The Portland daily press., 1895-08-17
THE FLOUR faster.
Like the Tea faster, He is a Valuable
Expert.
Tests, Chemical and Otherwise, by which
the staff of Life Is Tested.

Tests, Chemical and Otherwise by Which
the staff of Life Is Tested.
Did you ever visit flour testing labo-
ratory? Never heard of it. You are
away behind the times then. Every big
mill in the country has one for the pur-
pose of keeping tab on it's grades and to
reduce the art of flour making TO a
science Machinery has done a great
deal for the flour miller. 1t has lessened
the number Of employees permitting one
man to take charge of whole floor of
rollers through which hundreds of bush
els of wheat pass every hour, and it has
reyolutionized the transportation of the
manufactured product, besides doing
multitudinous other things for him. But
it remained for cool, calculating science
to step in and with chemical and physi-
cal tests permit the manufacturer to tell
exactly how many drachms of gluten
pound of flour contains; how much
starch the wheat contains when it arrives
at the mill, or how much water barrel
of his product will absorb at the hands Of
the cook in the metropolitan bakery be-
fore it is an eatable food.
The testing laboratory is the home of
all the science that the miller needs to
know In the long rows of glass jars
with their whitish and creamish contents
lurI the results of experiments made for
years back In the electrically heated
+Lo
year in and year out, little fluffy white
loaves have been turned out by the
hundreds that would have delighted the
most particular of housewives.
With his delicate apparatus the flour
tester can tell minutely whether the
patent or bakers grade of today differs
from that of yesterday and in what
respect and how to remedy the difficulty.
And therein lies the triumph of science
as practically applied, for without its aid
there would be no means of keeping
grades always the same month after
month, and when the quality of wheat
was continually changing. If it were not
for this tester family grade would
sometimes excel the best patents and again
gain it might fall below the level of red
dog and kindred cheap fours.
The flour tester, like the tea tester, is
an expert Some things he knows intui-
lively from long practical experience.
Others he knows because the principles
of physics make them apparent. With
these two sources of information the
tester arrives at conclusions which are ac-
curate and which furnish proof of them
selves in each other He does not rely
upon any one test for his information.
In all he uses six or eight methods and
each proves the other, SO that when he
announces his dictum concerning the
grade, deficient or of over quality, the
miller acts without loss of time. In his
If he reports that a grade is lacking the
head miller takes his advice and fur
nishes a remedy. If it is granulated too
fine the bolting cloth is changed. If it
is too dark in color too much of the bran
is going into the flour, and the separa-
If the grade is running better than is
called for the change, is made in the re-
verse directions.
The laboratory offthe tester as nearly
resembles the den of a private chemist as
one can imagine. The inevitable row of
chemicals-red, white. creamish and vel
low-are in their glass stoppered BOTTLES
behind the door of the glass cabinet.
Under glass case in the corner, safe
from dust or corrosion, stands the delicate
balance scales weighing to an hairs ac-
curacy In the other corner is the ever
present bottle of distilled water with
hose attached, and in the CEN
ter OF the room the working table stands
ready for use, covered with half hund-
red small, square boxes containing sam
pies of wheat, -four, bran, shorts, and
everything turned out hy the mill down
to the coarsest screenings. On the oppo-
site side of the room is the warming
oven, showing the fermenting bread in
various stages of rising, from that just
kneaded to the loaf which will within a
very short time find its way into the bak-
ing oven. Baking ovens vary. Some
testers use gas heated affair resembling
in appearance the broiling oven in res
taurant, while others have adopted cleo
tricity. A circular appearing affair with
an outside covering Of wood resembling
a large cask somewhat is the latest in
electrical taking ovens, and this is COM
ing to be quite generally adopted.
There is no wonder that few people
know anything about the testing labora-
tory, for it is kept under lock and key
to prevent unwelcome intrusion The
object of secrecy is two-fold Visitors
would cause no end of annoyance to the
tester, and this individual usually has
secret methods and apparatus, from
which he believes that he can get better
results than from those in common use
If he were in the habit of permitting
every person who desires to visit him
there would be an end to secret methods
The Pekar method SO called is in most
common use in testing flour, but it is
considered far from infallible. 1t is one
of the many employed to get at final re-
suits and prove = them correct. Flour