Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-01-26
Iu a Flo,,r Mill.

The noises on the inside OF the mill
arc deafening. One who has never
been in Touring mill of the largest
size cannot realize what peculiar lot
of noises are made by the machinery.
As soon rs the wheat enters the ma
chine from the long spout which brings
it down from the upper floors, it falls
between two rollers of iron-"chilled"
iron they call it, and very hard iron it
is, too. One of these rollers revolves
rapidly, the other more slowly, in order
that the separation of the cont, or bran,
from the kernel may be more easily
accomplished. The wheat first passes
between rollers separated just enough
to allow the coat to be crushed. It is
then carried away up to tho top of the
mill again, to room where the sun
vainly tries to shine in through the
-four coated windows far above the
city's roofs. 1t next passes over q
wire sieve which separates the bran
from tho kernel proper.
This bran, which contains much OF
the flour material, again passes down
and is ground once more, this process
being repeated four times, making five
grindings, each one finer than the one
preceding it. Each time the fibrous
or bran portions are more completely
separated, and ut last the bran comes
OUT clear, brownish husk with every
particle of -four removed.
The inside part OF the kernel has
meanwhile been going through very
interesting process. After the first
grinding or breaking, it passes to big
six-sided revolving reel covered with a
fine wire netting or sieve. Through
this reel tho finer portions of the kerr
mel pass, coming out in what is called
"middlings," granulnted mass which
goes back to tho rollers for another
crushing. This process is repeated
through five reels, oil but the first being
of silk The last one has one hundred
and twenty threads to the lineal inch.
The flour which comes out of the fifth
reel, while white in hue, is yet not of
The finest or patent" grade, but is
classed rs "baker's" or second grade
flour.
The middlings above referred to are
purified by m interesting process.
They are passed over fino wire sieve.
through the upper part of which 6
strong current of air is passed. This
holds in suspense the tiny portions of
fihrous matter which may have been in
the flour. and Mt last, after this pro-
cess of middlings-purifying has been
very carefully carried out, the flour
appears spotless, snowy white-the
''patent" flour, rs it is called. In the
process of grinding in this gradual
and repeated way, the germ of the
wheat, tiny particle about the size
of n mustard seed, is separated from
the white flour. 1t is what one might
call the life-part of the wheat. If ii
were ground up, it would not leave tho
pntent flour Ed white and powdery, SO
it is separated in one of the sevings,
and passes into tho darker or lower
grade flour. 1t contains, however, the
best and most nutritious part of the
wheat.
The last thing that happens to the
pulverized kernel. before it is ready
for market, is the filling OF barrels or
sacks. Down many stories through a
smooth tube comes the white or "pat-
ent" -four. Under the tube is the bar
rel or the sack, as the case may be-.
and, MS it begins to fill, steel auger,
just the size of the barrel, bores down
into the -four, packing itcarefully and
'solidly beneath the broad blades. ST.
Nicholas.