† 1. A device for producing a stream of sparks by the rapid revolution of a steel disc in contact with a flint; used for light in coal-mines before the invention of the safety-lamp. Obs.
1772. Pennant, Tour Scot. (1774), 49. The colliers … have invented … what they call a steel-mill, consisting of a small wheel and a handle; this they turn with vast rapidity against a flint.
1844. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., VII. 235/1. A shower of sparks from a steel-mill, turned by a boy, was the only light by which he dare work.
2. A mill or factory where steel is rolled into sheets.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Steel-mill maker, a manufacturer of forge tilts, or rolling mills, for hammering steel into bars, or rolling it into sheets.
3. (See quot.)
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Steel-mill, a mill with metallic grinding-surfaces, usually of steel…. Coffee and spice mills are instances.
