The earliest rice milling took is
Mortar-pestle which emerged as early as the New Stone Age.
(Neolithic Period) Later, processing tools such as pounding, flat
milling, hulling, and polishing were developed. As mentioned
earlier, rice milling is basically divided into two stages namely:
“dehusking/dehulling”and“rice refining.”〔rice pounding 〕There are
separate tools or equipments used in these two stages. This type of
labor division was particularly apparent during early periods.
◆《Dehusking/dehulling
tools-Stone husk separator stone husk separator, wooden grinder,
soil grinder》
Basically, dehusking/dehulling tools are classified as to material
into three types: stone husk separator, wooden grinder, and soil
grinder. A stone husk separator is made of stone. Although it is
durable, it is rather bulky. Moreover, stone materials are rarely
found in Taiwan. A wooden grinder is made of wood. It is quite
durable, and it dehusks/dehulls greater quantity of grain. However,
this type of tool can only be used by strong men. As for the soil
grinder, it is rimmed by bamboo clappers covered in sun-dried or
heat dried clay. It is apparently not durable in nature. As a matter
of fact, the dehusking/dehulling quantity is much less as compared
to wooden grinders. However, it is easy to use even for women and
children. Also, bamboos are grown abundantly in Taiwan, thus, soil
grinders are the most commonly seen dehusking/dehulling tools. It is
for this reason, places where dehusking/dehulling are carried out
are otherwise known as “soil grinding rooms.”
Stone husk separator, wooden grinder and soil grinder all work under
the same principle. A huller is divided into upper and lower
polishing discs. The contact points of the two discs should possess
grooves.〔toothlike structures〕These grooves are used to polish rice
grains. Grooves of stone husk separators and wooden grinders may be
directly engraved and bored on, but the interior material of the
soil grinder is soil, thus, the wooden or bamboo strips may be
shredded into small pieces and inserted in the upper and lower
discs. This way, the two contact points become toothlike convex or
concave structures that grind the rice hulls.
|
|
A soil grinder in display in the
Science and Technology Museum |
The interior of a soil grinder is
made up of dried clay |
|
|
Plywood is inserted in the groove
to grind grain |
We visitation to the Science and
Technology Museum |
◆《Rice refining tool-stepping
grinding, water mortar》
A tool used to refine rice is called “Tui (rice pounding)” including
stepping, Gang-tui [manpower], Tsao-tui, water mortar, Lian-Ji-Tui [hydraulic〕stepping,
and Gang-tui. (Lever principle) Brown rice is first placed inside a
stone mortar. A person steps on the wooden Tui to pound rice. Rice
bran and broken rice are then sieved to obtain milled rice /polished
rice.
Since manpower stepping was energy consuming, hydraulic rice
pounding subsequently emerged. Water troughs are setup at the pedal,
the weight of the water allows the“Tui”to move in up and down motion
which is otherwise called “Tsao-tui.” River water then moves the
mill wheel to turn the wheel axle. The movement of the Tui lever is
called “water mortar.” Later, Du Yu invented Lian-Ji Tui in which
the water mortar wheel axle increased in length to become several
sets of water mortars. The rice pounding speed increased as a
result.
Since water mortars need hydraulic power and are limited by the
environment, they are less commonly used. During the olden times in
Taiwan, rice pounding mainly depended on mortar-pestle or stepping.
Water mortar use was rare.
|
|
Stepping display at Science and
Technology Museum |
Water mortar display at Science and
Technology Museum |
|