by Bud Warren

On October 25th and 26th tide mill enthusiasts were delighted with a well-rounded, two-day program about New England and European tide mills. The conference title was TIDE MILLS GALORE: From the Piscataqua to the Merrimack. Seventeen speakers shared findings of their research about early mills and current explorations to harness tidal energy. Participants enjoyed a low-tide field trip to view sites of seventeenth century mills and the chance to walk among the rocks of a tide mill dam in Kittery, Maine.

Friday was all about mills of the Piscataqua River region and gave time for informal presentations by local savants. Deb Knowlton set the stage by describing cultural and family aspects of milling in early New England. Deane Rykerson, Fred Perry and John Viele focused on Kittery’s Spruce Creek and Chauncey Creek mills. John led the group out on the ruins of the Thompson’s tide mill dam. New Hampshire’s Winnicutt River mill was explained by Nathan Hazen, and Craig Musselman shared the seven or eight mills in Rye, N.H.  Jim Cerny described New Castle Island’s two tide mills and led a look-and-see session at one site.

Continue reading “TMI’s Annual Conference Scores Again!” →

The Tide Mill Institute is proud to announce that one of its founders will receive the 2019 Prize for Collecting Works on Paper from Historic New England on Wednesday, November 20. The prize honors Earl Taylor for assembling “a significant collection of photographs, books, manuscripts, ephemera, and artifacts related to Dorchester, Massachusetts” according to Historic New England’s announcement. Taylor co-founded the Tide Mill Institute in 2005 along with Bud Warren and John Goff, and he currently serves on its board of directors.

Historic New England is the oldest and largest regional heritage organization in the U.S. At its annual Evening of Celebrations program at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Mass., it recognizes historians, authors and collectors. This year, Taylor will share the Collecting Works on Paper award with Sam Allen and Lance Llewellyn.

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TIDE MILL INSTITUTE reports that it has received the bulk of the research papers of a noted tide mill historian. The late Peveril Meigs III began studying Atlantic Coast tide mills when he retired, but died after a decade or more of study and field work about tide mills. He wrote only a few articles about them. His extensive collection of data about this early American industrial technology has been unavailable for sixty years.

The institute reported this week that it has received the bulk of the Meigs papers – information about 300 tide mills from Nova Scotia to Florida – and will begin organizing them for eventual deposit in an academic museum archive. The papers were saved and carefully protected by his son, Willard Meigs of Lewisville, North Carolina, whose hope has been to have them preserved for scholars.

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TIDE MILL INSTITUTE has announced the program for its October 25 and 26 (Friday and Saturday) annual tide mill conference in Kittery, Maine. With primary focus on mill sites between the Piscataqua and Merrimack rivers, and it offers something for everyone. Register now to reserve your space.

History lovers will be amazed by the number of tide mill sites on both sides of the lower Piscataqua River and on the creek and tide marsh network in Kittery and the adjacent New Hampshire seacoast. The Friday October 25 program will include a low-tide visit to several of the sites.

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by Bud Warren

When Samuel F. Manning died on July 9th in Camden, Maine, the tide mill world lost a close friend. I’d known him since the mid 1970’s when we began sharing our love of dories, a boat type I was using in a school program in Bath. I was in awe of his knowledge and the gentle way he passed on information and supported me as I grew in the love of the Maine coast and its history. By the time we met, he was gaining fame as a proponent of using tidal power, writing about our state’s early tide mills and illustrating them with phenomenal images of how they operated and had been constructed. We were blessed at one of our recent conferences in York when he illustrated his approach.

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Robert Gordon and Patrick Malone have just published a thoroughly researched and annotated paper, “‘Perpetual power’ from the Tides in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 1813–1858.” Both authors are long-time Tide Mill Institute supporters and advisors and have spoken about Boston tide mills at past TMI conferences.

According to its abstract, the 27-page paper describes how engineers “overcame daunting technological challenges” to harness the tides in Boston from 1822 to 1858, providing “continuous, uniform tidal power to Boston industries.” This energy-producing system operated like a modern utility by selling this energy to industrial customers. Inventors and artisans, too, took advantage of this energy source, and roads built on the dams around the tidal basins became important transportation links.

Continue reading “Just Published: Perpetual Power from Boston Tides, 1822 to 1858” →