A mill on the Dłubnia is not a building but four actions of water spread across the valley. Each leaves a different trace. Choose a trace: you will see what it connects to and where that thread breaks.
A sill in the channel, a riffle, a row of piles or a sluice board. Above it the water stands calmer; below it, it rushes.
What it may mean
A weir raises the water surface by a few dozen centimetres (a general description from the earlier version of the page, to be checked against the source). That is enough for water to enter a side channel. It is not about a large reservoir. A sill in a river, however, can be natural or newer than the mill.
Document and gap
In the material: the municipal description of the blue trail mentions a weir in Kończyce [1]. Not in the material: the date of construction and its condition today. A weir alone does not prove that a mill operated beside it.
Connects to the next: a relation from the working principleImpounding makes sense only if the water has somewhere to go. That place is the millrace intake. In the diagram this is a relation in principle, not proof for a specific sill.
Trace 2 of 4
Feeds in
Millrace, side channel
What you can see from the road
A ditch parallel to the river, an earth bank or a long hollow in a meadow. Sometimes it runs along an access road.
What it may mean
A millrace carries water from the impoundment along the side of the valley, with a gentler gradient than the river. So at its end the water stands higher than the river, and that is the head for the wheel (see the model). But a ditch in the field can also be a drain, a field boundary or a trace of something else.
Document and gap
In the material: the municipal description mentions a millrace in Kończyce [1], without its course. Not in the material: a source and date for any specific ditch. Until then a ditch is a candidate for a millrace, not a millrace.
Connects to the next: remains brokenThe course from the weir to the mill is not confirmed. This line does not close even after all four traces have been revealed. A source (for example a historical plan or map) and its date are needed.
Trace 3 of 4
Drives
Mill and wheel
What you can see from the road
A compact, tall block of timber or brick, usually set back from the main current. Sometimes only a sign or the name of the place remains.
What it may mean
In a mill the concentrated head of water sets a wheel or turbine in motion, and from it the shaft and millstones. The building stands where the head is large and floodwater does not reach (a general description from the earlier version). A name on a sign can outlast the machinery.
Document and gap
In the material: Kończyce, a timber mill [1] and an old disused mill with a new plant next to it [2]. Młodziejowice, a mill in a manor complex [4]. Wilczkowice, two separate places. All of it to be checked again.
Connects to the next: a relation from the working principleAfter doing its work the water must return to the river. This is the working principle of a mill, not a trace of a specific outfall.
Trace 4 of 4
Carries away
Tailrace to the Dłubnia
What you can see from the road
A shallow, often overgrown ditch from the building to the nearest bend of the river. The outfall can be boggy.
What it may mean
The tailrace carries the water away after it has done its work. Its bed had to lie low enough that the water did not back up against the wheel from below (backwater; a description from the earlier version). The circuit closes: the water returns to the Dłubnia.
Document and gap
The supplied material gives no source for the tailrace at any of the three places. Look at the outfall from a dry, public spot, or leave it as unconfirmed.
The last linkThe water returns to the Dłubnia and the circuit closes, but only in the diagram. In the field each section needs separate confirmation: a source and a date.
Selected trace: 1 of 4 (Holds back). Connections revealed: 1 of 3 — relation: 1, broken: 0, not yet revealed: 2.
blue line: a relation from the working principle of a mill (schematic)
broken line with a question mark: course unconfirmed, needs a source and a date
thin grey: not yet revealed
black frame: sketch of a structure (diagram, not a photograph)
hatched frame: no evidence
One river, different layouts
The Dłubnia valley has no single model of a mill. The table shows only what the supplied material contains about three places. A hatched cell means “not in the material”. It is not a zero, nor proof that the trace does not exist.
What the supplied material (descriptions from earlier versions of the page) says about the four traces. This is not a survey of the places.
Place
1 · Holds back (weir)
2 · Feeds in (millrace)
3 · Drives (mill)
4 · Carries away (tailrace)
Kończyce
Weir in the channel, according to the trail description [1].
A millrace feeding water to the mill [1], with no description of its course.
Timber mill [1]. An old, disused one and a new plant next to it [2].
not in the material
Młodziejowice
not in the material
not in the material
Timber mill in a manor complex, reached by the road beside Las Młodziejowski [1]. A photograph from 2013 [4] shows the condition at that moment.
not in the material
Wilczkowice
not in the material
not in the material
Two separate places: “Stary Młyn” and the mill at “Osada Jurajska” [1]. A sign does not prove active milling.
not in the material
Second layer: why a ditch, and not the weir alone
A model of a synthetic valley A, not a measurement of any section of the Dłubnia. It shows one relationship: the longer the millrace, the higher the water stands above the river at the wheel.
Range 100–1000 m from the weir.
Range 0–1.5 m. Zero means no weir.
Model / diagram, not a drawing of the terrain. Horizontally 1000 m at a fixed scale; vertically exaggerated about 80 times.
valley floor and working head,
water surface in the millrace.
Weir
0.60 m
Gain from the channel
0.68 m
Working head H
1.28 m
What H is made of, at a fixed scale of 0–3.2 m: channel 53% · weir 47%
The channel gives more head (0.68 m) than the weir (0.60 m). This is how a millrace works: a low weir does not flood the valley upstream, and the head grows with the length of the channel.
Model assumptions: constant valley floor gradient, 2.2 ‰; the water in the millrace loses 0.5 ‰ (adopted by convention); working head H = impoundment + length × (2.2 − 0.5) ‰. Discharge, losses and efficiency are left out. The 0.3 m threshold is conventional.
Limits of this page
What must not be concluded from a single trace
A visible ditch is not automatically a millrace. Every connection needs a source and a date. That is why the line at the millrace stays broken.
Neither a sign, nor the name of a place, nor a photograph from 2013 proves that a mill operates today.
The drawings on this page are our own diagrams, not photographs or maps. The model in the second layer describes a synthetic valley.
Observe only from public roads and the trail. Do not enter private property, water structures or boggy banks. The page does not suggest routes or shortcuts.
What was removed from the previous version, and why
Observation notebook and saving in the browser: dropped. The first activity should be reading the landscape, not writing. The page saves nothing.
Calculator at the start: moved to the second layer and simplified to two sliders.
Power in kW and hp, sliders for discharge and valley gradient: dropped. They relied on a conventional efficiency and did not help to recognise a trace in the field.
Animation of the current and its pause button: replaced by a still diagram. Nothing on the page moves by itself.
Cards for three villages: replaced by a comparison table.
Sources
The links come from the material of earlier versions. They were not opened in this work, so all of them need checking.
Gmina Michałowice: Szlaki [Michałowice municipality: Trails]. Blue cycling trail “Dolina Dłubni”, villages, millrace, weir. To be checked.
Gazeta Gminy Michałowice, nr 122 [Michałowice municipality newsletter, no. 122]. Distinction between the old and the new mill in Kończyce. To be checked.
„Na Granicy”, tom II [“On the Border”, vol. II]. Monograph of Michałowice municipality; indicated in the material as the basis for the principles of impounding and mill channels. To be checked, including the general descriptions in the trace panels.
Photograph of the mill in Młodziejowice, Luxetowiec, 2013, Wikimedia Commons, declared licence CC BY-SA 3.0 PL. Link only; the photograph is not embedded on the page. Licence to be checked on the source page.
