Fulling Mill
A Walkmühle or full mill (also: Walke , Dick mill , Filzmühle , hole Walke or blueness ) is a since the Middle Ages machine used for processing, compaction and finishing of fabrics in the production of Walk substances , formerly known as cloth were designated.
It replaced the walking with the feet, with which freshly woven cloths were cleaned by pushing, stretching and pressing and felted on the surface so that they became denser and more supple.
Fulling mills were also used by the tanners, especially the white tanners, for processing fine and thin leather.
Fulling mills, which existed in Europe as early as the 12th century , and occasionally earlier, often led to social problems because one fulling mill could replace up to 40 walkers. They were partly forbidden because of this, but also because foot-milled fabrics were of better quality.
Designations
For the fulling mills there was also the name full mill in many places. This term comes from the Latin word fullo , the walker, so the spelling Follmühle would be more appropriate. The spelling with V , however, associates that something complete has been produced.
The term blue comes from the word blue , which means to hit . In certain regions this designation occurs in field names (e.g. Bläumatt).
functionality
In the full cloth mills or full mills, wool was felted in a warm and damp state by pushing, squeezing and tamping into a cohesive body in such a way that a smooth surface was created. In this way, the threads of the fabric were completely hidden, thereby making the fabric slightly water-repellent. Today we still know such a material as loden . Furthermore, other fabrics such as linen were lightly drummed to make them more supple.
Hammer mill
Woolen fabric produced by looms is milled in vats in the fulling mill using wooden hammers that are driven by a water wheel via a shaft and a rocker mounted on the shaft pivot point , i.e. compressed, compacted and pounded until a matted fabric is created that provides the desired warming, as well as possessed rain and wind repellent properties. Through pressure, heat and the addition of a fulling liquid (e.g. a suspension of clay in hot water) the fabric fibers swell , become matted and the weaving holes close.
This type of fulling mill explains the name blue , which comes from blue (beating).
Pressure or crank mill
With the pressure fulling, an improvement on the hammer fulling, the hammers do not work in free fall on the fabric, but the lighter hammers exert pressure on the cloth via pull rods in order to avoid damaging the cloth.
Web links
literature
- Peter Nikolaus Caspar Egen : Fulling mills . In: ders .: Studies on the effect of some existing waterworks in Rhineland-Westphalia , ed. from the Ministry of the Interior for Trade, Industry and Construction, Part I-II. A. Petsch, Berlin 1831, pp. 184–191 ( Google Books ) (detailed description of mechanics and technology)
- Michael Matheus and Lukas Clemens: The Fulling Mill , in: European Technology in the Middle Ages 800-1200. Tradition-Innovation, ed. by U. Lindgren, Berlin 1996, pp. 233-234, ISBN 978-3-7861-1748-3
- Karl-Heinz Ludwig: The innovation of the camshaft in the transition from the early to the high Middle Ages. A sketch of European source problems with special consideration of the fulling mill . In: Technikgeschichte, 61. Vol. (1994), H. 3, pp. 227-238.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Friedrich Wilhelm Weber: The history of the Palatinate mills of a special kind . Verlag Franz Arbogast, Otterbach 1981.
- ^ A b Hans Leonhard Brenner : The Strunde and their Bergisch Gladbacher mills , published by Bergischer Geschichtsverein Rhein-Berg eV in collaboration with the Bergisch Gladbach City Archives, Bergisch Gladbach 2012, p. 35ff. ISBN 3-932326-67-9
- ↑ a b Ernst Eichenberger: Köniz and the water supply of the city of Bern , 2011, p. 34 (footnote), ISBN 978-3-9523247-3-8