The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1892-10-04
r. ,EHN MILLING,
In separ" .fe ."erent Grades of Flour
Lies fE< %-s-et of the Industry.

In separ" .fAe ."erent Grades of Flour
Lies fS< $-1.et of the Industry.
Hardly ~ manufacture Of a gener-
alton ago vas SO simple as -four milling.
The miller dropped his wheat into a
hopper; millstones beneath swiftly
ground it into a product from which,
there and then. -four was separated by
boiling cloth. Fragments Of wheat
that had been only partly ground, and
SO conld not pass through the meshes Of
the cloth. were passed between the mill
stones a second time. The meal OBJ
tanned by this latter operation was
again sifted, yielding a -four which var
led a good deal in quality. Sometimes it
was fair in grade, but usually it carried
so much bran as to be quite dark in
color, and the bread baked from it was
darker still.
COntrasted with this simple, direct
way Of making -four is the elaborate
roller process, first brought to the point
OF practical success in Hungary. Inn
ported thence it vas developed and i'm
proved by American ingenuity in the
great mills of Minnesota, and from that
state has spread to every other in the
Union. Simplicity is so important a
feature III machinery that, had the old
time mill been rs economical as it vas
simple, its quick and ready methods
would never have been discarded.
The fault in these methods was that,
considering the real completely of the
work to be done, they were too simple.
Millstones, especially when they ran, as
they usually did, very close together,
wasted some of the wheat's best ele-
ments, and left sticking to the bran no
small percentage of good -four.
What a miller's task is becomes plain
when VIZ closely examine a grain of
wheat. The first thing to meet the eye
is its branny envelope. At one end of
this is a little bunch of delicate hair or
fuzz; at the other appears an embryo or
germ-fOr the grain, it must be remem-
bered, is a seed. Next is to be noticed
the deep crease which runs along the
length of the grain. This is very tight
ly and snugly folded together. In get
ting at the flour within the grain the
miller has to remove hair, bran and
germ, and most thoroughly unfold the
crease. This last part of his work was
the most troublesome of all until rollers
took the place of millstones. They open
out the grains crease SO completely that
the separation of the hOur is an easy
matter, even when spring wheat, with
its hard, brittle covering, furnishes the
grist. While mills of the Hungarian
type employ a series Of rollers to reduce
the wheat, their efficiency and economy
are equally due to their separating ma
chinery. This machinery takes the diff
ferent products successfully let fall by
the rollers and asserts thedl with nicely.
If -four from an old fashioned mill,
such as still may be found lingering in
a frontier settlement, be scrutinized
carefully, it will be found to consist Of
hOurs of more than one kind. These
fOurs, if freed from the almixture of
bran and other impurities, and divided
into fair, good and best, would be much
enhanced in value. To effect this separ-
alton would be impossible, and yet mod
ern milling accomplishes what is prac-
tically the same task. This it does by
indirect attack. Instead of attempting
to separate and purify fOurs in their
ground and mixed state it separates and
purifes each distinct product of wheat
before -four is made at all. When wheat
is graduated step by step it can be
easily rid Of its impurities and divided
kind from kind as it cannot at a later
stage, when as -four it rises before the
breath like so much dust. Both groups
of inventions-rollers for reduction and
purifiers and separators for treating
wheat as r~educed-Owe their develop
ment t the study bestowed upon what
not very long ago millers We're wont to
regard as Il mere byproduct.-Cincin-
matt Commercial Gazette.