Baltimore and flour 1831 ... and garlick flour

The port of Baltimore handled about 600,000 barrels of flour and 70,000 bushels of wheat mostly shipped to England - more than any US port except NYC.  Ellicott's mills supplied flour to Baltimore.  Wild garlic was probably a problem in the wheat from Howard County.  Oliver Evans' book (who visited Ellicotts mills, book was co-written by a brother of the Ellicott founders) contained an entire section on the wild garlic problem.

Ellicott's Mills and Bonnie Branch mill 1907

Now all gone, one mill on the Bonnie Branch river was preserved in photos and described in this 1907 article.  Wooden gears are also described from the Ellicotts' Gwynn Falls mill, and the problems they had with Oliver Evans, 200 years ago.

Thomas Ellicott was the author of "The Millwright's Guide"

Thomas Ellicott (1738-1799) did indeed write and include drawings in his section "The Practical Millwright" which was combined into Oliver Evans' Young Mill-wright and Miller's Guide, 1795. Ellicott was listed in the subscribers list at the end of the book for buying 150 copies at $2 each; and also wrote a 10 page article about his new mill in Occoquon, Va in the journal Repertory of Arts and Manufactures, London: 1796.  Thomas Ellicott was not involved in the mills in Maryland started by his brothers and now called Ellicott City.

Oliver Evans 'peculiar accidents' causing flour mill fires

Mills were dangerous places and could catch fire for many reasons.  Oliver Evans and Thomas Ellicott's The Young Mill-wright and Miller's Guide, (1795) described six causes.  Thomas was the brother of the Ellicotts who erected innovative mills and founded Ellicott's mills, now Ellicott City.