Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-02-12
A LOST ART.
How the Milestone Has Been Relcga.et
Out OF Use.

Out OF Use.
!. A number Of heavy white millstones
were piled up on ono of the docks along
the river yesterday. They were con-
signed to some interior town forty OF
flity miles from the city. and were OF
the style, make, and finish so long in
use. An old man, with q SLOUGH hat
pulled down SO far over his face thar
his small, fast-blinking eyes were al
most hid from view, stood a little way
back on the wharf and talked 10 4
young man whom he had halted. and
asked for match ..Millstoncs have
pretty nearly gone out Of date, said
he, with halt mournful air, '.and with
them has gone the occupation have
followed for thirty years. See here, :
and the old man crowded his hat owe.
on the back part of his head and lifted
his face for the first time into plain
sight. 1t was pitted all over with num-
bcrless ugly dimples, depressions and
cuts. and looked as if he might some
day have had the smallpox.
'sDo you know how that was done?n
he asked The young man did not
know. by picsing millstones, was
the quickly volunteered information.
mo one who has er followed the
business of giving those stones that
keen cut texture that enables them TO
crush and grind grain can escape these
cuts and scars. Why my face . is liter
ally filled wit the little particles of
steel and stone, and my eyes have sea-
sons OF paining me terribly. But the
profession has about run its race. In
ten years the dictionary-nak viii
put the stcreotyped word obsolete af-
ter the noun milestone. Modern in
ventions have relegated the time-honor-
cd milestone into oblivion. New pro-
cesscs have been discovered for ex-
tracing the wheat from flour, beside
which the milestone has no show"
The youag man began to grow inter-
esied. He drew his companion into
the doorway of n little switch shanty.
secured permission for the two to Sit
down moment before the fire, and
asked him 10 continue.
Nowadays" said the old man.
''whcat is crushed between rollers and
the flour produced is much superior to
the old make. Then, too, the bran
that was thought to be almost worth
less is now sifted by II new pro-
cess and quality of flour is
separated that is worth forty or fifty
cents more per sack than the common
variety. You have heard that the best
part of potato lay just beneath the
skin. Recent scientific experiments
have shown that it is true of all vege-
tables, especially of wheat. This sug-
gested the construction OF a sieve that
would separate the little particles of
the kernel that cling 10 the shuck
when 1t has been broken up and ground
to pieces. 1t was successful, and the
flour secured in this way. while small
in quantity, is of superb quality. This
latt T process was only made possible
by the new method of grinding wheat
that has been generally adopted by all
the large mills in the country. But in
the meantime my occupation has been
gradually undermined. Once in a
while have a call TO 90 out in the
country and dress stone, lat it is very
seldom. Most of the nillstoues in use
in this country are Of French burr, a
silicious rock. containing many small,
rough cavities, and requiring less prep
aration than perfectly plain stone. Its
quarried in the geological district
known as the paris basin. A quarry
has been worked for many years in the
valley of the Savannah River, about
one hundred miles above the City of
Savannah, and the quality oil stones Sc
cured is said 10 be almost equal to those
produced in France. The lower stone
has generally a smooth grinding sur
face. The moving stone is followed
towards the center TO allow the nater-
ial ground to flow freely between the
grinding surfaces. The face of both
tones have to be cut with straight
grooves in direction inclined radii The
edges of the grooves are thus given a
cutting action somewhat resembling
that Of scissor blades, and tendency
to force the grain outward toward the
circumference is secured, thus acceler-
ating thefeeding and avoiding choking.
To do this work perfectly requires an
enormous amount of practice, and an
apprentice must serve for four or five
years on cheap stones before he is al
lowed to touch the most valuable ones.
Machines were once invented to do the
cutting but they were not Il success. 1t
was hard business to learn, and in its
day was very profitable. Modern in
novations, however, have no sympathy
for workingmcn, and in ten years it is
doubtful if there viii be milestone in
use in this country. II CteCe'd1ad
Leader.