Daily globe., 1879-04-03
THE COCHRANE PATENT.
"GGth" ReVie,Us the Case Of the Patentecs
A0ntnst the Min,aesota Aftllers, and Con-
ctudes that tho Supreme C0nrt Was
DMpeG.

"Gath" ReVie,Vs the Case of the Patentecs
A0Gtnst the Minnesota MtIlers, and Con-
ctHdaes that tho Supreme Conrt Was
Dnped.
Cincinnati Enquirer.
You have probably not seen clear &C.
count of the great upsetting just given by
George Harding to the great milling
monopoly, with it's headquarters in Ohio
and the district of Columbia. This came
off in the circuit court of the United States
west of the Mississippi river, and the decis-
ion was only given March 18th. The monop-
oly took the name Of ssThe American Mid
dlings Purifier Company" and had sued
John A. Christian, of Minnesota, and the
Atlantic Middling company of st. Louis, for
alleged infringement of patent. The in
frlngement essentially consisted in atmos-
pheric boiling of flour middlings. despair
! of making this plain to you, except in the
way of conversation. Let me put to the
lawyer, therefore, some questions:
| ssWhat is Grain of wheat?"
"a grain of wheat is berry with soft
foury mass in the center and harder coatings.
The center gives so per cent. of the super
fine -four, and is divided into numerous
cells, divided by gluten, starch and cement
ing matter. The problem of grinding con-
sists in separating the interior mass from
the coatings, which constitute the bran, and
pulverizing it. The hull ought to be pulver-
lied as little as possible, while the interior
mass is we'll pulverized, because when you
come to bolt the floor you want the bran tc
be in larger particles and not to go through
the cloth. Now, winter wheat, which has s
rough wooden husk, is easily separated; bu
the spring wheat further North has a brittle
hull, which pulverizes almost like the foul
itself. Consequently, the Minnesota foul
was specked, while the st. Louis grair
ground much better and the flour brough 8
higher price. The present lawsuit aros
from the introduction OF French machine
into Minnesota by which they reground tn
middlings and produced even better articl
of -four than st. Louis.''
"How do you define middlings?'
"Our definition in that respect came dow
from Oliver Evans, who ground flour on tht
Brandywine fifty years ago, and wrote abou
J it. After your flour has gone through tn
} millstones, you want to sift it Tor bolt it,
2 which is done by boiling cloth attached t
q reel; the cloth has progressively coarse
, lying on the cloth, sends the finest fou
y y through the top, and as the flour mass goe
o onward it drops coarser; the coarse part
: again taken up to the head of the cloth an
2 sent onward second time. Now, there
: still something left after this double boltinl
. and it retains the name of meal. The fnef
y of this meal is called ssmiddlings;' the ne,
y coarser quality is called ssshipstuff,'' and tt
n n third quality is called sshorts'' and "bran.
% Now, you must see, that as machinery al
4 | varca6 and Onr wheat Increased in nnantit
l it Became desirable to hasten the old fasl
o ioned slow boltipg operation. It was gene
y ally believed that atmospheric pressure woul
u do it. The Americans and the French bot
N set to work at this.''