or MILKYET, property in Bengal.

MILLS of various kinds are described in the article MECHANICS (Encycl.), and he who shall study that article, together with WATER-WORKS, and MACHINERY, in this Supplement, will have a sufficient knowledge of the principles upon which mills must be constructed so as that they may produce their proper effects. The subject is introduced into this place merely to put it into the power of our countrymen to adopt, if they shall think fit, the improvements which have been made in the machinery of flour mills in America.

The chief of these consist in a new application of the screw, and the introduction of what are called elevators, the idea of which was evidently borrowed from the chain pump. The screw is made by sticking small thin pieces of board, about three inches long and two wide, into a cylinder, so as to form the spiral line. This screw is placed in a horizontal position, and by turning on its axis it forces wheat or flour from one end of a trough to the other. For instance, in the trough which receives the meal immediately coming from the floater, a screw of this kind is placed, by which the meal is forced on, to the distance of six or eight feet, perhaps, into a reservoir; from thence, without any manual labour, it is conveyed to the very top of the mill by the elevators, which consist of a number of small buckets of the size of tea cups, attached to a long band that goes round a wheel at the top, and another at the bottom of the mill. As the band revolves round the wheels, these buckets dip into the reservoir of wheat or flour below, and take their loads up to the top, where they empty themselves as they turn round the upper wheel. The elevators are inclosed in square wooden tubes, to prevent them from catching in anything, and also to prevent dust. By means of these two simple contrivances no manual labour is required from the moment the wheat is taken to the mill till it is converted into flour, and ready to be packed, during the various processes of screening, grinding, sifting, &c.

That this is a considerable improvement is obvious; and we are not without hopes that it may be adopted. The licentiousness of an English mob has indeed persecuted an Arkwright, expelled the inventor of the flying shuttle from his native country, and by such conduct prevented the re-erection of the Albion mills, and the general establishment of saw-mills throughout the kingdom; but their sovereignty perhaps will not be roused by so easy and simple a contrivance as this to lessen the quantity of manual labour. For an account of the Dutch oil-mill, which was somehow omitted in its proper place in the Encyclopedia, see OIL-MILL in this Supplement.

MINERALOGY

Is a science, the object of which is the description and arrangement of inorganic bodies or minerals; or of all the bodies which belong to our globe, excepting animal and vegetable substances.