Page 304 - The Lost Ways

the mill was going to be used and the time period the mill was built in. Earlier mills used
wood gears, while later ones used metal gears. Metal was much more expensive but could
handle a heavier load and would last longer. Wood gears fell into three basic categories:
spur gear, crown gear, and lantern gear. To protect them from the weather, the gears

were pretty much always inside the mill, usually in the lower story.

In the case of a grain mill, it would be necessary to change the direction of the water
wheel’s force by 90 degrees. This was done by either attaching a spur gear to the water
wheel’s axle and a crown gear to the grinding stone’s axle or connecting a crown gear to
the water wheel’s axle and a lantern gear to the grinding stone’s axle.

In this diagram, the axles have been removed and the gears separated for clarity.

In actual use, the teeth of the gears would mesh with each other.

There would be a horizontal axle going through the vertical gear (spur gear on the left or
crown gear on the right) and a vertical axle going through the horizontal gear (crown gear

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