths besieged Rome. In an attempt to starve the Romans, they cut the 14 aqueducts that delivered water to the city. This did not deprive the Romans of drinking water because the Tiber flowed through the walled city. But the aqueducts were the power source for the water mills that ground the grain for the whole city.

However, the Byzantyne general Belisarius, then in charge of defending the city, came up with the luminous idea of the boat mill. The event was accounted for in detail by the contemporary author Procopius:

"When the water was cut off and the mills stopped, and cattle could not grind, the city was deprived of food, and provision could hardly be found for the horses. But Belisarius, an ingenious man, devised a remedy for the distress. Below the bridge across the Tiber he extended ropes, well-fastened across the river from bank to bank. To these he affixed two boats of equal size, two feet apart, at a spot where the current flowed with the greatest velocity under the arches; and placing mill-stones in one of the boats, he suspended machines by which they turned in the water-space between them. He also contrived, at certain intervals on the river, other machines of the like kind, and these being put into motion by the force of the water, drove as many mills as were necessary to grind food for the city."

Boat mills on the Tiber, Italy

After that, the Roman empire did not last much longer - the Goths took Rome in 562 - but the ship mill would remain in use for another 1,400 years, with the last one only disappearing in the 1990s. Remarkably, during all those centuries, boat mills hardly changed. Those that could still be seen during the second half of the 20th century looked very similar to those illustrated in the Middle Ages (no earlier images of ship mills have survived).

Distribution of ship mills in Europe

After its initial success in Rome, the ship mill became a common sight on the Tiber and quickly caught on all over Europe. During the 6th century they also appeared in Switzerland (Geneva) and France (Paris and Dijon). During the 800s, boat mills showed up on the Rhine in Strasbourg (France) and Mainz (Germany). At the end of the tenth century, they were noted on the Kur in Georgia. They reached Venice and the Balkans in the 1000s and Spain in the 1100s.

Ship mills on the Rhine, detail from "Ansicht von Köln" by Anton Woensam, 1531

Toulouse (France) had at least 60 ship mills on the Garonne in the 12th century, milling all the grain for the city. Paris counted 70 to 80 boat mills on a one mile stretch of the Seine in the 1300s. In 1493 there were 17 floating mills on the Rhône at Lyons, growing to 20 by 1516 and to 27 by 1817. The Elbe, flowing through Germany and the Czech Republic, once counted 500 boat mills. There were also hundreds of ship mills on the Danube: 62 in Vienna (Austria), 88 in Budapest (Hungary) and a non-specified amount in Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. The Mur, a river that flows mainly through Austria and Slovenia, had over 90 boat mills. Ship mills can even be seen on 17th century city plans of Moscow.

Ship mills on the Kur in Tiflis, Georgia, around 1900 (postcard from the collection of Ton Meesters, Breda, the Netherlands)

In her 2006 monograph, Daniela Gräf could find proof of almost 700 specific locations, mainly on the Seine, Loire, Garonne, Rhône, Rhine, Weser, Elbe, Oder, Danube, Po and their tributaries, on which one or more boat mills have existed at one time or another. The total amount remains unknown for now. Floating mills did not show up everywhere, though. The Scandinavians and the English never warmed up to the idea. Attempts to build them on the Thames in London failed twice in the 16th century and again in the 18th century. The reasons for this are not well known. In Flanders and in the Netherlands, boat mills never really gained popularity - not more than a dozen were operated from the 15th to the end of the 17th century. In this case the cause is clear: the flow of the rivers in the Low Countries is too low and water power in general was of limited use. Because the region had much better wind conditions, it became an important center of windmill technology.

Distribution of ship mills outside Europe

Boat mills appeared in the Islamic world at the end of the 9th century, where they were employed along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. These large floating mills were equipped with four stones and could each produce around 10 tonnes of flour per 24 hours. Each mill could grind grain for around 25,000 people, which means around 60 of them were needed to feed the then estimated 1.5 million people in the Baghdad. Nothing yielding this scale of mechanised corn milling was known in any European country at that time, notes Terry Reynolds in his book on the history of the vertical water wheel (see sources). In 1148, Ibn Jubayr described the ship mills across the river Khabur in Upper Mesopotamia "forming, as it were, a dam".

