Mill pond explained

A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill.^[1]

Description

Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway. In many places, the common proper name Mill Pond has remained even though the mill has long since gone. It may be fed by a man-made stream,^[2] known by several terms including leat and mill stream. The channel or stream leading from the mill pond is the mill race, which together with weirs, dams, channels and the terrain establishing the mill pond, delivers water to the mill wheel to convert potential and/or kinetic energy of the water to mechanical energy by rotating the mill wheel. The production of mechanical power is the purpose of this civil engineering hydraulic system.

The term mill pond is often used colloquially and in literature to refer to a very flat body of water.^[3] Witnesses of the loss of RMS Titanic reported that the sea was "like a mill pond".^{[3] [4]}

Footnotes and references

References

• mill pond. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mill pond (accessed: September 7, 2013).
• mill pond. Dictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mill pond (accessed: September 7, 2013).
• leat. Dictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/leat (accessed: September 7, 2013).

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mill pond at Dictionary.com. 7 September 2013. Random House Dictionary. mill·pond [mil-pond] noun 1. a pond for supplying water to drive a mill wheel. Origin: 1640–50; mill1 + pond. 1640–1650.
2. Web site: Leat at Dictionary.com. 7 September 2013. World English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Collins English Dictionary 10th. leat (liːt) — n (Brit) 1. a trench or ditch that conveys water to a mill wheel [Old English -gelǣt (as in wætergelǣt water channel), from let 1 ]. 1640.
3. Web site: Mill pond at Dictionary.com. 7 September 2013. World English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Collins English Dictionary 10th. millpond (ˈmɪlˌpɒnd)— n 1. a pool formed by damming a stream to provide water to turn a millwheel 2. any expanse of calm water: the sea was a millpond.
4. http://titanic-children.webs.com/ruthbecker.htm Ruth Becker