Colvin Run Mill Simple Machines Learning

Colvin Run Mill Historic Site

Simple Machines

10017 Colvin Run Rd Great Falls, VA 22066 Learning Kit 703-759-2771

Introduction

Inside: Thank you for scheduling a field trip to Colvin Run Mill Historic Educational 2 Site. We hope you and your Objectives students find your visit to be both educational and enjoyable. This Educational Themes 2 Learning Kit provides you with information to introduce your students to the site and to During the visit, your students will A Brief History of 3 reinforce concepts learned during go to three learning centers where Colvin Run Mill your visit. It includes Standards they will learn how simple machines of Learning objectives, made work easier and they will use Worksheet: 4 educational themes, a brief some simple machines. They will also 19th Century discover the inter-dependence of local Livelihoods history of the site, a list of vocabulary words, and rural economics, the impact of Oliver Evans’ 5 worksheets. Please feel free to geography on the development of Automated Mill: A adapt these materials to your communities in northern Virginia Symphony of Simple needs and to make copies of this and the importance of transportation Machines information. routes for commerce.

Worksheet: 6 Simple Machines Make the Miller’s Job In the barn, Vocabulary List 7-8 students use four simple machines that made work easier in the days before electricity.

In the mill, students In the general store, learn how grain was students discover a ground into flour or thriving commercial center cornmeal by the water- for the town and a hub of powered grinding social activities. Students stones and how simple handle historic household machines helped items and identify simple automate the process. machines. Page 2 : Learning Kit Colvin Run Mill Historic Site

Educational Objectives

Science Standards Force, Motion and Energy objectives from the Science Standards of Learning include:

3.2, 4.2, 6.2 Students will investigate and understand simple machines and their uses and see examples of simple machines at work that made the miller’s job easier.

History & Skills and Economics objectives from the Social Science History and Social Science Standards of Learning and the Virginia Studies Standards of Learning include:

3.1 Students will learn that in the 19th century a vital rural community of farmers, craftspeople, and merchants grew up around Colvin Run Mill.

1.5, 1.6 Geography and transportation routes determined the location of the mill along Colvin Run. The students will learn how these factors also influenced the location and growth of the 19th century community.

th 3.8, 3.8 In the 19 century, Colvin Run Mill was a merchant mill. The students will learn how producers (like the miller) used natural, human, and

capital resources to produce specialized goods in the past.

Colvin Run Mill operated commercially from about 1811 to the mid-1930s. VS.1, VS.6, VS.9 The students will learn about the social and commercial lives of ordinary Virginians during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Educational Themes

Energy is the capacity to do work. Basic energy sources — water, muscle, heat and wind power — have not changed since the beginning of time. What Energy has changed is technology, the ways and means these energy sources are utilized to perform work. Examples of 19th century technology interpreted at Colvin Run Mill are simple and compound machines, hand-powered tools, a water-powered gristmill with its sophisticated system of gear-operated machinery, and simple heating and lighting methods.

A community is a group of people with common interests, especially those living in the same area. Primarily a rural, agricultural community, the 19th Community and early 20th century Colvin Run community survived intact for over a century despite wars and recessions, technological advances and industrialization. The mill at Colvin Run played a pivotal role within that community. Colvin Run Mill Historic Site Learning Kit : Page 3

