The New Mill, near Lynton, North Devon 1856

John Percy captured this image of "The New Mill, near Lynton, North Devon", with the then-new medium of photography. The wheel, an ancient symbol, dominates the scene. Since antiquity, the wheel has been a potent emblem of cyclical time, fate, and progress. Think of the Wheel of Fortune, an allegorical figure in Roman and later Western culture, depicting the capricious nature of destiny. The water that drives Percy's mill wheel, its motion, recalls the eternal flow of life, a symbol found across civilizations. Water, the source of life, eternally turning, and flowing. The visual is a potent reminder of how humanity, since the earliest ages, has harnessed nature's power. Observe how it resurfaces and evolves, a testament to the cyclical nature of history, echoing in modern machinery and continuing to shape our world.