The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1892-11-19
Modern Milling.

Hardly any manufacture OF a
generation ago was so simple as flour
milling. The miller dropped his wheat
into hopper; millstones beneath swiftly
ground it into a, product from which,
there and then, flour was separated by
boiling cloth. Fragments of wheat that
had been only partly ground, and 81
could not pass through the meshes o.
the cloth, were passed between the
millstones second time. The meal
obtained by this latter operation was
again siited, yielding a flour which varied
good deal in quality. Sometimes it was
lair in grade, but usually it carried So
much bran as to be quite dark in color,
ard the bread baked from it was darker
still.
Contrasted with this simple, direct way
of making flour is the elaborate roller
process, first brought to the point OF
practical success in Hungary. Imported
thence it was developed and improved
by American ingenuity in the great mill
of Minnesota, and from that state has
spread to every other in the Union. Sim
pllcity is so important a feature in
machinery that bad 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 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 elements
and left sticking to the bran no small
percentage OF good flour.
What miller's task is becomes plain
when We closely examine grain OF
wheat. The first thing to meet the eye
is it's branny envelope. At one end of
this is little bunch of delicate hair or
fG1z, the other appears an embryo or
germ-for the grain, it must be remem-
bered, is seed. Next is to be noticed
the deep crease which runs along the
length of the grain. This is very tightly
and snugly folded together. In getting
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 mos
troublesome of all until rollers took ths
place of millstones They open out tho
grains crease SO completely that the
separation of the flour is an easy matter,
even when spring wheat, with its hard
brittle covering, furnishes the grist.
While mills of the Hungarian type en-
ploy series of rollers to reduce ths
wheat, their efficiency and economy are
equally due to their separating machin.
cry. This machinery takes the different
products successfully let fall by the
rollers and asserts them with nicely.
II flour from an old fashioned mill,
such as still may be found in frontier set
Elements be scrutinized carefully, it will
be found to consist of tlours of more
than one kind. These fiours, if freed
from the admixture of bran and other
impurities, and divided into fair, good
and best, would be much enhanced in
value. To effect this separation would
be impossible, and yet modern milling
accomplishes what is practically the
same task. This it does by indirect
attack. Instead of attempting to
separate and purify fiours in their
ground and mixed state it separates and
purifies each distinct product of wheat
before flour is made at ALL When wheat
is graduated step by step it can be easily
rid of it's impurities and divided. as
it cannot at later stage, when as flour
it rises before the breath like so much
dust. Both groups of inventions--roll
ers for reduction and purifiers and
separators for treating wheat as reduced
owe their development to the study
bestowed upon what not very long ago
millers were wont to regard as mere
by product.