NZ3959 : Fulwell Windmill - tentering governor
taken 2 years ago, near to Fulwell, Sunderland, England

This shows one of two tentering governors. They are of different designs as this does not have a centre weight whilst the other does. The great spur wheel is seen above. The stones are underdrift.
In a mill context, tentering is changing the distance (gap) between the runner stone and the bed stone. Decreasing the distance results in a finer grain. As the stones go faster there is a natural tendency for the runner to rise and the tentering mechanism can be adjusted to counter this. In many windmills this is done by a governor that automatically compensates for the tendency of the runner to rise. In watermills it is done by hand with mechanisms of varying elegance. In this case, the second order lever at the bottom raises or lowers the footstep bearing that the spindle carrying the stone nut is supported by. The adjustment is by a vertical lead screw on the other side of the frame and in easy reach of the miller.
