A Tour of the Caledonia Mill
Ian D. Thompson, U.E.
When I began as a volunteer for the Caledonia Old Mill Corporation in December, 2005, I never imagined that I would one day be heralded the "Mill Expert." It's a title which has come from over a decade of research into the history of the Caledonia Milling Company and it's predecessors, and of the Golden Horseshoe Antique Society and other more recent owners of the historic site.
In 2008 I became a director on the board for the Old Mill Corporation who had acquired the property in 1997. I reached the Vice President position in 2013 before stepping aside due to diverging viewpoints on conservation and preservation of the Mill. Never did I imagine that one day I would be updating the history of the Mill to say that the Caledonia Old Mill Corporation had sold the building to a private company who planned to demolish the structure completely.
Luckily, I am one of a small handful alive today who was able to spend many thousands of hours inside the Mill, documenting it's rich history, learning it's secrets, and having a boatload of fun.
The 21st century allows me to share with you a photo-tour of the Mill as it was when I completed my time as a member of the COMC in 2013. Many of my high school friends had worked alongside me for many years cleaning and discovering the gems inside the Mill- but those memories are for another article. Today, I'll take you through a basic tour of the Milling Process as it was at the time operations ceased at the Mill in 1964.
The first thing to note is that, despite popular belief, the Caledonia Mill was not powered by water-wheel. The idea of a picturesque flume leading to a slow-turning wheel was quite the contrary in the case of this mill. It was water powered from the start- made possible by the construction of a dam in the 1840s.
A headrace was built from above the dam running alongside Forfar Street towards the Mill (See photo at left). The water could be controlled by large sluice-gates- wooden and later metal gates which could adjust the flow of water to the Mill- which were located near where the current dam is today.
As the water approached the Mill it was funneled into the basement where it turned two Charles Barber & Sons Turbines, and exited out the side and back into the River (See photo at left). Remnants of a large concrete wall can be seen here, the purpose of which was to prevent large amounts of water from flowing into the basement from the River below the dam. There was an overflow gate too, which was located about 20 feet from the back of the Mill just in case too much water was coming through the race. The dilapidated walls of this gate are currently being reinforced by two steel rods to keep them from collapsing in on one another.
The turbines had large vertical axles which connected to a large cog in the basement level of the mill above the turbine pit. This cog transferred the movement from the turbine from vertical to a horizontal axle (see photo at left)
On this axle (called a lineshaft), many pulleys and cogs existed on which were canvas belts and chains. The largest pulleys in the Caledonia Mill were wooden or cast iron and measured 1.2 meters in diameter (see photo at left). There was a set of lineshaft on each floor of the mill suspended from the ceiling, each directly connected to the lineshaft on the floor below by a large 30cm wide canvas belt tied with leather straps.
The lineshafting on upper levels of the Mill had smaller pulleys and cogs which connected more belts and chains to all of the various machinery, thus powering it all by the water flowing through the mill below (see photo at left). No electricity was ever generated at the Caledonia Mill.
There were no safety guards, no first aid kits, and no educational program for Mill workers. They had to learn by doing, and of course, by shadowing the Head Miller. Mills were a dangerous place to work, and Caledonia was no exception. If a belt snapped, or slid off it's pulley it could be disastrous, not only for production, but for the worker on site.
There were no instruction manuals or warranties on the equipment within the mill either. Operation of the Mill and the repair of it's equipment was made on a 'try anything' platform which resulted in some creative solutions from workers who would use whatever materials they had accessible to ensure that production wasn't effected.
With a water-powered facility there were plenty of reliability issues. If there was too much water (after a thaw, or heavy rains) it could flood the basement of the Mill and damage the equipment and the wheat stored beneath, if there was too little water the turbines couldn't run, or couldn't run fast enough. If the winter was especially cold, the water in the turbine pit could freeze if it wasn't flowing fast enough. When the ice broke in spring above the dam it could damage the race, the turbines, or the dam itself. Water-powered business was risky business.
There aren't too many records of these issues plaguing the Caledonia Mill- meaning that without the expense of operating a steam or electric engine, the operation at Caledonia was always fairly lucrative and provided the shareholders of the Caledonia Milling Co. with good dividends each year.
Now that you understand how the mechanics of the Mill operated, I can leave you hanging until next week when I explain how the Caledonia Mill turned wheat into flour.
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