[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:38:06 02/21/11
Fun, isn't it, an old-fashioned fire engine like this. And not only to look at: it's in perfect working order. Let it roll, or extend. This ladder unit belongs to Henk Vaags, from the Dutch village of Aalten. He uses it for the upkeep of mills. Its motorised, extendable, directable ladder can reach all the way up to the gallery of the flour-mill 'The Four Winds'; they're even long enough to be able to repair the roof. The cap axle or sail axle of this tower mill is 23 metres or more than 75 feet above the ground. The miller, can get there too if he wants, but that requires a lot of schlepping (commotion) with ladders on the gallery. This is much easier. Frans, who's nearing seventy, is a proud miller or molenaar, proud of his craft and his mill. To find out what it means to him, we leave the village. 'The Four Winds' commands the view of the village even more than the church steeple. 'Look at it out there, commanding that flat horizon.' When you're busy grinding with the sails full to the wind, you must never suddenly step on the brake. The heavy sails will just clean the teeth off the axle cog. If the mill is turning too fast, then the shutters on the wings will open up and slow the whole system down. The miller appraises the air a few times a day: an old habit. Even though the tips of the sails can turn at 100 to 120 so-called ends a minute, you can't grind at that speed. 70 ends or quarter turns a minute is ideal. 'You're always outside with a mill, eh,' he says good-humouredly. The inside of the mill. The big wheel is the spur wheel, which drives the main upright shaft. And this is what it's all about: the wheat, crushed by a roller, slides through the shute and falls between the millstones. You control the grain supply with a rope tied to the shute. High above, the arms of the governor swing back and forth. This metallic traffic policeman controls the distance between the millstones. The adjustable weights on the arms are clearly visible. While Frans lowers flour from the gallery, or stone attic, he says that the flour-mill was originally a watermill in the village of Stedum, in the north. 'We rebuilt it back up here as a flour-mill in 1958. Just like a building kit. In seven months we were turning with the wind. Mostly cattle-feed in those days. But since 1976, I've been grinding for human consumption.' The grains that pass through his millstones are buckwheat, barley and corn, but the main meal is wheat and rye. The old-time farmer is long gone. The fields are bigger, sheaves are a thing of the past. The answer today is the combine harvester, which simultaneously cuts and threshes. 05'19 The miller has stayed the same, working with the whoosh of the wind and the knocking of the stone by the shute . 'Even as a child, I used to work with my Dad at the mill. He used to do it exactly the same. He would bend over the shute and listen to the stones. Then he would go to the flour shute and feel the flour to see if it was ground well. It's something you know by touch.' 05'52 An ingenious system of gutters leads the flour to the mixer. From there to the bagging machine, where into 25 kilo paper sacks. it gets lowered broadcast footage: http://www.stockshot.nl/stockshots/beroepen.htm Music title Water Prelude by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0"
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