So recently i found about millstones are broadly used to grind many stuff… I have looked around and i cannot find how do they actually spin. Its 2 huge rock discs on top of eachother with a grid on them that grinds the stuff like beans to make tofu… But how does it actually spins? I know there must be an axis to keep them and that they are separated my like half a milimiter. But this does not asnwer my question on whats is spinning. Lastly, how do you not get bits of stone added to the food?
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You know those houses on rivers that have the big wheels on them? The water in the river pushes that wheel around and around and in the middle of the wheel is a big stick that goes all the way inside the house. They put a huge rock that looks like a donut on that stick so it’s attached to the wheel and the water pushing on the wheel is so strong that it will spin that rock all day and night. If we put another rock below the spinning rock we can use it like a table to mash things together. We do this with grains and seeds from our garden to make flour for bread.
Some you can turn by hand, others are turned by animals, water mills use water, and wind mills use wind.
In any case something creates motion, and that motion is used to turn the stones, be that directly with a beam of wood or through a series of gears.
Millstones have channels cut into them which causes them to shear whatever they’re milling with side to side force, not simply crush it with downward force.
[Picture of the inner facing surfaces of a millstone.](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/othUyF4f3Ww/sddefault.jpg)
Edit: And you do still get bits of stone in it, they’re just sifted out now-a-days, and would damage your teeth in ye-olde times.
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The bits of rock are the real reason why recipes call you to sieve the flour. Today this is done with steel grinders, so no crunchiness from rocks are added.
[tide mill grist mill](https://www.tidemillinstitute.org/grist-mills/) the rotating stone in the mill is rotated by a shaft typically powered by water wheel, tide flow or wind.
You don’t get rocks in your wood because the rocks don’t touch. If you do get rocks, that means the millwright didn’t clean the debris out properly after dressing. You usually have to run a bag of grain (~50 lbs) thru to flush the debris out.
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