A Virtual Reconstruction of a Wave-Powered Flour Mill from 1801

Abstract

Around 1801, Francisco Terrés i Serra designed and developed a sustainable wave-powered flour mill in Vilanova i la Geltrú, a town located on the Mediterranean coast south of Barcelona, Spain. The mill, which was located on the seashore, consisted of a system of paddles driven by waves that provided the energy necessary to pump sea water to a a gathering pond located at a height of five metres above sea level. This water was then fed to a wooden waterwheel that, via a lantern wheel, turned two sets of millstones in the upper room of the mill where the flour was ground.The mill is now located more than 50 metres from the water line due to the sedimentation of the coastline caused by the construction of nearby breakwater walls. Only a small part of the building is still standing, however, and there are no traces of the original hydropower or pumping systems.Using information gathered by the historian Francisco Conde and original plans of the mill obtained from the Navy Command in Barcelona, we created a virtual reconstruction of the flour mill complex and its hydraulic components and a 3D simulation of how the mill operated.

Study, revalorization and virtual musealization of a ceramic kiln based on information gathered from old excavations

“…For hypothesizing about the appearance of the kiln and the firing process there are several sources of information that are usually available when dealing with small buildings of industrial nature that were operational in the 19th century, in particular: old photographs and engravings/paintings of the buildings either in use or of the remains, bills and delivery notes regarding the materials used for their construction, textual descriptions done by witnesses explaining the appearance or the functioning, acts from legal disputes, information about the equipment available inside, direct and indirect data about the production, etc. (Dawson and Kent, 2008;Membrilla et al, 2011). In our specific case, in addition to the archaeological evidences recorded, ethnographical studies of contemporary local productions and early 20th century productions and remains -some still preserved-, including pictures and drawings of similar kilns and pottery productions (Ibabe, 1995), were of high importance throughout the process of defining the hypothesis on the structure of the Orduña kiln.…”