Picture above: a cotton ship mill in Japan (1880-1933). Source: "water mills in Japan", Kenjiro Kawakami, Transactions TIMS, V, 1982

Joseph Needham found references of ship mills in Chinese literature in 737 (when "Ordinances of the Thang department of waterways forbid shipmills on the river and streams near Loyang as if they were something very well known"), 1170, 1313, 1570, 1628 and 1637. In 1848, traveller Robert Fortune found a whole colony of ship mills near Yenchow in northern Fukien. Here is his description:

"The stream was very rapid in many parts, so much that it is used for turning the waterwheels which grind and husk rice and other kinds of grain. At first I thought it was a steamboat, and was greatly surprised. A large barge or boat was firmly moored by stem and stern near the side of the river, in a part where the stream ran most rapidly. Two wheels, not unlike the paddles of a steamer, were placed at the sides of the boat, and connected with an axle which passed through it. The boat was tatched over to afford protection from the rain. As we got further up the river, we found that machines of this description were very common."

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Worcester made detailed engineering drawings of the ship mills still in action around the Chinese city of Fouchow. These carried four waterwheels on two axles - see the plan on the left.

Tide mills

Boat mills also opened up the possibility of generating power from coastal areas and estuaries, because they could be used as tide mills. The first one was described in 960 AD and was located on a canal of Basra in Southern Iraq. It could be that the early ship mills in Venice were tide mills, too, though nobody knows for sure. When a boat mill was used as a tide mill, its wheels would be pushed in one direction when the tide came in, and in the other direction when the tide went out. They could not be used for more than 10 hours per day. Very few of them were built - dams and tidal reservoirs were more common options to harvest tidal energy.

Bridge mills

Medieval millers quickly learned that the output of boat mills could be increased when they were anchored or moored close to islands, sand banks or man-made structures - most notably bridges. The wide piers and short arch spans of medieval bridges greatly increased the velocity of the stream at these locations. Positioning a ship mill underneath the arches of a bridge or just downstream from it became very popular practice during the Middle Ages. Reynolds notes that when the "Grand Pont", a masonry bridge in Paris under which more than a dozen ship mills were located, was destroyed at the end of the 13th century, it was the owners of the mills who quickly built another (wooden) bridge to facilitate the operation of their boat mills.

From this practice came the evolution of the bridge mill, which probably appeared in the 12th century (the first description comes from Cordoba, Spain). Bridge mills did not float - they were built as part of a bridge with the milling machinery built on top of the bridge itself. Unlike boat mills, they required some mechanism to alter the position of the wheel as the water level changed.

In most cases the mill was suspended from the bridge by chains which could be adjusted by a capstan arrangement (as described by Zonca, illustration on the left) or a treadmill. Bridge mills had sluice gates to control the flow of water and to protect the wheel against driftwood. From the 16th century onwards, quite a few ship mills were replaced by bridge mills.

Reconstruction drawing of the bridge mills at the Pont-Aux-Meuniers, Paris, 16th century. Source: "Paris à gré d'eau", Beaudoin Francois

Hydropower dams

The bridge mill was an intermediate step in the process of adapting the waterwheel to large rivers, culminating in the hydropower dam that we know today, as described by Terry Reynolds in his study on the history of the vertical water wheel (see sources):

"The hydropower dam and its adjunct, the power canal, presumably evolved from the boat mill and the bridge mill. The boat mill had been an attempt to adapt the vertical wheel to the natural flow of streams. The bridge mill had been a further step in that direction, but it had also demonstrated that natural conditions of flow could be significantly improved by human artifices. In one sense, the medieval river bridge, when combined with either boat or bridge mill, was a primitive form of hydropower dam, an intermediate step between the unassisted boat mill and the full-scale hydropower dam. Intentionally designed hydropower dams and the power canals frequently associated with them, however, went a step further. The boat mill and, to a lesser extent, the bridge mill had adapted the water wheel to natural stream conditions. The hydropower dam did the reverse. It adapted the stream to the water wheel."

