Hello Richard, I've really been enjoying your talk on the mill. Trying to picture it, I went online to see what else was out there. A picture says a thousand...and all that. Well, I found a link to a working sash mill in Connecticut. A little different than what you're talking about, but what caught my eye was a glossary of terms on this website. The thing that interested me most was their definition of "pitman":
" The connection from the crank on the waterwheel or flywheel to the saw frame. Analogous to the literal “pit man” on the bottom of a two man pit saw crew."
When the old Northwest Territories...Ohio...where I live, was settled, the first construction was carried out by New Englanders pit sawing timbers to build their fort and dwellings. Being the "pit man" was an unpleasant job, you were continually showered by sawdust and shavings. Anyway, I've used the term pitman all my life. That's what drives the cutter bar on a tractor when we're making hay, for instance. Never knew where the term came from. And wouldn't, had not Richard brought this whole subject up. Ripples on a pond, friends. Ripples on a pond.