Mill race
A mill race, millrace or millrun,[1] mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel (sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a mill pond, the narrow current is swift and powerful. The race leading to the water wheel on a wide stream or mill pond is called the head race (or headrace[2]), and the race leading away from the wheel is called the tail race[3] (or tailrace[2]).
A mill race has many geographically specific names, such as leat,[4] lade, flume, goit, penstock. These words all have more precise definitions and meanings will differ elsewhere. The original undershot waterwheel, described by Vitruvius, was a 'run of the river wheel' placed so a fast flowing stream would press against and turn the bottom of a bucketed wheel.[5] In the first meaning of the term, the millrace was the stream; in the sense of the word, there was no separate channel, so no race. The example of Mill Lade in Godmanchester refers to a wide channel leading to moorings where laden vessels unload, similar waterways known by the similar name of Lode exist in neighbouring districts.
As technology advanced, the stream was dammed by a
Image gallery
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A head race
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Storckensohn water head race, or flume.
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Tail race rejoining River Meon.
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Cogglesford Mill: a covered head race and the by-pass weir
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millrace for Mingus Mill
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Johnson and Seymour Millrace from the Genesee River
See also
References
- ^ "Millrace". World English Dictionary (10th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
millrace or millrun (ˈmɪlˌreɪs)— n; 1. the channel in which the current of water driving a mill wheel flows to the mill. 2. the current itself.
- ^ a b Dictionary.com, word definition
- ^ Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionary, 1968, p=674
- ^ "Leat". World English Dictionary (10th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
leat (liːt) — n ( Brit ) 1. a trench or ditch that conveys water to a mill wheel. [Old English -gelǣt (as in wætergelǣt water channel), from let 1 ]
- ^ ISBN 978 1 85306 935 2.