The Portland daily press., 1883-08-16

| with the other work; and the other is con-
nected with the Brush electric machine that
| generates electricity for forty lights making
the mill from the basement TO the garnet a
brilliant spectacle. By this complication of
belts, shafting and pulleys is transmitted the
tremendous force of 1890 horsepower. The
betting used in this mill cost $4,000. I'M
agine twenty-four 200 horsepower engines
at work side by side, and you get a fair idea
OF the power exerted by these four turbine
wheels. The grain Is shoveled from the cars
into the hoppers in the basement and is car
ried directly to the scales where it is weighed
in lots of 10000 pounds, or 1000 bushels; it
is then carried to the top of the building
where it passes through the smnt and fan
ming machines which remove the chaff, then
through separators by which the pinched
wheat and cookies are dropped out, thence
through scourers and polishers set with stiff
brushes from which it issues at last bright
and clean, having been subjected to the OPP
Grafton of eight sets of machinery simply to
clean it.
The wheat now comes down to the second
floor where there are 400 roller-mils, furn-
ished with corrugated iron rollers These mill
are arranged in twenty lines across the build
ing. Here in this room are also the twenty
runs of burr stones, ten on side, which
are still considered needful. The wheat is
fed into these roler-mills and is just cracked
open. 1t is then taken by the elevator belts
to the upper part of the mill where it passes
through the boiling chests, over the silk
webs and reels and through purifiers to come
down again to be pinched and cracked still
finer by other rollers from which it is again
passed through the boiling chests and puri-
fiers, and so over and over, process that is
carried on through seven different sets of
rollers each breaking finer than the other, to
be bolted each time; at the end this process
results in two products, called "Middlings''
and "Tailings. The former is slightly yell
lowish meal in appearance, and is in fact
the nutritious gluten of the grain; the latter
is called by us brah and goes into the shorts,
termed 'sotfar' by the millers. 1t is in great
demand by the stockgrowers East and West.
Now we have in this yellowish meal the
gluten from which to make 'Pillsbury's
Best flour. 1t is run through another
series of iron rollers, and then passes between
the French burr stones of bard flint After
pursuing further journey through the bolt
ing chest, purifiers and dust-catchers, the
-four is dumped in snowy avalanches into
sixteen of the twenty-four -four packers on
the third foor-the perfected Patent
flour of the market. The other eight pack
ers receive the shorts.
These flour packing machines by their de-
vices allow the exact weight of 1876 pounds
to the barrel, and $50 pounds to the bag or
sack, to be quickly packed and branded, af-
Ter which it is rapidly sent down the inclined
runs, slippery with use, into the cars. For
transporting flour long distances the sacks
are preferable, as subject to less waste than
when shipped in barrels and almost all the
exported flour goes in these bags. The flour
is delivered on both sides of the packing
room, which is also partly occupied as
store-room, and here may be seen some of
the wheat cleaning machinery.
Throughout this great mill cleanliness
abounds and notices are conspicuously post
ed impressing both visitor and employee with
its necessity.
A car is loaded with shorts or flour every
twenty-five minutes throughout the day. A
few moments neglect here would result in
serious loss.
Everything about the inner part of the
mill is artistic in point of finish and color
ing, being painted white with red trimmings.
The great nickel-plated scales, the spiral
staircase of open iron-work in the center O.
the mill, are all red, and the effect is bril-
liant. Most noticeable is the abundance of
light in every part of the mill, which has no
superior in the world in point of capacity
and perfection of details. By the use of the
dust catchers all danger of an accident SINH
lar to that which caused the destruction of
the Washburn mill in 1878 is avoided.
Among the resources of this mill are the fif-
ty elevators at various places in the North
west, in which the Pillsburys are interested,
the aggregate capacity of which is 2,000,-
900 bushels of wheat. The firm frequently
has on hand over 1000, 1000 bushels. To sup
ply their mills requires $10,0O0,000 worth of
wheat yearly. The receipts amount 20
about SIS ,0o0.0 900 for -four with an addition
al million dollars for shorts Freight bills
to the amount of So, 900 are paid to the
railroads yearly.
These Touring mills of Minnesota have
been great civilizers in the Northwest, and
have had much to do with the settlement of
its lands and the building of its railroads.
They have afforded stimulus to the i'm
provement and general use of agricultural
machinery. The rich and poor share alike
this saving of the choicest portion ofsthe
grain. Nothing goes upon the market with
out the proper test, and out of every lot of
-four portion is taken to be kneaded here
in the mill and baked into small loaves of
bread. If the bread is not satisfactory the
-four is marked to the lower grades, great
deal of which is sold in Germany.
Honest work and honest representations
have made the fortunes of these New
England men, and their fame is not bound
ed by the confines of Minnesota. Their rep
resentatives are in every State. Here in
Portland they are Messrs. Norton, Chapman
e. Co. AS the New World has looked to the
Old for the brawny tillers of it's fields, so the
Old World comes to the New for its bread
SUMMER HOTELS.