Brazil at the Dawn of the Eighteenth Century

Chapter V: The Mill, the Building Housing It, and How Water Powers It

63 chapter v y The Mill, the Building Housing It, and How Water Powers It Even though “mill” is the name given to the entire complex of buildings, with workshops for milling the cane, cooking, and refining the sugar, all in all, it is the same to say “mill house” as “building for milling cane,” which houses the ingeniously invented object. As we have now arrived at this structure with cane brought to the rollers, we will give some description of it and how the work there is conducted to press the sugar from the cane. This is based on what I saw at the royal mill of Sergipe do Conde, which is the best known of all the mills in Bahia. The building rises at the edge of a river, with seventeen great brick pillars, four palmas wide and twenty-two high, spaced fifteen palmas from each other. It is a lofty and spacious structure, the roof covered with roofing tiles. These sit on straight beams, tied in place, from a type of wood called lei, which is the strongest wood in Brazil. No other place produces a wood of equal quality. The structure has two verandas around it, one for receiving cane and firewood and the other to store extra wood. This is what is called the milling house, capable of comfortably processing four tasks of cane without disrupting the flow of those who work there as well as those coming and going. There is ample space to keep the way open for other work areas, particularly for those just next to the furnaces and cauldrons. This entire structure is 193 palmas long and 86 wide. Such a special artifice of axles and wheels mills the cane here that it deserves special attention and a more complete description. In order to power the rollers, a good deal of water is diverted upriver into an aqueduct where it flows behind a dam or into a tank lined with brick or tile. A channel conducts the water behind a dam or into a tank. In order to power the mill, water is released and allowed to run through 64 The Cultivation of Sugar a large and well-lined channel falling at a slow incline. In this way, the water moves smoothly with greater impetus and force past a diverter that can deflect water if necessary, such as when heavy rains fall or when it rains more than usual. There is an opening for the water to enter two pipes, one that takes it to the cauldrons and the other to take it to cool the axis inside the large roller of the mill. This is connected by a board to another channel that conducts water to an open wooden pipe, called the caliz. It rests on brick pillars and its end is lowered, meeting the top of the water wheel. Since this water strikes the cavities of the wheel, this is called “the striker.” It fills the cavities on the wheel with water and ensures its continued motion. The axles of this wheel, one on the outside and another on the inside of the mill, rest on two supports made of wood with bronze tops. These hold up two supports inside and two outside for the channel holding the axis. On top of these, as we have stated, there is always a little water trickling down to keep it cool, and prevent it from becoming overheated by constant use. The water keeps the heat in check. Simon de Vries, “Brasilise Suykerwerken,” from Curieuse aenmerckingen, Utrecht, 1682 (JCB 03016-2). Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University 65 The Mill and the Building Housing It The spokes of the large wheel support its curving shape. On the inside, the cavities made in the wheel to hold water are linked together by sheathing along the inside of the two edges of the wheel and held by many iron bolts with their washers and bolts covered so that the wheel and the cavities do not move when the water pours out and the wheel can make a secure turn. Near the outside wheel are two big, thick pillars with three beams also secured elsewhere. One of these supports the end of the water channel feeding the wheel, two support the tip of the feeding channel, and another controls the pejador,12 or stop. The pejador consists of a...