Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Torcular

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TOR'CULAR and -UM (ληνός). A press employed in the manufacture of oil and wine (Vitruv. vi. 6. 3. Plin. H. N. xviii. 74. Varro, ap. Non. s. v. p. 47.); the object of which was to extract by violent pressure all the juice remaining in the skins and stalks of the grapes (pes vinaceorum) after they had been trodden out by the feet, or the oil from the olive pulps (samsa) after they had been bruised in the mill (trapetum, mola).

The earliest contrivance employed for this purpose was of a very simple description; merely consisting of a heavy block of stone, raised up by the aid of a lever beam, under which block the bunches of grapes enclosed in a basket (fiscina, Columell. xii. 39. 3.), or between laths (regulae, Id. xii. 52. 10.), to prevent the mass from bulging out at the sides, were placed, as represented by the annexed illustration (Torcular/1.1), from a Greek bas-relief of the Neapolitan Museum. The two men on the left steady the stone, whilst the three at the opposite extremity of the lever are occupied in raising it up to give room for placing the basket of grapes underneath it. It is probable, that after the stone had been lowered on to the fruit, the lever was removed to over the top, and made to perform the duties of a press-beam (prelum), by fixing one end in a socket, so that the pressmen at the opposite end could increase the natural weight of the stone by forcing the beam upon it.

The next step produced a regular machine, described in detail by Cato (R. R. 18.), which operated by the pressure of a beam (prelum), drawn down upon the object to be squeezed by means of ropes attached to one end of the beam, and worked by a capstan (sucula, Plin. H. N. xviii. 74.) Very considerable vestiges of one of these presses have been discovered in an ancient press-room at Gragnano (formerly Stabiae), after which the annexed diagram (Torcular/1.2) is designed, with the object of explaining the character of the machine, the parts of which it was composed, and the nomenclature attached to them. 1, 1. Two strong uprights or trunks (arbores), firmly planted and wedged into sockets constructed under the flooring of the press-room (see the wood-cut, s. TORCULARIUM, No. 4. i.), which served to hold down the tongue (lingula, 2.) of the pressbeam (prelum, 3.), and form a point of resistance when it was in operation. As the entire stress consequent upon the upward action of the press-beam came against this part of the apparatus, when its opposite extremity was forced down, Cato recommends that two trunks should be used, as being more solid, and less likely to be forced out of their sockets than a single one would be; consequently, two are represented in the plan; but in the example at Gragnano, only one was employed, and that had an eye (foramen) cut in it, to receive the tongue of the beam. 4, 4. Two posts (stipites), also planted in sockets of a similar kind under the flooring (see the wood-cuts, s. TORCULARIUM, No. 3., g, h), which held the ends of the capstan (sucula, 5, 5) that worked down the beam. The heads of these posts were tied together by a cross-beam at the top, on which was fixed a pulley, with a cord running through it from the end of the press-beam; by means of which the beam was raised, to make room for the baskets of fruit or pulp, when placed underneath it, upon the bed (area, 6.), where they were squeezed. The method of working it is easily understood. When the grapes or olives had been trodden out by the feet or bruised in the mill, the residue was put into a basket, and placed on the area. Over them was then laid a very strong flat board (orbis olearius, Cato, R. R. 18.), in order to equalise the pressure upon all parts of the surface. The long end of the press-beam was then lowered from above on to the orbis, and there strained down by the capstan until all the juice had been squeezed out.

Another kind of wine-press, of undoubted authority, although not actually described by any of the writers now extant, is represented by the annexed illustration (Torcular/1.3), from a painting at Herculaneum. It consists of two uprights firmly fixed in the ground, and strengthened by a cross-beam at the top, and another at the bottom, which served as an area upon which the basket of fruit was placed. Over this there are a number of solid boards (tympana, Plin. H. N. xviii. 74.), which perform the office of a press-beam, having their heads fitted into perpendicular channels running down each side of the uprights, and being forced down upon the mass of grapes by means of immense blocks, driven in as wedges between them by blows of a mallet.

Presses of this description continued in common use amongst the Romans, until within a century of the age of Pliny, when a simple improvement was first introduced, of working the beam down by means of a screw (cochlea) instead of the capstan or wedges. (Plin. H. N. xviii. 74.); but this eventually led to a great change during Pliny's life-time, which very materially altered the form and character of the original machine. The great length of a lever press-beam was very inconvenient, as it required so large a building for the room where it was worked, and the last machine is but a clumsy contrivance; but a remedy was found by the invention of the screw-press, with a mast (malus) for the male screw placed in its centre, as shown by the annexed illustration (Torcular/1.4), from a painting at Pompeii; in which solid boards (tympana), instead of the long beam, are placed over the mass, and screwed down upon it; so that the machine is much smaller, though equally powerful, and requires less room. (Plin. l. c.) The illustration, in reality, is intended for a clothes-press (pressorium); but as the constructive principle is the same, it will equally serve to illustrate the present subject.

2. (ληνός). (Plin. H. N. xviii. 62. Columell. xi. 2. 71.) In these passages, which speak of washing and cleaning the torculum, the word is generally taken to mean a vat in which the grapes were crushed by the feet; but there is no substantial reason for the distinction, since the older lever-press was composed of several pieces, which were put together, or set up, at the time of the vintage and oil-making, and afterwards taken down and stowed out of the way, to leave the room at liberty for other purposes (Varro, ap. Non. s. v. vineis ubi ampla cella torculum reponant). Pliny and Columella only enjoin the necessity of cleaning and washing these parts before they were put by.

3. (Vitruv. vi. 6. 2.) The press-room, or building in which the torcular was worked. Same as TORCULARIUM.

• 
  Torcular/1.1
• 
  Torcular/1.2
• 
  Torcular/1.3
• 
  Torcular/1.4