Hello friends,

I'm new around here, so consider this my introductory post.
I've been searching, for quite a while now, for an answer to a question which arose from my reading of 'The Pickwick Papers' by Charles Dickens. This would be the time to note that, unfortunately, English is not my native language, nor my native culture, but I am thoroughly infatuated with both, therefore I will not rest until I have found the answer.
Here I shall bring the quote in question:
"Here Mr Jackson smiled once more upon the company, and, applying his left thumb to the tip of his nose, worked a visionary coffee-mill with his right hand: thereby performing a very graceful piece of pantomime (then much in vogue, but now, unhappily, almost obsolete) which was familiarly denominated 'taking a grinder'."

So, to those more profound in the language and the classic English culture, what does "taking a grinder" mean?
The best I could get out of the internet is how to take one's marijuana grinder abroad, but I'm sure that's not what Dickens meant.
Any clue for further research and analysis would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! It does make sense that he's being dismissive towards the others, seeing as he is a lawyer's clerk handing out subpoenas to them. They are trying to inquire about the reason for this course of action, and he's not willing to disclose any information. It really is curious, this use of a coffee-grinder pantomime in this context. Whether it's a real gesture or something Dickens made up, he is definitely phenomenal for writing such intricacies.