Tide Mill Institute 2018 symposium

Tide Mill Institute holds its 14th annual conference on November 10, 2018, in Beverly, Massachusetts. The symposium -- "Creating Tide Mills -- Then and Now", features educators, historians, environmentalists, archeologists and others interested in tidal power and its history.

Tide Mill Institute exists to advance the appreciation of tide mill history and technology by encouraging research, by promoting appropriate re-uses of former tide mill sites, and by fostering communication among tide mill enthusiasts. Since 2005, the Institute has held an annual symposium on the past, present, and future uses of tidal energy.

This year's conference topics focus on how humans historically extracted power from the tides, as well as on efforts to use this power again in the current era. Speakers and discussions will address topics including:

• Medieval vertical and horizontal millwheels and their diffusion from mainland Europe.
• Fresh-water tidal rice mills in South Carolina.
• An in-stream tidal device in New York’s East River supplying power to the grid.
• Proposed perpetual tidal power system for Salem Massachusetts.
• A tide mill at the heart of the 1775 Battle of Brooklyn.
• Winter storm surges damage historic tide mills in Massachusetts and New York.
• Recreating gearing features of two early North Shore tide mills.
• A new tidal energy canal for Boston?
• The structure of tide mill dams.

Tide Mill Institute's 2018 symposium will be held on Saturday, November 10, 2018, from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, at the Cummings Center in Beverly, Massachusetts. Registration materials are available on Tide Mill Institute's website. Lunch is included; attendees are encouraged to register by November 1.

Tide Mill Institute 2015 conference

The Tide Mill Institute will hold its 11th annual conference on November 6-7, 2015, at the Cummings Center in Beverly, Massachusetts.  Participants will explore the past, present, and future uses of tidal energy through expert presentations, exhibits, and a field trip to a mid-seventeenth century tide mill site.

Part of the tidal barrage at the site of Heal's Lower Mill, Westport Island, Maine.

A nonprofit corporation, the Tide Mill Institute hopes to advance the appreciation of tide mill history and technology by encouraging research, by promoting appropriate re-uses of former tide mill sites and by fostering communication among tide mill enthusiasts.  The Institute's mission is:

• to advance appreciation of the American and international heritage of tide mill technology;
• to encourage research into the location and history of tide mill sites;
• to serve as a repository for tide mill data for students, scholars, engineers and the general public and to support and expand the community of these tide mill stakeholders; and
• to promote appropriate re-uses of old tide-mill sites and the development of the use of tides as an energy source.

Tide Mill Institute's 2015 symposium includes presentations on tide mills and tidal power by experts from France, Ireland, and the U.S.  Thomas McErlean will describe his experiences uncovering a nearly 1,400 year old tide mill at Nendrum, Northern Ireland, whose bed logs were cut in 619 AD.  The conference includes a low-tide field trip to view the site of the Friend's Mill, built about 1647-1649 on the Bass River in Beverly, Massachusetts, where a later foundation and some remains are still visible.  Concurrently, the Beverly Historical Society is opening its new exhibit on the Friend's Mill this weekend.

For more information or to register, contact Bud Warren at 207-373-1209 or email info@tidemillinstitute.org.

Tidal power past, present, and future at Tide Mill Institute 2013

The Tide Mill Institute held its ninth annual conference this past Friday and Saturday.  About 60 people interested in the past, present, and future of tidal energy gathered at the Topsfield Historical Society's Gould Barn in Massachusetts.  The audience included developers of recreated historic tide mills and modern tidal power projects, inventors of tidal turbine technology, academics, state legislators, historians, architects, and other enthusiasts of tidal power.

Tide Mill Institute's John Goff speaks about historic tide mills in Salem, Massachusetts.

Ocean Renewable Power Company's president and CEO, Chris Sauer, gave the keynote presentation on ORPC's efforts and success in developing modern hydrokinetic tidal power plants in the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere.  Chris described the research and development process that led to ORPC's Turbine Generator Unit or TGU.  He also described the engineering, regulatory, and commercial challenges of developing tidal power plants today, as well as ORPC's approach to overcoming these challenges.

Other presentations included: Professor Kerr Canning's exposition of a tide mill site he discovered on the Apple River in Nova Scotia; Professor Robert Gordon's look at tide mill mechanics at sites in York, Maine; a review of tide mill history on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York, by Angela Kramer of the Brooklyn Historical Society and Proteus Gowanus; and a survey by representatives of local historical societies of tide mills on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

Tide Mill Institute members and attendees also enjoyed displays on historic and modern tide power projects, and informal discussions of archaeological discoveries and modern developments. 

The Tide Mill Institute will hold its 10th annual conference in 2014.

Tide Mill Institute to hold conference November 8-9, 2013

The Tide Mill Institute will hold its 9th annual conference this week in Topsfield, Massachusetts.  The event, to be held at the Topsfield Historical Society's Gould Barn on November 8 and 9, brings together people interested in the past, present, and future of tidal energy.

Tidal energy has been used to produce useful power since at least 619, based on archaeological finds at the site of Nendrum Monastery on an island off Northern Ireland.  Tide mills came to the New World along with early European settlers, who captured the energy embodied in the rise and fall of tides and put it to use powering grist mills, lumber mills, and other industries.  According to a 1979 paper, "Early Tide Mills: Some Problems", at one point over 300 tide mills operated in North America.  As their functionality was supplanted by steam engines, electricity, and internal combustion energy, much of society's historic use of tidal energy has been forgotten.

Meanwhile, people still look to the tides to provide useful power.  The Canadian province of Nova Scotia has been home to a 20 megawatt tidal power plant since 1984, and is promoting even more innovative uses of tidal energy resources through incentive programs and policies.  In the United States, the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) has developed the nation's first major grid-tied tidal electric generator, and has ambitious plans to bring more tidal and hydrokinetic projects online around the country.

This week's Tide Mill Institute event brings these themes together into a continuous narrative, from past through the present to the future.  The Tide Mill Institute's mission is:

• to advance appreciation of the American and international heritage of tide mill technology;
• to encourage research into the location and history of tide mill sites;
• to serve as a repository for tide mill data for students, scholars, engineers and the general public and to support and expand the community of these tide mill stakeholders; and 
• to promote appropriate re-uses of old tide-mill sites and the development of the use of tides as an energy source. 

The 2013 conference kicks off Friday night with an informal reception, followed by a symposium and dialogues Saturday from 8 AM through 3:30 PM.

For more information about the Tide Mill Institute, please contact:

• Bud Warren - budw@myfairpoint.net 207-373-1209
• Earl Taylor - ERMMWWT@aol.com 617-293-3052
• Todd Griset - tgriset@preti.com 207-791-3000