„Młyny ważne”, „młyny na wagach”. Przyczynek do genezy nazwy i konstrukcji

Abstract

So far no satisfactory explanation has been provided in the Polish literature devoted to milling concerning the mills called scales mills or mills on scales. Th e attempts undertaken identified this kind of mills with watermills or, more often, mills on stilts. Th e author of the present article is of a different opinion as – on the basis of written sources – she identified those mills with the ones which were parallelly and simultaneously used with their medieval Latin names of molendinum pensile and molendinum pendens as well as the German name Panster Muhle, and which were characterized by a water wheel raised and lowered on chains or ropes, depending on the changing water level in rivers. The Polish name of such mills was derived by the author from the scales (counterbalance) stabilizing the water wheel in the desired position. At the same time, the author believes that such mills, as a whole or in part, were placed on stilts for obvious reasons but she also notices that other types of mills were raised on stilts too.