Hanging mills

A variant of the bridge mill was the "hanging mill" or "suspended mill", which was not suspended from a bridge but from a specially designed structure (bridge mills are sometimes called hanging or suspended mills, too). It worked in a similar manner but did not offer all the advantages of the bridge mill - capital costs were higher and boats were required to access them. Their commonality was their relatively high power output, since they could support multiple waterwheels and could be built much larger than boat mills.

Less is known about these suspended mills, and most of the available data is limited to France (the "moulin pendant" above was located at Châtres and was still working in 1910). Three large hanging mills were built in Paris on the Seine during the 17th century. They took care of the water supply for the city, pumping water from the river.

The "Pompe du Samaritaine" was built in 1608 and the "Pompe du Pont Notre Dame" - which actually consisted of two suspended mills with a water tower in between - was built in 1670, following a severe water shortage. They had a power output of respectively 8.7 and 18.6 HP. The Pompe du Pont Notre Dame, which was demolished in the second half of the 19th century, is pictured above on a 1756 painting by J.B. Raguenet - note the floating mill just behind the bridge.

Large suspended mills (of a different type) were also built outside of France, notably in Germany (where they were called "Panstermühlen") from the 16th century onwards. Beyer describes one with multiple wheels that was 27 metres long, 15 metres wide and 18 metres high - see the illustration below. It was built on the river bank, but contrary to a conventional fixed water mill the wheels could be moved up and down. In the 19th century, yet another type of hanging mill appeared in Romania and Poland (the "Alvan").

Hanging mills were also built in the Far East from the 15th century onwards. In the Japanese mill below, which appears in Broes' monograph, the water axle was lifted by means of a lever construction.

Accidents waiting to happen

Bridge mills and hanging mills had another important advantage over floating mills: safety. Right from the beginning, ship mills caused problems. During heavy floods or storms their moorings often broke. The mills were carried away - sometimes with the people still inside - and smashed into boats, docks, bridges or other ship mills. They could get stuck in the arch of a bridge, damming the river and thus causing the waters to rise even higher. Floating ice could have similar consequences. Ship mills were not built with any means of proper navigation, so when they broke loose they were out of control. They could only navigate in calm weather.

Even under normal weather conditions boat mills formed a threat, especially for navigation. A floating mill required very secure anchoring, in order to avoid the accidents described above. Usually the method used was to hammer heavy wooden posts into the riverbed - often angled upstream - on which to fix their chains. These posts were a hazard to other boats, especially when the ship mill had been moved to another location in the meantime. 

Bridge mills and hanging mills did not pose these risks. Furthermore, their wheels could be taken out of the water when there were floods or ice, preventing damage to the mill. They were also more stable - another drawback to ship mills was that they sometimes delivered a product of inferior quality, due to the instability of the water. This might explain why most ship mills were only used to grind grain. Finally, bridge mills and hanging mills were also easier to maintain than boat mills.

The demise of the ship mill

In some regions boat mills were discontinued rather quickly. The 60 floating mills that were installed in Toulouse in the 12th century had disappeared less than a century later. They were replaced by three dams on which 43 fixed watermills were erected. The largest of these was the 400 metres long diagonal Bazacle dam, which was in operation by 1177 and remained the largest hydropower plant for quite some time.

The last ship mill on the Elbe in the Czech Republic

However, this drastic and early transition seems to have been an exception rather than the norm. Many more hydropower dams were built, and more boat mills were replaced by bridge mills or hanging mills, but in most European countries and in the near East ship mills remained in use well into the 1800s.

