The San Francisco call., 1904-02-15
INSTRUCTIVE JTUDEnS
BY YiNOIEnAEN AND
(ASS5F1ElN


The faxed wheat food. Of which there
are a number of varieties made by as
many concerns under well-known
names, has become almost a breakfast
necessity for a large proportion Of
American families. They are all made
In much the same way. Each manu-
facturer, however, has, or claims to
have, some secret kind Of unique pro-
cess which gives his brand of food a
decided advantage. Thus IT is extreme
ly difficult for one to gain admission to
a Battle Creek factory. One of the
most popular brands is made in fac
tory which is equipped with the newest
machinery and in which the wheat
from the time It is started on it's way
to the eater is not touched with so
much as a finger.
The selection of the wheat has much
to do with the final result, particularly
as regards flavor and appearance.
Only the highest grades are used. and
the preference is given to wheat
grown in Oregon and Washington, as
# is whittier and contains less starch
than wheat from other localities.
Thousands Of carloads of Pacific Coast
wheat have been shipped to a single
Battle Creek factory at a cost of sew
eral cents a bushel over the price Of
grain local to that city. When the
wheat is delivered to the factory It is
carefully inspected and then secured
by being passed between revolving
brushes, which remove all the fuzz on
the berry. The examination of a grain
Of wheat under a ten diameter micro
scope will show a gray slate colored
fuzz resembling mold and about a
wagon load OF fuzz is removed from a
carload OF wheat The brushes thus
polish the outside of the wheat berry
until II is perfectly clean.
Automatic conveyors next take the
wheat to the soaking and curing tanks
enormous porcelain-lined affairs,
holding about 200 bushels each. Spring
water is turned into the wheat filled
tank until the grain is covered. An
expert chemist looks after this initial
process and watches the wheat for
eight to ten hours, when it is ready to
be cooked. Some fifty bushels of the
water-swollen wheat is drawn from
the curing tank by compressed air,
and charged into a horizontal, polished
ed with longitudinal slits which are
narrow enough to keep the wheat from
falling through and wide enough to
afford free entrance to the live steam,
which does the cooking. This cylinder
is inclosed in another one, and be-
tween the two is a steam space of
about two inches. While the wheat is
cooking the inner cylinder slowly re-
wolves. so that the grain is ever in
motion. Fifty or sixty minutes OF
steaming is sufficient to thoroughly
cook the wheat and break open the
starch cells.
The grain. which is now perfectly
cooked. must be partly cooled and aer-
ated. This double result is secured by
permitting the wheat to fall some
thirty feet against an up-rushing cur
rent Of filtered air. Pneumatic tubes
then convey the wheat to the top of
the building to curing tanks similar to
those which first received the grain.
Here the grain cools to a certain tenn
perature, and then by automatic ma
chinery is drawn out to be placed in
the mixing tank
A plated. polished worm screw thor
oughly mixes with the wheat a guam
tity of the finest quality of barley malt
equal TO from to per cent of the
wheat. The screw mixes and stirs the
wheat and barley together until the
warm wheat berry is coated with the
malt Malt is a great aid to digestion
and is a standard corrective The action
of the malt on the starch of the wheat
changes the starch to a diastase. by
which operation the first and most try
| ing process of digestion is performed
That is where the health food" propo-
sition comes in.
This part of the process of making
the breakfast food requires the closest
attention on the part of the supervising
chemist. When the wheat is properly
matted it passes to the crushing-room
where hundreds of polished steel rollers
I are set up in long rows, fifteen in each
row. Over the rows is a hopper, into
which the matted grain is dumped by
the conveyor and from which it passes
down between the rolls to be crushed
into thin, moist flakes. Any malt not
taken uD by absorption previously is
forced by the rollers into the flakes
The crushed wheat falls upon an end
less sterilized canvas belt about a yard
wide, and by it is conveyed toward the
toasting oven.
This is an immense affair, about a;
high as a two-story house, having a
cross-section of area eight by twelve
feet. There are a round dozen Of these
ovens. and each is equipped with a Sc.
ries of endless steel curtains, which are
kept in motion by sprocket wheels. The
ovens are heated by a coal fire, which
OF course, is entirely separated from
the oven. The flakes before being fec
into the oven are again partly dried and
aerated and cooled. They are fed upor
the upper steel apron, which carries
them TO the farther end, where they fal
upon another apron moving in the op'
posite direction underneath. From thii
second apron they fall upon third
and so on until they have Travelled or
seventeen aprons, passing through &
graduated temperature ranging from
$50 to $50 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus they
| are toasted and become breakfast food