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	The History of Water Power For definitions of some of the words on this timeline, see the glossary.   The Persians used a wheel to raise water from a river to higher place. It was called the saqia. 250 BC water power was used as a clock. The Antipater of Thessalonica during 80 BC wrote, "Cease your work, ye maids who labour at the mill . . . for Ceres has commanded the water-nymphs to perform your task." The work of grinding grains such as corn was automated by water power. Water mills became popular by the Saxons in England around 762 AD. A millwright traveled the countryside and fixed broken mills. Millwrights were important occupations during the Norman Conquest. The Domesday survey of 1086 found there were more than 5000 mills. In the fifteenth century iron works exploited the power of the water to cool the blast furnace. In Sheffield and Sussex, England iron works were employed next to the water. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the upper classes treasured complex water powered devices. Fountains and statues moved, and organs played; all powered by water. In 1581 Peter Morise installed a water wheel under the old London Bridge. It worked on the ebb and flood tides, meaning it was reversible. This aparatus was partially destroyed by the Fire of London in 1666, but some survived until 1822, a few years before the present London Bridge was built to replace the old one. The Industrial Revolution was largely supported by textile mills powered by water. During 1824 the Catrine cotton mill used a water wheel and through gearing shafting and belting achieved 9000 revolutions per minute! 28 Tide mills existed in England in 1838 even though the era of steam engines was beckoning. Compare the steam engine history on the nuclear power timeline. The transmission of hydroelectric power was demonstrated at the Exposition in Munich of 1882. With direct current of 2400 volts the power was transmitted from Miesbach, 37 miles away. The first central hydroelectric station of a capacity of 250 lights was installed in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1882 The first of its kind, a hydro-electric plant, was developed in 1883 at Portrush in Ireland. In 1885, also in Ireland a 65 horsepower turbine was opened for the Bessbrook and Newry railway. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Oliver Evans developed a completely water powered mill that handled everything from unloading sacks of grain to packing flour in turbines. At the close of the twentieth century water power is becoming highly implemented and extremely utilized.