Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-02-12
YANKToN's ROLLER MILLS.

a-~S
49,
TIE Excelsior Kemodeled and Filled
With Improved Machinery-TweIve
Sets OF Rollers and all the Latest Ac.
companiments-A Model Mill In the
Mother City.
Some twelve years ago there was erect
ed in Yankton a Touring mill of large
dimensions, built from the chalk rock of
our native quarries, to which was at
tached a substantial brick elevator,
equal In size to the structure which con-
tanned the mill machinery. This mill,
In its day, was a model mill-the best
for hundreds of miles around. 1t con-
tanned four run of stone, and all the
machinery in vogue at that time, driven
by powerful engine. 1t ground I'M
ceasingly and made flour for the entire
upper country. 1t was a monument to
the industry of a frontier people and
was pointed out with ~pardonable pride.
But the stone grinding process had
its day and the product of this class of
mills could not hold its place in the
market along with that turned out by
roller machinery. The business of the
Excelsior languished-it fell behind in
the commercial race-the wheels of the
mill suddenly ceased their motion-the
industry was dead. Modern genius had
killed it. For a veal the mill stood
slt
idle, because its stones could not be
protitably run. Finally it fell into new
hands, and q new company was organ
lied with Captain j. c. McVay as its
president and f. L Van Tassel as Sec
rotary and superintendent. The latter
had been identified with the concern
under the old management and retain.
ing his interest and possessing the ex-
p%erience, was placed in a responsible
position under the new management.
The first work of the reorganized COM
paDy was to phil out all the old
machinery and replace it with the best
and latest improved devices for manu-
featuring flour by the roller process.
After months of labor and the expendi-
ture of ten thousand dollars in hard
cash, the change was effected. The mill
stands to-day possessed of It's new ma
chinery and Is filling the outside air with
the hum of a rejuvenated manufactur-
ing industry.
The roller process of flour manufa :
ture is, figuratively speaking, a stride
from the stone age into the iron age.
Once the golden grain was ground into
bread producing dust between the upper
and under stones of a mill.
Now it is rus between rollers and
by a process of gradual re-
ductlon ia cru.led to the whitened dust
from which is created the staff of life.
The Excelsior mill contains twelve sets
of these rollers. They are small looking
affairs, handsomely cased in wood, two
sets In a case. Important as these rollers
are in the part they play in the manu-
facture of -four, they form only a small
portion of the machinery which accom-
panies them. The rollers are placed on
the ground floor. Above this floor are
two other floors occupied by devices the
names and uses of which are known only
to the craft and IN the basement beneath
is another combination of mechan-
zeal appliances. This complex arrange.
ment makes up the roller mill and every
wheel and pully and shaft and gearing
is a necessary part of the whole. The
wheat is first cleaned of all impurities
by machinery which does its work SO
effectively that it would not be cleaner
if each particular grain was taken by it.
self and carefully scrubbed. When the
product is ready for the crushing pro.
cess it contains moi an atom of foreign
substance, not the minutest particle of a
dust fragment. Descending through a
pipe to the first set OF
rollers, the grain is slightly cracked.
Then it is convened through the ma
chinery of the upper stories where Its
jacket is slightly loosened and it returns
to the second set of rollers and is given
an additional squeeze and then is re-
turned to the upper works to be sub
jected to another trip through the ma
chinery prepared for its reception. This
lie repeated until the wheat has passed
through the twelve sets of rollers and
their accompanying apparatus for puri-
flying the product, which finally falls
into the barrels or sacks and is ready for
the market. This is the gradual reduc.
ton process by which the finest grades
OF -four are produced. All the nutritive
qualities within q grain of wheat go into
the flour and the bran which remains il
nothing but the hard shell of the kernel
which posse sses no value as food. One
popularity in the mill ls the absence o.
dust and floating fragments of -four. B,
an admirably arranged system o.
fans and conveyers thi
is taken up and carried
outside the building and the interio,
presents none of the disagreeabIe char
acteristics of the old milling system.
The new Excelsior mill possesses {
manufacturing capacity of seventy.fv'
barrels of potent -four per day. TIL,
mill is now prepared to run without
halt and to place its regular daily allow
ance of -four upon this market. Its fell
of operations is IN southern Dakota an,
northern Nebraska, and it expect
to Mace ils goods al every nnin