Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1885-03-13
Wisconsin Letter.
LA CROSSE. Wis. March /,

ent visited the works Of lately added
industry ofthis growing city-the lin.
seed oil mill
Perhaps some of your readers
would like to take stroll through the
building
We enter the boiler room, where
the fireman is busily engaged putting
pine slabs into the furnace. In a city
of so many saw mills as Lacrosse,
slabs are the cheapest fuel. BY a
glance at the gauge, We see they have
eighty pounds of steam.
Gong into the engine room, to
which the steam is conducted through
a pipe wrapped in felt to prevent con-
densauon, we find a beautiful sixty
horse power engine, making one hun
dred revolutions per minute. So
nicely is it adjusted, that the noise is
less than is made by the average sew
ing machine. A long shaft extends
into the next room, whence belts and
geared shafting extend to the room
above. We also notice a massive
foundation of masonry, built up from
the basement floor and supporting
five cylinders of iron. These are the
hydraulic presses which extract the oil.
Walking upstairs we find room the
floor of which is saturated with oil
from the ground fax seed split upon
} it. Here is the grinding and press
, room in one. The seed is ground in
roller mill similar to those in making
flour differing from the latter, how
ever, by being open to view, the oily,
, sticky nature of the seed rendering it
unnecessary TO have the rollers boxed
up completely. The gray colored
, meal is elevated to cylindlcal box
! containing wheel with paddles SO in
/ cllned as to press the meal towards
: the circumference. An opening in one
: side, closed by tight fitting door en-
: ables the operator to draw off the
t meal at will into a bottomless box
t sliding in a frame. The smooth pol
ished wood of the frame forms the bot
, tom upon which the meal rests and
f slides, whenever the box is moved
i. along. At the left end of this frame
e is depression about an inch and a
D half deep, two feet and halflong and
: nearly foot and halt wide, or the
width of the sliding Eox in the clear
S In the depression is placed a kind ol
rectangular pan of sheet iron, open
e at one end like a fire shovel. Over
this pan is spread piece of coarse
S cloth resembling the material OF which
|. the gunny sack is made. Its width l:
r the same as the pan and length more
: than double. The bottomless bo,
n filled with freshly ground seed is slie
IS over the pan, which is, of course, fillee
J. by the meal settling into 1t. The bo,
n being Withdrawn, the ends of the clotl
is are folded over the top of the meal il
,r the pan, which is now ready for tht
.r press.
Ic We now turn to the five presses
ot standing in a row. Each opeis com
)" posed of a cylinder ofiron cast almos
IS solid and sliding nearly vertically int
,s the cylinders we saw on the founda
: tions in the basement On the top O
y each cylinder is a rectangular piece o
IS iron heavy IN the middle and taperin,
w towards the edge, on the lower side
et but fiat on top. 1t is the same siz,
as the sheet iron pan containing tn,
meal. At intervals of about five inche
y. between the highest and lowest point
st reached are plates of iron with some
n, thing like door mats on upper and low
,e er surfaces, and presenting the ap
pearance of a series of shelves, eacl
one hung from the one above, the top
most being hung from the to-
of the framework against which tn
pressure from below is exerted. Aroun,
u the outer edge of each plate is
~ groove ending in spout at one enc
made slightly lower by the cylinde
'r and framework not beng perfectl
a. verticle. On these shelves tn
m cloths full of meal are placed by slid
ing into the pan and then slipping tn
ce pan out. Each press contains fiftee
ne shelves and when they are filled tn
10 pump is set to work forcing oil throug
- very small tube into the cavity IN tn
lower cylinder, for, although thos
lis presses are called "hydraulic" the
IN use oil instead of water to ooerat
them. They are capable OF exertln
m a pressure of ten thousand pounds pc
Ig square inch, but are worked only I
ty about three thousand. As the cyllr
=. der rises with slow, steady motto
but relentless as fate; the meal gets Ii
to closer and closer quarters, and tn
oil flows in streams from the side
"a When the index on the gauge register
r. kts.