The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-11-30
HOW THE PRODUCT Is MADE.

mill.
HOW THE PRODUCT Is MADE.
The cars that bring in the seed are
switched bv machinery worked from
the mill. Each car is rolled upon a GOV,
cred track scales and weighed. The
seed is then conveyed into the mill by
the aid of power shovels that are capa-
BILE OF unloading thirty cars daily. After
being unloaded the car is again weighed,
thus ascertaining the amount of the
load. The seed is first put through a
cleaning process, and is afterwards
crushed to fine meal by means of chill
ed iron rollers turning with different de-
grees of speed There are five sets
of these rollers, and another set has
been ordered. By means of conveyors
| the crushed seed, called linseed meal, is
carried to steam heated iron tanks, call
| ed drieTs, and afterwards it is dropped
| into large kettles or pans, where it is
moistened and heated. This latter proc
ess is known as tempering, and here is
where great skill is required, as on the
| tempering depends the yield of oil per
| bushel. None but workmen of long ex-
perience can do this, as it must be done
merely by feeling or touch. An mex
perienced man would cause the mill q
very great loss. As might be expected,
the right man commands good salary.
The meal, after this tempering process,
is packed by machines, called moulding
machines, into the form of cakes, being
wrapped at the same time i'll camel's
hair cloth. The genuine cancels hair
article only can be used, for no other
material will stand. the pressure put up
on il. II is made of as expensive goods
as lady's shawl, and the cost of this
item varies in different mills from $500
TO S25. GOA day although each piece is used
again and again. These cakes are placed
in the presses, each press containing six
teen cakes. A pressure of $500 to 1000
pounds to the square inch is applied.
and the cakes are kept under this press
ure about fortv-tive minutes. This enor-
nous pressure, over $50 tons for each
press, is obtained by hydraulic pump,
whose piston is about one-half an inch
in diameter, applied to ram sixteen
inches in diameter. The linseed oil is
obtained by means of this pressure, and
runs into tanks below, where il is weigh
ed and then pumped into settling tanks
in the tank house. When the time al
lotted to each pressing has expired the
cakes are taken out, the cancels hair
cloth removed for future use, the cakes
piled on truck, wheeled away, weighed
and piled for drying. The cake is allow
ed to stand about two days to become
sufficiently dry to pack for shipment to
Europe. The cakes are then put into
sacks, about 800 pounds in each, and so
tight are they packed that heavy mauls
are used to drive IN the last few cakes.
In Europe the cake is sold to farmers,
who grind and feed it to all kinds of
stock. The present price in England is
about $50 per ton. For the home mar
ket the cake is ground and sold at the
European price, less charges for freight
and handling, the present price at the
mill being $500 per ton. All kinds of
live stock do well when fed ground oil
cake, or oil meal. as it is called. 1t in
creases the yield of milk, takes the place
of new milk for calves, is better than
condition powders for horses, makes the
hens lay, fattens hogs, and is good ar
ticle of food all around. The mill ships
nearly it's entire product To foreign coun-
tries, and the daily foreign shipments
from all the mills in the United States is
about 1000 tons daily. The consumption
of meal in this country is increasing, and
some mills located in stock growing sec
tons sell nearly their entire output at
home.
ue Oil WHICH, 10 pTeSSSu Out Vi tue
cakes and run into tanks is kept there
for thirty days. The tanks are in a
warm room, the temperature of which
is from 60 to so degrees above zero in
the coolest weather. At the expiration
of the thirty days the oil is clear and
merchantable, and as raw oil is ready
for shipment. About one-fourth of the
oil of this mill, however, is boiled. To
do this, the settled raw oil is put into
large iron kettles and heated to tenn
perature of $50 degrees. Then a drier,
composed of black oxide of manganese,
is put in and absorbed. This gives the
oil its drying qualities when used. Near
ly all painting is done with boiled oil.
The oil is kept at the temperature of
above 300 degrees for about five hours,
when all foreign substance has been
driven out and the oil has undergone a
chemical change, and is then known as
boiled oil. 1t requires experience and
care to boil oil, as the oil when heated
to such an extreme degree is very liable |
to take fire. Good boiled oil should dry
perfectly in ten or twelve hours, while
the raw oil requires three or four days
to become dry. The raw article is used
in paint works in grinding lead. 1t is
amber in color, while the boiled oil is
dark coffee color. The oil IS sold by
weight, seven and one-half pounds be-
ing one gallons, and is shipped in bar
rels or in tank cars. Secondhand car
bon and other empty barrels are bought,
re-coopered and re-painted for that pur-
pose. The company is interested in q
line of tank cars, and has tank stations
at several of the principal cities in the
East.
INSPECTION OF SEED.
A man enters the car of seed when
side-tracked at the mill and with samp-
Ter takes 4S small samples of seed from
the car. This seed is thoroughly tested,
pound weighed, then cleaned, re-
weighed, and the shortage shows the
dockage to be taken from the entire car.
A pound of this sample lot of seed is put
into u small bag, the bag marked with
the car number, date and amount of
dockage, and laid away for reference
The seed is also locked for moisture.
This uaoupr tho oaod 10 Irx, aud 60,