Ship mill (floating watermill)
Molino flotante (molino de barco)
- Date
- 537 · confidence medium
- Place
- Rome, Lazio, Italy
- Credited to
- Attributed to Belisarius (Byzantine engineers)
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A mill whose wheels are mounted on barges anchored in a river's current. According to Procopius, Belisarius used it on the Tiber during the Gothic siege of Rome after the Goths cut the aqueducts.
Procopius of Caesarea is the source for the date (Gothic War, 1.19); the design later spread throughout Europe.
What it led to
- milling in besieged cities or on rivers with variable flow
- ship mills along the Rhine, Danube and Seine
- use of large rivers as motive power