MŎLA

( μύλος ), a mill. All mills were anciently made of stone, the kind used being a volcanic trachyte or porous lava ( pyrites , silices , pumice as ). Every mill consisted of two e ential parts, the upper mill-stone, which was moveable ( catillus , ὄνος , τὸ ἐπιμύλιον ), and the lower, which was fixed and by much the larger of the two. Hence a mill is sometimes called molae in the plural. The principal mills mentioned by ancient authors are the following:—I. The hand-mill, or quern, called mola manuaria, vers a til is , or trusatilis . The hand-mills were worked among the Greeks and Romans by slaves. Their pistrinum was consequently proverbial as a place of painful and degrading labour; and this toil was imposed principally on women. II. The cattle-mill, mola as in aria , in which human labour was supplied by the use of an a or some other animal. III. The water-mill ( mola aquaria , ὑδραλέτης ). A cogged wheel, attached to the axis of the water wheel, turned another which was attached to the axis of the upper mill-stone: the corn to be ground fell between the stones out of a hopper ( infundibulum ), which was fixed above them. IV. The floating-mill. V. The saw-mill. VI. The pepper-mill.