Waterwheels are one of the most ancient and most common machines. They appeared at the end of the second century B.C. and remained the most important source of mechanical energy beside that of humans and animals till the Industrial Revolution, driving mills, saws, pumps, bellows or hammers. Through a description of their design found in old texts, it has been possible to trace the conception of technology, beginning with the craft industry and ending with mathematical physics. In order to revive this extremely important technique, a water mill was constructed near Sion, using historical methods and workmanship. It includes a wooden waterwheel as well as all gears necessary to allow two millstones to rotate at a specified speed. Moreover, measurements were made on a scale model of the waterwheel with its ancient geometry, which has shown an efficiency of nearly 80 percent.
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© 2008 Springer
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Dubas, M. (2008). A New Ancient Water Mill:Remembering Former Techniques. In: Wiegandt, E. (eds) Mountains: Sources of Water, Sources of Knowledge. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6748-8_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6748-8_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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