ABSTRACT
During the fourteenth century, small hand-driven rolls about half an inch in diameter were used to flatten gold and silver and perhaps lead. However, the first true rolling mills of which any record exists were designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1480. Before the end of the sixteenth century, however, at least two mills embodying the basic ideas of rolling are known to have been in operation. A Frenchman named Brulier in 1553 rolled sheets of gold and silver to obtain uniform thickness for making coins and mills for rolling mint flats were in use in 1581 at the Pope's mint, in 1587 in Spain, and in 1599 in Florence. Johannsen, in "Geschichte des Eisens" says, "The use of rolls in an iron works was a German development of the 16th century. Belgium and England both started to use rolls about the same time, and they are both sometimes cited as the birthplace of rolling.
