The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-06-13
Jones's Fortunate Dream.-An Invention
that is Bringing Millions to Syra-
cusan.

SYRACUSE, May 29.-Thomas D. Jones's
sudden leap from comparative poverty to
the possession of million is the talk of
the town. He saw defects in the common
process of grinding flour, and, by sim
pie invention that has remedied them,
has made in less than ten months 81 ,250,-
0O0, And, seemingly, this is just the be-
ginning of what he is to make. The
secret is in the dressing of the milestone
that grinds the wheat He saw that, by
the .ordinary picking process, too much
surface was made on the stones. The
kernel was crushed. He wished it to be
stroying the strength and the color of the
grain, and taking out the gluten. He
saw that, by lessening the surface, these
defects must be overcome, and he set
himself to work to overcome them. He
has succeeded.
Jones lives in a plain, but elegantly
furnished house at 80 Shonnard street
The Sun reporter visiting him found all
the neighbors talking of his good luck,
as they called it, and estimating his
wealth at millions. He returned from
Europe only short time ago, and being
modest and unassuming had not pro-
claimed his great success, as some might
have done. But the story would out, and
as usual it took an exaggerated form.
Mr.. Jones himself opened the door. He
is of medium height, portly, and with
somewhat gray hair and whiskers. He
was perfectly willing to tell what he had
done and how it had been accomplished,
and his story was narrated modestly and
as though he were detailing the most
ordinary of events.
II am a Welshman," he began mo
Scotch about me, as has been said. |
journeyed from Wales while only three
years old. My father bought two farms
near Bridgewater, in Oneida county,
where he yet lives; and in early boyhood
l was apprenticed as miller to Thomas
Roberts, who ground grists in Waterville.
I've been trying to invent something all
my life, and in lesser attempts have
sometimes been successful. l saw that
the old method of making -four by grind
ing it between two almost smooth stones
destroyed the life of the wheat. The
kernel was mashed to powder. My no.
ton was that l could improve it by gran
ulating it. l must, therefore, invent
some kind of stone that would not
crush the wheat-that would save the
middlings-a stone that would not get
hot and bake the color out of the -four
and take its strength and gluten from it;
my milestone must have less surface
While was thinking it all over l moved
to Ohio, and there l tried to work out
the problem by changing the boiling
cloths. That improved it somewhat, but
it wasn't the thing. l hadn't got rid of
the friction between the stones. | didn't
own q mill, and SO l had to work it along
as best 1 could, as it was hard work to
get any one to bear any of the expense
l worked on various mills in Ohio, and
making some improvements on the old
manner of dressing stone, l at length
made an engagement with the Throop
Grain Cleaner Company, now of Auburn,
to travel. 1t gave me an opportunity to
see many mills and milling processes in
the country. 1 studied and studied, and
thought over that problem while l was
travelling; thought it over night and day,
even to worrying over it.
The grand idea hit me in a dream. /
put up at the st. Charles Hotel in Toledo
to stay over Sunday. l went to bed as
usual, studying and studying, and at
length l went to sleep, and that night it
came to me as clear as bell. thought
it all out before l woke up, just as nat
urally as though had been picking away
at milestone"
What did you do when you woke ??
II said, Il have it at last. I've something
now that IL beat the trlcLlOn. L We some
thing that will make more furrow than
land Millers will understand that ex-
preston. l went to Senator Isaac NJ
Barrett of Greene county, Ohio,
Quaker, and told him 1 had something
that would give him all the middlings he
wanted now, and would improve his -four
from fifty cents to dollar barrel. He
owned the Spring Valley mills, and he
told me to go to work and renovate his
whole mill on my principle. l did so,
and the first shipment of flour to Balti-
more after that was of one hundred bar
rels, eighty of my new process and twenty
of the old. They sold the new at 81
barrel more than the old would bring.
II wanted to get more indentation,
more burrows. No, my process isn't cold
blast on Minnesota flour, or anything of
that sort l use diamond quartz in the
face of the stone instead of the mill pick.
That's it in nutshell. The rubbing of
the sharp diamond quartz on the stone
makes the indentations and the mid
ding escapes through the indentations,
instead of having its life crushed out
1t costs nearly one-third less than the old
method of picking, and it makes as good
-four out of No. 2 wheat as can be made
of No. l by the old way. The only secret
about it is how the diamond quartz is ap-
piled. l have put my improvement in
few mills in this country. Penfeld IL
Lyons and Darston & Royce, and Doolit-
tie, Ames d Co. of Oswego, and firm in
Buffalo, and few others have it. l took
about 100000 in this country before l