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Powder Yard Trail: Birkenhead Mills:
At this site, known as Birkenhead Mills, E.I. du Pont first used cast iron wheels to mix the ingredients of black powder. This method was a more efficient method than the stamping mills used previously. Until turbines were introduced in the 1840s, waterwheels powered all of the powder mills. In this reconstructed wheel, water from the millrace enters the waterwheel buckets below the center of the wheel, an arrangement called a "breast wheel." The weight of the water in the buckets causes the wheel to turn. Power was transmitted through gears and shafting to roll wheels in both mills. |