Description

Fitzhouse Books, London, Published date: 1992. Hardcover; [96] pp (unpaged); 25 cm. 1992 reprint of original edition. Illustrated throughout with 137 black and white photographic illustrations published in 1977. Very good in very good dust jacket. Brown cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine; light shelf wear and mild rubbing to covers; corners lightly bumped; binding sound. Interior pages clean and unmarked. Dust jacket has a few small nicks and light creasing along edges. Mild overall rubbing and scuffing to jacket as well. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. Illustrated historical study of British windmills and watermills during the Victorian and Edwardian periods, drawn from early photographic sources. [From front jacket flap] A windmill at work on a fine summer day was as breathtaking a spectacle as a full-rigged ship at sea. At the turn of the century there were still several thousand windmills and watermills engaged in flour-milling and in other agricultural and industrial work. But by the end of the Great War the combined impact of steam power and electricity was already causing decline and decay - and today there is but a single windmill in profitable operation and no more than a dozen or so watermills. But their fascination remains, as is shown by this remarkable selection of photographs which begins exotically with Bayard's photograph of Montmartre in 1842 and continues to the end of the Edwardian period. In addition to representing every variety of windmill and watermill, the authors have selected examples of mills in mining and industry, of wind engines, and of mill machinery. There is also an evocative section on millers and millwrights, and another on mill disasters and demolitions. It will be seen from the photographs that local windmills and watermills played a significant part in the village economy, the mill itself providing a natural meeting place for farmers. For the benefit of the uninitiated who don't know the difference between a lucam and a launder, nor even between a breast-shot wheel and pitch-back wheel, the authors have added a glossary, as poetic as it is informative. Contents include: Acknowledgments; Introduction; Windmills; Watermills; Mills in Mining and Industry; Wind Engines; Mill Machinery; Millers and Millwrights; Disasters and Demolitions; Glossary.