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.