The Worthington advance., 1879-04-10
THE COCHRANE PATENT,
"0'eh" Revtears the Case Of tho Patentees
4d0ntnst tho Minnesota Mfllers, AND Con-
cf"f~x that tho Supreme Court Was
DuNed.

~0'eh" Revtescs the Case Of tho Patented
dO1tnst the MinnesOta 411fllers, AND Con.
| cf"d~~ that tho Supreme Court Wa.
DuDed.
cincinnati Enquirer.
You have probably not seen 4 clear &C
count Of the great upsetting just given b,
George Harding to the great milling
monopoly, with itp headquarters in Ohio
and the district of Columbia. This came
of in the circuit court of the United States
est of the Mississippi river, and the decis.
ion was only given March 18th. The monop
o'y took the name of "The American Mid
diings Purifier Company" and had sued
John A. Christian, of Minnesota, and the
Atlantic Middling company of St. Louis, fol
alleged infringement of patent. The in
fringement essentially consisted in atmos-
pheric boltingof flour middlings. I despair
Of making this plain to you, except in the
way of conversation. Let me put to the
lawyer, therefore, some questions:
"What is Grain of wheat?''
"A grain of wheat is berry with soft
tioury mass in the center and harder ooatinRs.
The center gives 50-per cent. of the super
fine flour, and is divided into numerous
cells, divided by gluten, starch and cement
Ing matter. The problem of grinding con-
s:sts in separating the interior mass from
the coatings, which constitute the bran, and
palverizing it. The hull ought to be pulver-
ized as little as possible, while the interior
mass is we'll pulverized, because when you
come to bolt the floor YOU want the bran to
be in larger particles and not to 20 through
tie cloth. Now, winter wheat, which has a
rough wooden husk, is easily separated; but
the spring wheat further North has brittle
hull, which pulverizes almost like the -four
itself. Consequently, the Minnesota -four
WAS specked, while the St. Louis grain
ground much better and the flour brought a
h'gher price. The present lawsuit arose
+; ON the introduction OF French machines
into Minnesota by which they reground the
n,iddlings and produced even better article
OF -four than St. Louis.''
"How do you define middlings?"
"Our definition in that respect came down
from Oliver Evans, who ground -four on the
bfandywine fifty years ago, and wrote about
it. After your flour has gone through the
nalilstones, you want to sift it (or bolt it),
which is done by boiling cloth attached to
reel; the cloth has q progressively coarser
mesh, and the meal or arse.ground whe It,
lying on the clott, sends tho finest -four
through the top, aud as the -four mass goes
onward it drops coarser; the coarse part is
f. gain taken up to the head of the cloth and
s,'nt onward second time. Now, there is
still something left after this double boiling,
and it retains the name of meal. The finest
Of this meal is called "middlings;' the next
coarser quality is called E'shipstuff," and the
third quality is called "shorts'' and ssbran."
bow, You must see, that az machinery ad-
vanced and our wheat increased in quantity,
i. became desirable to hasten the old FASH
Toned slow bolting operation. 1t was gener-
ally believed that atmospheric pressure would
do it. The Americans and the French both
SIT to work at this.''
AMERICANS AT sTEAM-BoLT1Na.
"Which was the American patent that
drew most attention?"
ut was called tho Cogswell & McKiernan
patent, and was granted June II, 1860. A
blast of air was introduced into hollow
Shaft surrounded by zinc box perforated
with small holes. The air escaping went up
a crooked chimney, whose elbows formed
eddies and let the flour fall back into the
reel-chest. This patent was sold to William
+. Cochrane, and in the summer of 1861 he
put up mill on that patent near Spring
field. Ohio, for the Warder family. Some
trouble occurred, and after many improve
ments and corrections the whole thing was
laid aside, somewhere about 1868. 1t died
right there and for ten years not ghost of
it fingered around. Yet that patent became
the bas'ssx the greatest milling business of
our times.
How was that?"
1T was accomplished through the sur
render and reissue of the patent, taking ad-
vintage of the patent Office at Washington.
This was not done until the French machines
bad revoln'i.nlzed wheat-grinding in Min
resota. About 1860 they introduced spring
wheat into MINNESOTA, and the crop increased
rapidly, until il was nearly 5000, 900 bushels
In 1863, and more than 33,O00,0O
bushels in 1877. Yet the brittle hull
Of the Minnesota wheat would get into tho
t'our, and could not be bclted out by the old
processes. Consequently, though richer in
gluten than the st. Louis -four, it held an in
ferior place in the market, and was used by
bakers only, not by families. In that con-
dition of things Frenchman named LIE
Croix, who knew about the system of grind
ing spring wheat in France, told his neigh
bors, the great millers around Minneapolis,
to try the French machines. Consequently,
Mr. George II. Christian sent out to France
end imported what are called the Cabanese
machines, first patented in April, 1885,
After about one years experiments with
these machines in his mill, and constructing
Others like them, Mr.. Christian fully estab-
lished the character of Minnesota flour ia
1871. It was done by what is called the
mlddllngs purifying process. It brought
from vi to $2 more in the Eastern markets,
aud $l a barrel more than the St. Louis
flour. The effect was immense, when it
suddenly occurred to some sharp fellows
that the old Coggswell g. Cochrane patent
should be revived and good thing made of
it."
SETTING UP PATENT JOB.
"Who were the persons interested in this
performance2''
"Mr. William Warder and Mr.. Rodney
Mason, in 1873 and 1874, entered into an
understanding to obtain the greater part of
the interest in the old Cochrane patent, and
then reissue it so as to cover the new pro-
cess. Middlings had never been ground in
to superfine flour here. Cochrane readily
agreed to give one-half his interest to Mason
which was one fourth of the entire patent
for obtaining the reissue and prosecuting
suits under the reissue. The thing was then
SO worthless that William Warder had got a
fourth of it for nothing. These three men
-Cochrane, Mason and Warder-slipped off
to Washington City, and associated with
them three lawyers-Peck, Phillips and
Walter Cox-and two men of means John
O. Evans and J. Van Buskirk. These latter
persons furnished $4,000 to carry on the
litigation. The patentees at once brought
suit against miller at Georgetown, D. c.,
under their new patent. This miller, Welcn,
had been the first to tell them that purified
middlings could he manufactured, and he ia
suspected of being in with them. Their
suit was pressed, and before it was decided
tue interested parties resolved to carry it
right up to the supreme court on printed
briefs. They got verdict in thei: favor" ="
"Hov did they get that verdict?"
"By an er parte affidavit of the first in