The majority of boat mills were discontinued between 1770 and 1870, which is no coincidence. Around 1780, the first steam river boats appeared and river navigation became ever more important. The use of ship mills was restricted by law in Austria in 1770 and in Paris in 1787. The construction of new ship mills was outlawed on the Rhine in 1868. In response to strict regulations in Slovakia at the end of the 19th century some boat mills were converted to fixed water mills on stilts - yet another variation (picture below, by Leo van der Drift).

In Paris, only 4 ship mills were left in 1800. The last boat mills on the Seine, the Loire and the Rhône disappeared respectively in 1840, 1842 and 1894. The last ship mill in Cologne was discontinued in 1847. At the beginning of the 1800s, there were still about 20 ship mills active on the Tiber, milling grain for a population of 158,000. At the end of the century, the last one disappeared. On the other hand, Vienna (Austria) still had 55 ship mills in 1870. In China they were used up to the end of the 19th century.

Boat mills in the 20th century

On some rivers boat mills could still be seen in the 1900s. During the first half of the century, working boat mills could be found in Georgia (Tiflis, 9 mills operating in 1909), Czech Republic (Lovosice, 1911), France (on the river Doubs, 3 mills operating in 1914), Iraq (Tekhrit, where they were used at least until 1917), Italy (10 boat mills in Verona in 1914, the last one stopped working in 1929), Turkey (1920), Germany (several locations, until 1926), Japan (1933), Slovakia (1937), Hungary (Tiszán, 1940) and Austria (Misseldorf, until 1945).

Bosnia had 27 mills left in 1950 with the last one disappeared in 1966. In Romania, 35 ship mills were still in use in 1957, and 8 of these were still working in 1968. Finally, the French historian Claude Rivet found a working ship mill on the Morava at Kuklijn (Serbia) in 1990, which was discontinued shortly afterwards. This seems to have been one of the last working authentic boat mills (check out this interesting video). Since then, around a dozen reconstructions have been built.

Kris De Decker (edited by Shameez Joubert)

Ship mill in Serbia, 1990. Picture by Claude Rivals.

Sources (in order of importance):

• "Over schipmolens en andere onderslagmolens met in hoogte verstelbare wateras", Karel Broes, Molenecho's, Vlaams tijdschrift voor Molinologie, July - September 2003. There seems to be only one (more or less) publicly accessible copy of this issue, in a library in Antwerp, Belgium. 
  
•  "Stronger than a Hundred Men: A History of the Vertical Water Wheel (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology) ", Terry S. Reynolds, 1983. Here's where I got the idea. There is no detailed information to be found on boat mills, but Reynolds puts the technology in its context.
• "Boat mills in Europe from early medieval to modern times", Daniela Gräf, 2006. I could not obtain a copy of this book yet, so I relied on some reviews and the table of contents. It is based on a thesis written in 2003, and must be a valuable addition to the sources mentioned above.
• "Wheels ex-aqueous and ad-aqueous; ship-mill and paddle-boat in east and west", in "Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 4: Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3: Civil Engineering and Nautics", Joseph Needham, 1971. Ship mills in Asia.
• "Theatrum Machinarum Molarium, Oder Schau-Platz der Mühlen-Bau-Kunst", Johann Matthias Beyer, 1735.
• "Vollständige Mühlen-Baukunst", Leonhard Christoph Sturm, 1718.
• "Die Kölner Rheinmühlen I & II", Horst Kranz, 1991-1993. There is also a website.
• "Studies in Ancient technology", R.J Forbes, 1965
• "L'Encyclopédie", Diderot et Alembert, 1751
• "Histoire d'une technique. Le dernier moulin à nef", Claude Rivals, L'Histoire, nr.153, 1992
• "Le moulin et le meunier. Mille ans de meunerie en France et en l'Europe", Claude Rivals (2000).
• "Paris à gré d'eau", Beaudoin Francois, 1993
• "Schiffmühle", wikipedia.
• "Wind, Water, Work: Ancient And Medieval Milling Technology (Technology and Change in History)", Adam Lucas, 2005
• "A survey of water mills in Japan", Kenjiro Kawakami, 1982

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