A Brief History of Colvin Run Mill

Colvin Run Mill, Fairfax parcel from Washington’s “I have been informed County’s award-winning heirs and immediately that some person has operational water- conveyed it, along with a petitioned or is about to powered gristmill, is a standing mill, to Philip petition the Court of tribute to the enterprising Carper. In 1813 Carper Loudoun for an Acre of spirit of America’s past. paid the first known taxes the Land I bought of you Long before the mill was on flour and cornmeal on Difficult to Build a an active business, the produced here. Mill on. . .” land on which it was built was associated with sev- For more than a century, George Washington to eral famous Virginians. In a series of merchant mil- Bryan Fairfax, 1783 August 1739, Colonel lers operated Colvin Run John Colville received Mill. Unlike custom mil- grants from England’s lers who ground grain for nology — was installed quite literally, recreated King George II of almost individual orders, mer- and proved to be more the past. They repaired 10,000 acres in what chant millers bought and efficient than the old- the structure, made the would become Fairfax sold grain and flour to fashioned millstones. By bricks and glass, hand- County. He soon sold serve local and foreign 1930, it was estimated hewed timber to precise much of this land to Wil- markets. Grain products that over one million specifications and assem- liam Fairfax. When Fair- from Colvin Run Mill bushels of grain had been bled the machinery. All fax died in 1753, a 275- were exported through processed through Colvin the gears in the mill, with acre parcel of this proper- the port of Alexandria. Run Mill! the exception of a few ty along Difficult Run was steel parts included for conveyed to his son Bryan A thriving community of After the Millards sold safety, were handmade Fairfax. In 1760 or ‘61, farmers, craftspeople and the mill, it sat idle and from wood. As in the early George Washington pur- merchants grew up neglected for 30 years un- 19th century, the mill op- chased the Difficult Run around the mill. Nine- til 1965 when the Fairfax erates solely by water tract from Bryan Fairfax. teenth century gazettes County Park Authority power. Water from Colvin and business directories acquired it and began its Run is diverted into a Washington recognized refer to numerous black- restoration. Because the pond and millrace and the potential of Colvin smith shops and country building and machinery then flows over the 20' Run as a mill site with a stores nearby. The had undergone such fun- wooden overshot water- good water supply, hard- c. 1900 Colvin Run Gen- damental change over its wheel to provide the pow- wood forests for building eral Store, once located commercial life, the resto- er that turns the gears material and located on a across the road from the ration was based on the and operates the machin- major transportation mill, has been restored as plans of Oliver Evans ery. route leading to market at part of Colvin Run Mill (1755-1819) whose inno- the port of Alexandria. Historic Site. vations revolutionized Traditionally, the homes However, the pressing milling in the early 19th of famous people and the business of waging war The mill operated for century. The mill’s dere- sites of momentous events and governing the new more than 120 years, and lict ruins revealed a num- have been preserved nation prevented Wash- its most prosperous peri- ber of similarities to the while the buildings used ington from acting on his od was 1883 to 1934 when floor plans and cross sec- by ordinary people seldom plans for his property the Millard family rebuilt tions printed in Evans’ survive. Colvin Run Mill along Difficult Run. the millrace and millpond 1795 book The Young represents a time when and modernized the ma- Millwright and Miller’s wood and water per- Colvin Run Mill was built chinery. The greatest Guide. formed important work between 1802-1811. In change was in the grind- and communities pros- 1811 William Sheppard ing process when a new Today’s visitor sees the pered in support of such purchased 90 acres of roller mill — the latest in results of many skilled enterprise. Washington’s 275-acre modern 19th century tech- craftspeople who have, Page 4 : Learning Kit Colvin Run Mill Historic Site

19th Century Livelihoods

Directions: Draw lines to match the words in each column with the pictures in the middle.

Storekeeper Anvil A person who sells goods A heavy iron block on and provides services to which heated metal is customers. shaped.

Carpenter Weighing Scale A person who builds or A device to measure the repairs wooden weight of a product that structures. is sold by cost per pound.

Blacksmith Millstones A person who heats iron Large round stones used in a fire and shapes it for grinding grain. into many useful items.

Shaving Horse Farmer A bench with a foot- A person who raises operated clamp to hold crops or animals for sale. wood steady as it is shaped.

Miller Plow A tool with a heavy A person who grinds blade used for cutting up grain to make flour or soil to prepare for cornmeal. planting. Colvin Run Mill Historic Site Learning Kit : Page 5

Oliver Evans’ Automated Mill A Symphony of Simple Machines

Colvin Run Mill is filled with simple machines that accomplish important tasks to make the miller’s job easier.

Lever A stiff bar that moves about a A flat surface that is raised so Inclined fixed point (fulcrum). Used to one end is higher than the push, pull, or lift things. other. Used to move heavy Plane objects up or down. Levers are used to operate the sluice gate and beam scale, and to In the mill, the shoe controls the engage the gears and raise and flow of grain falling into the lower the grinding stone. grinding stones and the shaker assembly regulates the flow of flour

