The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-12-11
NEW METHOD FLOUs:.
Remarkable Revelation in
1he Ara Of DEMONSTRATING
Taking Place.

Remarkable Revolution in
1he Ara OGFaoar-aEaKxinS
Taking Place.
More Flour and n BETTER QHnI-
fly Being Produced from
the Same Amount of
Wheat.
iIucrenSe In ahe Value of Prop
erty in EIae SpriHE.Vhe0t
Region In Consequence
OfGhc Discovery.
From the American Grocer.
There is a revolution in progress
in -four making, AS remarkable in
some respects as that introduced by
the application of steam and cleo
tricity, and certainly as interesting
as anything that has lately engaged
our attention. Our readers have
recently seen notices of -four made
by what is termed the new pro-
ces' i'm the price lists of the trade.
A few days ago gentleman thor
oughIY posted in the flour trade
showed US samples of the product
in its various stages of manufacture.
and explained to US something of
the process. This new kind of flour
is only made from spring wheat,
thus reversing the old rule that
good -four could only be made from
winter wheat. The process at pres
ent used in most of the mills is of
course familiar to all of our readers.
In il the wheat is converted into
flour, middlings and brand, of
which the two latter are generally
regarded as refuse. a cheap quail
ty of flour is sometimes made from
the middlings, but generally they
go to feed stock or to be distilled.
The flour being obtained from the
first grinding, the effort is TO get as
much out of it as possible, and have
the wheat ground US fine as posi-
BILE and at the high rate OF speed.
Everybody knows that the mid
dlings contain 4 large quantity OIL
the best and most nutritious part of
the wheat. and yet no successful eff |
fort had been made until lately to
remedy this defect III the mode of |
manufacturing flour. Now, how
ever, machinery has been perfected |
by which all the flour can be got |
out of the middlings. The same |
thing has been tried in Europe, but |
the results have not been SO salts
factory as with us, for we have TAX |
en- all the machinery they have in |
vented and added TO it what was |
wanting to make it successful.
The hardest and best Minnesota or |
Wisconsin spring wheat is used for |
this, the highest gri de of flour made
in this country. 1t is estimated |
that only One-tenth of the spring |
wheat product of this country is |
milled by this method, and only |
about fifteen per cent. of the wheat |
thus prepared issues as the genuine |
anew Process" flour. Its great VAL |
ne consists i'll the sweetness, beauty |
and quality of bread which it pro-
duces.
After the wheat has been cieansed |
from dirt by the smut machines, The
outer, woody fibre of the berry is |
entirely removed by a machine call
ed a dccorticator. The wheat is
then ground coaresly, passes into the
chest, subjected to an air blast,
which separates the finer flour, COM
posed of starch mostly, from the
coarscr or middlings, which con-
tain all the saccharine and other nu-
tritiVe properties of the wheat.
These middlings, thus purified, are
well known as farina, and being
small proportion of the product of
the wheat, are then ground, forming
the "New Process" flour.
The machinery consists of hori-
zontal sieve made of felting cloth,
which has a short quick motion i'm
parted TO it. Into this sieve at one
end the middlings are put. The
motion starts along the sieve to-
ward the outer end. A blast of air
is introduced under the sieve. while
a suction is created above. This air
carries of all the lighter particles,
the heavy particles, which contain
the flour, fall through the sieve into
q receptacle below, while the brand
is carried off to the end, and falls
out as tailings. The heavy materi-
al so caught and preserved is again
caught and preserved and is again
ground and bolted, and from this
comes tho best article of flour that
has ever yet been known for gener-
al use. The defect in this machin-
cry heretofore has been in keeping |
the sieve from clogging or choking |
up. 1t would quickly do so, then
the contents would go out at the |
end, and the effort would fail. To |
remedy this, a brush welded by |
man-pOwer was employed to brush |
out the sieve, but the imperfect APP |
plication and expense rendered the |
whole thing comparatively nugato-
ry. This was for long time the |
state of this enterprise. But in the |
year 1872 Frenchman, by the name |
of Lacroix, brought from Paris q |
machine for this purpose, known as |
the perrigault machine, which he
put in a mill of bis own at Farrf- |
bault, Mimi. But its defects, before |
referred to, left it in the category of
other attempts. He subsequently,
put a similar machine into Wash
burns mill, at Minneapolis, Minn.
While this was being done, The sug-
gestiOn was made, "Why not put in
a brush to run by machinery ?" The
idea struck LacroiX at once fAVora-
bly,, and he replied, "Certaiuly; l
will do it as soon as l return" he
then being about to go away for
time. When he returned, brush
working by machinery had been
put in, for which George c. Smith,
of Minneapolis, AS we are informed,
has patent.
The invention of the brush gave
the start to this enterprise, which
has since been advancing steadily
and rapidly. All the large mills of
the West are rapidly adapting their
machinery to it, and the small ones
are following suit as fast as their
means will allow.
Lacroix returned 10 find the sug-
gestion accomplished, and al once
| Invented a brush working on sDi-
raj or screw. More recent DEVICES
have been brought into use to SUI
| persede the brush entirely, consist
ing of air blasts impinging violent
ly against the sleeves, concussing
against them to knock out the gath
ering material. Any quantity of
patents have already been Issued for
this purpose. and the inventive gen.
ius of the age is yet busy on the
problem, and unqRestiOnably will
not rest as long as anything posi-
bly, remains to be accomplished,
which will not be until the last
speck of material in the wheat pos
sible to be converted into flour has
l scu kale fn