Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
ARK, ARC, n.2 The lower curve of masonry or woodwork which carries off the water from a breast mill-wheel; the sole of the arc is the continuation of the waterway under the wheel. The curve of the masonry from the mill-lade to the breast of the wheel is convex and known as the rowe-heid. The whole of the waterway from the end of the mill-lade to the tail-race is often included in the term arc.Sc. 1771 Weekly Mag. (24 Jan.) 127:
As a man was walking at the side of the mill of Allan, he slipt a foot, and fell down between the ark and the wheel, and was crushed to death.Sc. 1808 Jam.:
Ark of a mill, the place in which the centre wheel runs. [He prob. refers to a wheel consisting of one rim.]Sc. 1908 H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 218–219:
The arc in which the wheel is to be placed must have a width sufficient to receive the wheel. . . . For a bucket-wheel it is not necessary that it be built in the arc of a circle, but simply a square chamber — one side of it being formed by the wall of the barn, the opposite side by a wall of solid masonry, at least 2½ feet thick: one end also is built up solid.Bnff.2 1932:
Ark. I know the word as the space in which the water-wheel of a mill moves.Abd.2 1932:
Ark is the concave curve on which the water moves downwards from the mill-lade after it has struck the breast of the wheel. Known to correspondents also in Mry. and Ags.
