Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-10-19
The New Process of FlOur-Mak-
inp

q The so-called "New Process" Of grind
ing wheat is one of the most important
technical Improvements of the present
century, inasmuch as it adds at least one
dollar to the market value of every barrel
of -four manufactured under 1t, besides
producing from every bushel of wheat
several pounds of flour more than can be
obtained by the ordinary method of
grinding. 1t is claimed that the process
is not intrinsically new, but that it has
tor some time been in use among Scotch,
French and German millers, and that the
flour of which the celebrated Vienna
bread is made, has for a long time been
ground in this fashion. But if the process
has not been recently invented in this
country, great Improvements III connec-
ton with it have already been made here
bey<nd dispute an extraordinary amount
OF attention has been directed to milling
operations since its introduction, and
there IS, therefore, a strong probability
that still more valuable improvements
will be devised in the near future.
The most suitable kind of wheat for
this process, are the hard spring sorts,
such as those grown in Minnesota, al
though all kinds are used with more or
less satisfactory results. The cleaning of
the wheat before grinding is much more
essential heae than in the ordinary meth
Cd OF milling. For this purpose the
grain before reaching the gamers, passes
through screen, or sieve, a separator, a
decortlcating machine, and shutter. 1t
is then run through "French burr" stones
with peculiar dress which is not so
sharp as for ordinary grinding. The
stones, too, are farther apart, the running
being raised more THAI usual, hence the
term-high grinding applied to it; this
takes OF the bran without cutting it up
or removing the fuzz from one end of it,
and leaves the grain broken up into
granules, technically known as ''chop"
commercially "graham." This passes d.
rectly into boltlng chest with three
successive boiling cloths of different de-
grees of fneness.
Here the flour is sorted into No. and
No. 2 family" flour, 26 per cent. of the
produce Of the wheat going into the for
mer and IL per cent. going into the latter,
IN some OF our Eastern mills; but in the
West the proportions are generally con-
siderably smaller. The remainder of the
"chop' passes into another boiling chest
where the bran is separated from the
'middlings" and thence the latter pass
into the purifier, a machine intended to
get rid of all impurities lighter than the
farina, by means of draft of air which
lifts them from the sieve. The "purifed
mlddlinggs" are then reground, and the
flour in passing through another set of
bolts, yields certain proportion OF New
Process flour. In some of our Eastern
mills this amounts to only 10 per cent,
but In the west by separating the stones
more, as high as so per cent. of the wheat
can often be made into ''middlings," from
which alone the New Process flour is
manufactured. In that case, however,
the residue is very poor indeed, so that
1t has been found most profitable to make
only 30 per cent. Of "Patent" or "New
Process flour, an arrangement that
leaves the remainder a fair grade O
"family'' flour. After the separation of
the new process flour the remainder of
the ''chop'' is again reground, and the
product separated into No. 3 flour, No.
I feed and small percentage of screen
ings and waste.
The Patent or New Process flour con-
tains an unusually large portion of the
phosphates and heterogeneous portions of
the grain and is therefore more nutritious
as we'll as purer, winter, finer and more
valuable than ordinary flour. Another
important advantage of this method of
grinding is that it brings into more
profitable use the enormous quantity of
spring wheat raised in the northwestern
States and Territories, and adds at least
10 per cent. to what the value of the
crops would be if ground by the ordinary
process. Before the introduction of this
method, these wheats were more or less
neglected and deprecated, but now it is
found that they make the best quality of
flour by the New Process. This is there
fore benefit to the farmer, the miller and
the consumer.