Publication Account

Date 1953

Event ID 967567

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/967567

The Markinch site of Tullis Russell Group consisted of Rothes Mill and Auchmuty Mills, both of which dated from the early years of the 19th century. Auchmuty Mill was formerly a meal mill and Rothes Mill was built as a papermill. Rothes Mill is situated some 600 metres lower down River Leven from Auchmuty Mill (NO20SE 52.02) and was converted to a paper mill in 1804. It was bought by Robert Tullis's company in 1836. Four water wheels were in use on this site. The process of making paper by hand in the early days would have required little in the way of heat and power excpet for boiling the rags and for loft drying the the sheets of paper. The introduction of the papermakig machine required steam boilers to provide het for the drying cylinders. So steam engines replaced water wheels as the main prime mover on this site. In the 1820s, 'one of the first paper making machines in the country was installed at Rothes Mill', with another installed at Auchmuty a few years later. These were first driven by the water wheels and and the first steam power (for drying) was supplied by steam engines (beam engines). The waterwheels would then have eeen replaced by water turbines and the eary steam engines by more modern machines such as the Corliss engine.

Tullis and Russell and Co. Ltd, c.1953