or meal across the sifting screen. Wheel & A rod attached to a wheel. Used The stairs and chutes in the mill to move or turn things. are other examples of inclined Axle Gears are wheels & axles with planes. teeth that prevent slipping. In the mill, the power from the Wide at one end and pointed at Wedge greater and lesser face gears the other, to form a point. Used change direction via the wallower to cut or split things. gears. Gears are also used to The furrows cut into the grinding change force or speed. Speed is stone are wedges that cut up the increased when a small gear is gain into flour. Nails are wedges, turned by a large one (greater face and the tapered point means you to wallower) and force is increased don't have to hammer as hard to when a large gear is turned by a drive the nail in. Hand tools like small one (wallower to lesser face). the draw knife are wedges with handles. Pulley A wheel with a rope wrapped around it. Used to lift heavy An inclined plane wrapped objects by changing the around a cylinder or cone. Screw direction or amount of the Used to hold objects together force. or move things. In the mill, the grain elevator is a Metal screws open the flume gates four-story pulley that and raise the grinding stones. automatically carries grain Archimedes screws, hidden inside upstairs. wooden boxes throughout the mill, In the General Store, the windows move grain horizontally. are opened by a rope and pulley — pulling down on the rope raises the window. Page 6 : Learning Kit Colvin Run Mill Historic Site

Simple Machines Make the Miller’s Job Easier!

Directions: Draw lines to match the words in each column with the pictures in the middle.

A stiff bar that moves about a Pulley fixed point (fulcrum). Used to push, pull, or lift things.

Wide at one end and pointed at Screw the other, to form a point. Used to cut or split things.

A rod attached to a wheel. Lever Used to move or turn things.

A wheel with a rope wrapped Inclined around it. Used to lift heavy objects by Plane changing the direction or amount of the force.

An inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder or cone. Wedge Used to hold objects together or

A flat surface that is raised so one Wheel & end is higher than the other. Axle Used to move heavy objects up or Colvin Run Mill Historic Site Learning Kit : Page 7

Vocabulary List

* Denotes an example of, or something that includes, a simple machine.

*Auger [screw, wedge & lever]. A hand-powered tool used to drill holes in wood. *Beam scale [lever]. A device used by the miller to weigh grain. Blacksmith. A person who makes tools, household items and other things from iron. Community. A group of people with common interests, especially those living in the same area. Chute [inclined plane]. A ramp that carries grain and flour down a level to the next step in the milling process. *Draw knife [wedge & lever]. A two-handled knife used while seated on a shaving horse to shape wood into tool handles, barrel staves and wheel spokes. Dusty. The miller’s helper or apprentice, so called because they were often covered in flour dust. *Fanning Mill [wheel & axle, lever, inclined plane]. Cleans grain of unwanted materials, called chaff (soil, grass, bugs, etc.). Fan is able to blow off chaff because it is lighter than grain. Flour. The product made by grinding wheat. Flume. The wooden trough that carries water from the mill race to the waterwheel. *Gear [wheel and axle]. A wheel with teeth or rods made to fit together with other gears so that one gear’s turning causes the other gear to turn. General store. A shop, usually found in a small community, that carries a variety of goods including food, tools, medicines and other household necessities. Grain. The small hard seed of wheat, corn, rice or oats. Bread and cereals are made from ground grain. *Grain elevator [pulley]. A continuous cloth belt with attached cups that moves grain or flour between floors in the mill. Gristmill. A mill that grinds grain into flour (wheat) or meal (corn). Millstones [cutting surface = wedge]. A pair of large round stones between which grain is ground. Uses furrow to cut, not smash, grain into flour. Miller. The person who operates the mill. Mill race. The channel that carries water from the mill pond to the waterwheel and returns it to the stream after the water passes over the waterwheel and powers the mill. *Shaker Box [inclined plane]. Sifts flour into different grades based on size. For example, wheat flour was sifted into fine white flour, shipstuff (similar to whole wheat), and bran, while corn was sifted into cornmeal and grits. *Stone crane [screw & lever]. A device used to lift the top mill stone. Using the stone crane, the miller can lift a one-ton mill stone alone. *Waterwheel [wheel and axle]. A large wheel made to be turned by moving water. A waterwheel powers Colvin Run Mill. Colvin Run Mill Historic Site Contact Information

10017 Colvin Run Road Phone: 703-759-2771 Great Falls, VA 22066 Fax: 703-759-7490 https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/colvin-run-mill Not all the BIG WHEELS are in Washington

The mission of Colvin Run Mill Historic Site is to maintain, develop and interpret the site’s historic buildings, collections and resources for the enrichment, education and enjoyment of Fairfax County residents and visitors.

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