Written by Alexander Gunn aka A Native of Badbea. Printed in the Northern Ensign, March 23, 1882. Part B
“I,
too, tried my hand, but on another branch of mechanics, viz, mill-making. There
was a drain or ditch which ran along the face of the hill near our house, and I
fixed on a site for a mill in the side of this drain. I made all the machinery,
with water-wheel, inner or cog wheel, grinding stones, with cases to enclose
them in, hopper, and everything complete for a meal-mill; and in imitation of
Berriedale Mill I fixed a circular saw, made from the bottom of an old jug, to
a bench, and put it in motion by water power. I got the machinery all fitted up
in its proper place. I used to cut up “Kail-runts” with my circular saw, and I
also ground meal seeds in the mill, every part of which acted as perfect as if
it had been put together by the hands of the most skilled mill-wright in the
county. One morning, however, on visiting my mill, I found it was all swept
away during the night by a spate which came down the drain, and to my great
sorrow my labour was all lost”.
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A model mill showing the working parts
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“I
also built a model boat about 18 inches in length. She was clinker built, and
everything about her was as complete as if she had been 40 feet – flooring
boards, feet-spans, side-planks, pump, masts, sails, oars, everything to the
anchor, which was made of lead".
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Project Gutenberg's Boys' Book of Model
Boats, by Raymond Francis Yates
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"Boat making was a great trade among the youths,
made from solid block, and it was surprising how well they sailed. There was a
small pond up in the hills, on which we sailed our craft, this being our
exercise when herding the town’s cattle. If the poor animals had been endowed
with human speech, like Balaam’s ass, they would have protested against being
confined to such a circumscribed portion of the hill; but what they were not
able to put into words were clearly observable in the empty sides with which
they returned home at night, and which was sometimes noticed by my father, who
improved the occasion by applying the end of a buoy-rope to a certain part of
the person, which caused rather an unpleasant sensation”.
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