A different view on current affairs & history
Mills were initially used for grinding grain into flour and in the case of Port Elizabeth they were used to compress bales of wool. Prior to the invention of motors, mills were powered either by wind or water. During the Industrial Revolution, the definition of mills was expanded to include factories fitted with machinery which performed a specific manufacturing process.
Main picture: Painting by Thomas Baines of Cradock Place with the mill tower in the background
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Today chimneys are viewed as a curse and a blight on one’s health and the environment. Unlikely as it now is seen, the filthy black smoke spewing out of these pencil-like structures was once viewed as the epitome of progress, a harbinger of wealth and prosperity.
As well-paying holiday jobs, chimney cleaning was a much-coveted job in the early 1970s when I was “recruited” to clean the chimneys of the Algorax factory at Swartkops. Even a half hour shower did not remove the fine granules from one’s skin pores!
Main picture: Henry Coleman’s steam mills with the first chimney
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As David Raymer points out in his excellent book on the water supply to Port Elizabeth entitled ‘Streams of Life’, “until 1880 the greatest problem [that] the settlement of Port Elizabeth faced was the question of a dependable and adequate supply of fresh water for the residents”.
This blog covers the first attempt to address this challenge.
Main picture: One of the original wells in Port Elizabeth
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