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Photographer: Syd Whittle
Taken: April 26, 2009
Caption: Harnessing Waterpower
Additional Description:
An Interpretive Panel on the trail to the mill.
Waterwheels have been used for some 2,000 years. Such early mechanical inventions were an important way for people of the past to use available resources. These wheels provided tireless and consistent power for many kids of milling machines. Their basic designs changed little, and millers used the type best suited to each mill condition.

--Horizontal waterwheels were driven by water diverted from fast-moving streams.
--Breasted waterwheels received the water’s impact at about midlevel of the vertical height.
--Undershot wheels turned as fast-moving water hit the lowest part of the wheel.

The Bale Mill’s overshot wheel is a type often used where the water source was high. Power came from the weight of falling water rather than its force of flow.

Water from Mill Creek, diverted by upstream dams, was delivered by ditches and flumes to operate the Bale Mill’s waterwheel.
Submitted: May 4, 2009, by Syd Whittle of Mesa, Arizona.
Database Locator Identification Number: p62024
File Size: 4.073 Megabytes

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