By Tim Richards

In 1844 a better [tide mill] was erected upon the site….

from History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
Compiled by Simeon D. Hamilton Hurd, 1884.

Development of the Truro Tide Mill before 1790 created a high-value business for the town and owners. Fifty years later, Truro was booming. Driven by increased cod and mackerel catches, the town’s population leapt from 1,547 in 1830 to 2,051 by 1850. More mouths to feed meant more demand for flour. It was not assured, however, that the aging tide mill could retain its share of that business.

In 1840, Truro supported the tide mill and three windmills. Recently-built windmills incorporated longer, more efficient blades, increasing their grinding capacity over a wider range of wind conditions. This competition may have pressured the tide mill proprietors to increase their mill’s horsepower and operating hours.

At the same time, important Truro Tide Mill proprietors likely faced a separate financial challenge. In April 1841 Anthony Snow Collins mortgaged his home and other property to the newly-established Truro Fire and Marine Insurance Company for $250. At least seven other tide mill owners mortgaged their houses with the same company at this time. These mortgages appear to have represented their investment in the company.

Continue reading “A Better Mill for Truro” →

Long-time Tide Mill Institute supporter John Morse commissioned videographer and drone pilot Troy Watson to take drone video of four tide mill sites in and around Phippsburg, Maine, on the Kennebec River just south of Bath. The result is clear and spectacular views of these sites – available online to anyone. Click the links below to view these videos on YouTube.

As these ruins continue to degrade with age, the videos will become more and more valuable as part of the historic record. Tide Mill Institute is grateful to John for making them available.

by David Hoyle

Editor’s note: This post by TMI member David Hoyle is TMI’s first digest of recent tidal energy development news with links to the full articles. Further updates will be posted regularly, in keeping with one of Tide Mill Institute’s missions: promoting tidal energy development. Thank you David!

Scottish company Orbital Marine Power will commission its Orbital O2 tidal turbine near the Orkney Islands. The 2 MW tidal turbine is billed as the world’s largest (compare with 1.5 MW MeyGen turbines, below). Note that in Scotland 2 MW is touted as power for 2000 homes – in the US the claim would be more like 300-400 homes. Also mentioned is a project to gather data on the tidal energy potential off of the Scilly Islands SW of England. The article concludes with the following statistics: 260 KW of tidal stream capacity was installed in Europe in 2020 versus 14.7 GW of wind capacity installed in the same year. Thanks to Richard Duffy and others for pointing out this article.
Read the article at cnbc.com.

More Tidal Energy Headlines

The world’s most powerful tidal turbine launches in Scotland
This is another article about Orbital Marine Power’s Orbital O2 turbine, but it includes some excellent animations showing how the turbine will be installed and how it will operate.
Read the article at electrec.co.

Continue reading “World’s Most Powerful Tidal Turbine Gears Up for Operation” →

We usually think of power shortages as 21st-Century phenomena, recently in news about California and Texas. But as early as 1720, colonial York, Maine, also faced a power shortage that threatened the economic growth of the settlement. According to a recent research paper by Bob Gordon, every possible site in the early town had by then been exploited for its water power, but there still wasn’t enough energy to support and expand an export economy that relied on grain mills and sawmills.

To solve the problem – and make a profit while doing so – 19 men with vision organized to dam York’s Meeting House Creek, creating a mill pond to power sawmills and grist mills using the energy of the tides. The project tripled the mechanical energy available in York and was the largest tidal power project in New England at the time. The business, named New Mills Company, turned out to be a great financial success for its owners.

The milling operations prospered for decades after their establishment, but President Jefferson’s trade embargo, the War of 1812, a depression and the depletion of the nearby forests eventually led to the failure of business at the site. Later entrepreneurs attempted ice harvesting operations and real estate development around the pond, but they failed. Finally in 1922, a local society came to the rescue, repairing the original dam so pedestrian traffic could cross the mouth of the creek.

The site of the dam and the tidal pond, now called Barrell’s Mill Pond, is today a peaceful, photogenic spot with a graceful causeway over the old dam leading to Steedman Woods Nature Reserve. Except for the explanatory plaque near the east end of the dam, little evidence remains of the busy industrial operations once centered there.

Read more about the history of Barrell’s Mill Pond in Bob Gordon’s report.

By Tim Richards

The miller was one of the early Cape [Cod] society’s most important citizens…. The mill and he were so important to the towns that they both enjoyed a tax-exempt status. Also, the miller was exempt from serving in the militia and in public office.

— Jim Gilbert, The Provincetown [Mass.] Advocate, April 4, 1977.

In seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth century America, mills ranked among a town’s most important institutions. As a matter of town business, communities offered incentives to secure and retain the services of skilled millers. The financial value of the Truro Tide Mill on Cape Cod in Massachusetts provides an additional dimension to this narrative.

In 1790, soon after the Truro Tide Mill went into service, one of its owners passed away. Samuel Rich’s estate sold his one eighth share in the mill complex to Benjamin Hinckley (possibly already a co-owner) for twenty-four pounds, six shillings. Converting pounds to 1790 dollars, that sales price valued the entire mill complex at over $850.

To put this valuation in perspective, in the 1787-1790 period two Cape Cod houses sold for an average of $165 and salt meadow adjoining the Mill Pond sold for an average of $32 per acre. These salt meadows were among the most expensive undeveloped land on Cape Cod, probably due to their value in producing hay and as a location for salt-works.

Continue reading “Cape Cod Mill Values: Tide vs. Wind” →

by Tim Richards

When my wife Meg Clarke and I bought a house on Mill Pond Road in Truro Massachusetts four years ago, we had no idea that a tide mill once operated on the pond. Eventually we asked ourselves “Why is the pond called Mill Pond?”

We knew little about tide mills. We did, however, appreciate the power of the tides. I grew up sailing on the Pamet River in Truro, where every outing requires respect for tidal currents and where sailing schedules are dictated by the 8-12 foot tides. I also had a professional interest in tidal power because renewable energy policy, including tidal energy, was an important part of my work for the General Electric Company.

In November 2018, my father and I visited the Truro Historical Society’s Cobb Archive to research the history of Mill Pond. With help from the Archive volunteers, we found that Mill Pond was aptly named: an 1890 history of Barnstable County includes a sentence describing the Truro mill. The Cobb Archive also included Truro maps dated between 1795 and 1858, which showed a mill on the pond (see detail from the 1858 map below). Lesson one from our research was “pay attention to the obvious!” If a pond is called “Mill Pond” or a hill “Mill Hill” it is a good bet that there was once a mill in that location.

Continue reading “Discovering a Tide Mill in Truro” →