There is a mill in the Black Forest valley.

 

The river courses of the Black Forest with their sometimes considerable gradients have been suitable for the use of water power since early times. This is a very old method of energy generation and is documented as early as the fifth century BC. The first grain mills were built in the third century BC.

 

In the Black Forest, the use of water power initially took place through conventional mills, which were mainly used for grain processing in agriculture. In addition, hammer mills and saws for woodworking were also powered by water. They were all built on the slopes where the gradient of the water is greatest and thus develops the most kinetic energy.

 

In the milling process, the dedusted grain is poured into a hopper from which the grains gradually fall between two millstones. One of the millstones stands on the ground and weighs up to ten kilograms. Above this is a second stone, which weighs about half as much. This is moved by means of water power. The grains, which are ground by friction, pass into a drum, which is also turned by the mill wheel and acts like a sieve. Since the upper rock layer in the Black Forest is sandstone, the millstones were also made of this material.

 

Sawmills were needed to process wood as a building material. Until the nineteenth century, wood was the material used to make the majority of utensils such as dishes and containers. It was also, and above all, of central importance for the construction of houses. In the region you can often find trade names with the component "saw", for example often a "Sägedobel" ("small saw valley").

 

You can admire a very old Black Forest mill in the Simonswald valley, namely the Hexenlochmühle. The same is true for the Rankmühle in St. Märgen. The Mönchhof sawmill in Waldachtal can be visited. It was built as early as the fifteenth century and is still in its original condition, i.e. it is also functional. Also worth seeing is the Großjockenmühle, which was built in 1883 at the entrance to the Ravenna Gorge. It has a structural peculiarity: the water for the mill wheel is not supplied from the outside, but flows through the roof. The Kobisenmühle near St. Georgen is also worth a look. It has been restored and can be visited. It is interesting that it has two grinding gears.

 

In the course of time, the sawmills in particular were converted to steam operation; today, of course, they run on electricity.