The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-09-22
MODERN MILLING.
In Separating Different Grades OF Flour
Lies the Secret of the Industry.

Tn separating Different Grades of Flour
Lies the Secret of the Industry.
Hardly any manufacture of gener-
alton ago was so simple as flour milling.
The miller dropped his wheat into a
hopper; millstones beneath swiftly
ground it into a product from winch
there and then, -four was separated by
boiling cloth. Fragments OF wheat
that had been only partly ground, and
so could 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 flour which var
led good deal in quality. Sometimes 1t
was fair in grade, but usually it carried
so much bran as to be quite dark In
color, and the bread baked from 1t 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. I'M
ported thence it was 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 Il
feature in machinery that, had the old
time mill been as economical as it was
simple, its quick and ready methods
would never have been discarded.
The fault in these methods was that,
considering the real complexity 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 flour.
What miller's task is becomes plain
when we 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 flour is an easy
matter, even when spring wheat, with
it's hard, brittle covering, furnishes the
grist. While mills of the Hungarian
type employ 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 them with nicely.
If flour from an old fashioned mill,
such as still may be found lingering in
frontier settlement, be scrutinized
carefully, it will be found to consist of
flours of more than one kind. These
tlours, if freed from the admixture of
bran and other impurities, and divided
into fair, good and best, would be much
6uuduC6u Ill value, IL ClI6C1 Ulllo Sepdl-
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
purifies each distinct product of wheat
before -four is made at all. When wheat
is granulated step by step it can be
easily rid of its impurities and divided
kind from kind as it cannot at later
stage, when as flour it rises before the
breath like so much dust. Both groups
of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. for reduction and
purifiers and separators for treating
wheat as reduced-owe their develop
ment to the study bestowed upon what
not very long ago millers were won't to
regard as mere byproduct.-C
natl Commercial Gazette.