Summary of articles in International Molinology No 112, which were published in June 2026
'Kumova vodenica (Kum’s watermill): Recording a traditional watermill in Markova Crkva, Serbia' by Jelena Pejković. The mills of Serbia do not feature greatly in the corpus of ‘western’ molinology. However, Jelena Pejković recently published a summary of the current body of Serbian articles in Vernacular Architecture 56 (1) (2025, pp. 82–101), part of which described the Kumova vodenica watermill as a case study and is published here. Serbian mills with horizontal waterwheels have affinities with Romanian examples across the Danube.
'Comments on the function of the so-called ‘grinding grooves’ of Gotland, Sweden' by Olove Gibson. The island of Gotland is renowned for its rock-cut grooved carvings dating back to Viking times. Olove Gibson suggests here that the grooves have been designed and formed by a balance and brake wheel that was driven like a wind turbine with sails or other wind-catchers. The author’s aim was “to observe these sites without prejudice, augment the literature, carry out practical experiments, create models and illustrate the subject with my camera. I am open to criticism from anyone interested, as well as continued debate.”
'Methodology and Results of mapping former Mill Sites of a Hungarian Micro-Region: Summary of a doctoral dissertation' by Borbála Rózsa Zsindely. The author here examines the milling industry of a Hungarian micro-region (the Völgység) from economic and social-historical perspectives, within a ‘microhistorical’ context. The location of mill sites of the examined area before 1952 were depicted on a new digital map, so that the local capitalist competition existing between them and its consequences could be examined.
'Hidden stories: Women working at the drainage mills in South Holland' by Marloes Wellenberg and Ellen Steendam. This article challenges the often-held assumption that “miller’s work has always been men’s work.” The authors’ oral history project on daily life at drainage mills in the 20th century offers a new perspective. The millers were required to be on call 24/7 but had to supplement their meagre income with other work. Their wives were expected to stand in and often took on the work completely after their husbands had passed away: “for far too long their contributions have unjustly remained invisible.”
'If One Wheel Gives Power, Why Not Two? The Story of the Twin Wheel Windmill' by T. Lindsay Baker. Originally published in the Windmillers’ Gazette, this story recounts how Albert F. George, aided by his partner Terrence F. McCann, developed and promoted highly unusual American-style windmills with two wind wheels. Together they formed the ‘Twin Wheel Windmill Manufacturing Company’. Albert even designed a four-wheel version, but his promotional activities abruptly ceased when he unexpectedly died at Geuda Springs, Kansas, in April 1919.
Communications articles continue with Etienne Rogier’s 'Some traditional European-style windmills in the southern Mediterranean'. Here Etienne investigates the records of the windmills of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Morocco. There follows 'Millstone power requirements: measurements at Foster’s Windmill, UK' by millers Dave Pearce, Jon Cook, Elwyn Davies and Kelvin Law, who jointly discuss the measurement of electrical power required to drive working millstones at Foster’s Mill, Swaffham Prior. These requirements are then scaled up for the larger wind-driven stones at Wicken Cornmill (both mills being in Cambridgeshire, UK). This article was previously published in SPAB’s Mill News. Lastly, we have 'References related to molinology found in the texts of Ancient and Byzantine Greek authors (Part 2)'. Here, Stephanos Nomikos continues the work previously published in IM98 (pp. 42–44, June 2019).
Two book reviews are featured. The first is a review by Ton Meesters of Berthold Moog’s, ‘Mühlenkunde Ein Handbuch zur Technik und Geschichte der traditionellen Mühlen (Mill Studies: A Handbook on the Technology and History of Traditional Mills)’.
The second is an offer to members on a new volume by Jean Pierre Azéma on the ‘fishing mills’ of the River Rhône, ‘The Nourishing Rhône from Valence to Beaucaire: Fishermen and fishing mills ‘Vire-vires and Vire-soulets’ (c.1841-1975) - Last testimonies of the actors’.