The water Hammer Mill (also Upper Hammer Mill, in Czech also ''Hořejší lub'') at

Dobřív Dobřív is a municipality and village in Rokycany District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,400 inhabitants. The municipality is known for its unique hammer mill. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected as ...

near

Rokycany Rokycany (; ) is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, urban monument zone. Admini ...

is a unique technical monument commemorating the 500-year-old tradition of iron processing in this region of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. Within the Czech Republic, it is considered the most important building of its kind. It is the first technical monument in the

Plzeň Region Plzeň Region or Plzeňský Region (also known as Pilsen Region; ) is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the western part of the historical land of Bohemia and named after the capital, Plz ...

, that was declared a national cultural monument in 2010. The monument is owned by

and administered by the Museum of West Bohemia in Plzeň.

History

The present brick building was constructed at the beginning of the 19th century in the place of older wooden

hammer mill A hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works was a workshop in the pre-industrial era that was typically used to manufacture semi-finished, wrought iron products or, sometimes, finished agricultural or mining tools, or military weapons. The featur ...

s from 1658 and 1701. The rich machinery is dated back to the 19th century. Originally, the hammer mill was used to refine blast-furnace raw iron and to produce bar

forging Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compression (physics), compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die (manufacturing), die. Forging is often classif ...

s. After the development of later

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

industry technologies, the hammer mill changed over to production of heavy forged tools in the late 1860s. In the second half of the 20th century, the production was stopped in the hammer mill and in the

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...

beneath it. The hammer mill became a museum exposition to document the old ways of industrial production

Description

The hammer stands in close proximity to the

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

of Huťský pond. The adjacent drive feeds water through a wooden trough to the

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous b ...

s that drive the hammering equipment through the

transmission system In telecommunications, a transmission system is a communication system that transmits a signal from one place to another. The signal can be an signal (electrical engineering), electrical, fiber-optic communication, optical or radio wave, radio s ...

. Originally the iron-mill had five water wheels, today three are functional. The mill hall dimensions are 32×12 meters. In the interior there are forges, hammers of various sizes, grinding machines, bending machine,

drill A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a drill bit for making holes, or a screwdriver bit for securing fasteners. Historically, they were powered by hand, and later mains power, but cordless b ...

s, presses and various tools. Water wheels power not only the equipment for the production of forged tools, but also the

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

generator. Each water wheel has an output of about 8 kW.

Present

When visiting the exposition it is possible to see how the mill works. While the fire in the forge is burning, and the wheels are spinning the museum guide, a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

, operates a small tail hammer and on the

anvil An anvil is a metalworking tool consisting of a large block of metal (usually Forging, forged or Steel casting, cast steel), with a flattened top surface, upon which another object is struck (or "worked"). Anvils are massive because the hi ...

will forge a beautiful

nail Nail or Nails may refer to: In biology * Nail (anatomy), toughened protective protein-keratin (known as alpha-keratin, also found in hair) at the end of an animal or human digit, such as fingernail * Nail (beak), a plate of hard horny tissue a ...

with a rounded head for the visitor, the same, which is custom-made for historic buildings today. Curious visitors interested in forging can learn a blacksmith's craft in an accelerated course, where they will learn to forge under a small iron-mill.

Reconstruction

In 2011 the iron-mill completed a major repair of the water drive at cost of 11 million

CZK The koruna, or crown (currency sign, sign: Kč; ISO 4217, code: CZK, ), has been the currency of the Czech Republic since 1993. The koruna is one of the European Union's eight currencies, and the Czech Republic is legally bound to Czech Repub ...

. Aged deposits of mud caused the water to stand in the drive and the technical equipment of the hammer mill was out of order. Therefore, it was necessary to completely mud about 900 meters long drive and solidify the banks. In 2017 the West Bohemian Museum in

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

has received financial support (10 millions CZK) from the Integrated Regional Development Fund for the national monument revitalization. The project, scheduled for 2018-19, will restore the technical equipment, some dating from the 19th century. The permanent exposition on the history of the iron-mill, but also on the history of

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and processing of

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

in the

Brdy Brdy is a range of hills in the Czech Republic, forming a long massif stretching for c. 60 km southwest from Prague. The northern section of the Brdy is called "Hřebeny" and features one narrow ridge (highest elevation Písek - 690 m). The ...

region will be expanded as well. Both activities date back to the 14th century, when the

Rosenberg family The House of Rosenberg ( or ''Páni z Rožmberka'') was a prominent Bohemian noble family that played an important role in Czech medieval history from the 13th century until 1611. Members of this family held posts at the Prague royal (and ...

founded the first

smelters Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zinc. Sm ...

here.

Recognition

The hammer mill is a remarkable technical monument of this type with full equipment proving the original

handicraft A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid material ...

production commemorating the 500-year tradition of

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

in the

region. It was declared a

cultural monument A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage registe ...

in 1958 and a national cultural monument in 2010. It has been part of the Dobřív village monument zone since 1995. In 2010 the

Czech National Bank The Czech National Bank, (, ČNB) is the central bank and financial market supervisor in the Czech Republic, headquartered in Prague. It is a member of the European System of Central Banks. It was established on from the division of the State ...

issued a 2500 CZK commemorative gold coin as part of the ''Industrial Heritage Sites'' series. The coin was designed by Jaroslav Veselák.

References

{{Authority control National cultural monuments of the Czech Republic Buildings and structures in the Czech Republic Mill museums in the Czech Republic Hammer mills Tourist attractions in the Czech Republic Rokycany District