I wonder if there are any sources for the early "tidal mills" I've
heard about, looked sort of for, read about (i.e., replaced by a wind
mill in New Amsterdam (?), a mill cited in 18th century Bridgeport, as
being too expensive for Long Islanders then for awhile under
Connecticut jurisdiction who shipped there "corn" (then also a British
generic term for grain), not known if it was wind or tidal, using a
fall of water impounded at high tide) or if you stop by the operating
one in Stony Brook, NY, water driven, you can read the sign for the
"Adam Smith" mill which was probably freshwater driven, now under
water behind the small dam the road forms (interesting, night herons
and cormorants have taken up there) but who knows? Maybe it was a
tidal mill first. I seem to remember a map showing many of them but as
sites they haven't been in anything I've seen. Anyone know about them
early ones?

(There's some interesting tidal power generating experiment from
Australia being installed off the coast of Rhode Island, which has the
"perfect" parameters for its operation, about 40' by 100' produces
electricity for 300 homes using a generator in a large venturi for air
displaced in the rise and fall of tide).